Heart for Home

About Heart for Home: 

Heart for Home started in 2010 and today it is part of Lifeline Christian Mission. The desire is to expand God’s Kingdom by creating a sustainability model in Port Salut, Haiti, for the sole benefit of the Haitian people.

The goals of Heart for Home are to:

• Plant churches and minister to Christian congregations.
• Build and oversee the operation of a vocational training facility for orphans transitioning to independence.
• Attain and develop a site to operate from, build and provide necessary training, skills development and Christian ministry to enable independent individuals who can move on with some independence in the community.

Current Plan: 

The Leon’s have been away from Haiti on an extended furlough for the last 5 years. Josiah was born with Down Syndrome and required special needs education in his early days. The Leon’s will be returning to Haiti as Regional Directors with Lifeline Christian Mission in summer of 2021! 

Consider donating to Heart for home as the Leon’s get ready to move in 2021. There are a lot of expenses that come with moving. As well donations are needed for day-to-day operations. Thank you praying and partnering with Heart for home and the Leon family. 

Despite the hardships in Haiti with uncontrolled situations such as political instability, earthquakes, and hurricanes, all which contribute to extreme poverty, our journey has been an amazing one with God directing all the way.

History of Heart for Home for Ricot’s point of view:

Growing up in the impoverished country of Haiti, I saw first-hand what impact poverty had on the lives of my family and my peers. My mother died of unknown causes when I was 2 years old, and my sister was only 7 days old. Forty years later there is still no clinic or hospitals in that part of the country, resulting in the same sad reality for many others. 

When I turned 4, my dad realized that due to poverty, he could not raise his two sons and so he took my older brother Josue and me to an orphanage in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. There, my brother and I met 6 other orphan boys along with our new parents who were serving as missionaries from the United States. I was sent to school, introduced to the love of Christ, and received the upbringing of a middle-class Haitian. But despite this drastic change, I grew up accepting poverty as a normal thing.  Looking back, I realize that it never bothered me to see others do without as long as I had enough. Poverty truly creates an ‘every man for himself’’ or ‘may the cleverest win’, mentality.

After high school, I moved to Canada on a scholarship to further my education while attending Alberta Bible College in Calgary, Alberta. You can imagine the many culture shocks! For the first time in my life, I experienced the major weather changes, clean streets, no animals such as pigs, dogs, goats, and chickens roaming the community. Canadians were advised if ever there would be a power outage, and my greatest shock of all—the same water that is suitable to drink also flushes the toilets—yet everyone considers that normal. I also became aware after living in Canada, that it was not normal for kids to go hungry. I also began to understand why I had normalized poverty.  It is easy to become accustomed to what we see every day. Poverty breeds poverty!

In 2008 after graduation, my new bride Mandy and I, while serving as youth leaders in a local church, began to envision how we could walk in the footsteps of my missionary parents. After sharing our thoughts with friends, family, and supporting churches, we decided to make Haiti home. It was then, I started seeing the country through a new lens, especially through Mandy’s point of view as she described her new experience with extreme poverty… “I always knew poverty was bad, but I never knew it also came with a smell.”

In 2010 as our vision crystallized, it became clear that God had called us to start working with young orphans who grew up in diverse orphanages across the country. The goal is to develop a transitional centre to help move young people who had grown up in an orphanage from a dependency way of life to becoming independent young adults. With that vision in sight, we started to raise funds, purchased a 12-acre property in Port-Salut, a community of nearly twenty thousand people and began the process of development. Since then, we have planted 3 different churches and have started an agriculture project that is making a huge difference in providing fresh vegetables to our community. 

An alarming fact about Haiti is that 70% of what is consumed daily in Haiti is imported from neighboring countries such as the United States and the Dominican Republic. As a result, our agricultural project has been welcomed in the community as a resource that provides fresh local produce. We partner with a nearby agricultural school and offer part of our 12 acres facility as a site for their practicum.  This arrangement stipulates that the students share their knowledge with the people in our community. The fresh produce is sold to the local markets and the revenue helps with the sustainability of the project. Our greatest joy is when we get to make trips to the capital city where most of the orphanages are. We love to see the joy on the kids’ faces as they are blessed with fresh produce from our gardens.

Despite the hardships in Haiti with uncontrolled situations such as political instability, earthquakes, and hurricanes, all which contribute to extreme poverty, our journey has been an amazing one with God directing all the way.