Training pastors in Haiti is ‘my life’s work’

Willio Destin remembers that day in February 2014 when he boarded a plane from Los Angeles with his young family and headed for his native Haiti. 

A long-term plan to devote his life to missionary ministry had finally come to fruition. With support from a loving, supportive church and the potential to make a great impact in a country that badly needed the gospel, everything seemed perfect. 

Except one thing. Willio had a few questions. 

“What have we done? How is this gonna work? Am I just nuts and crazy?” he said. 

Although, understandably, he still has his moments of doubt, Willio has settled into the mountains of Haiti with his family and looks back on seven years of the Lord exceeding his expectations both with his family and at the Bible Institute of Grand Goave. 

“There were a lot of questions [initially] in terms of doubt, but with every single doubt, it always goes back to the Lord and the need to exercise your faith,” Willio said. “He is the One who gives us faith and He sustains it.” 

In those early days in Haiti, Willio took comfort in knowing he was chosen by God to return there and that it wasn’t an endeavor he sought by his own ambition for personal gain. 

“I think that’s what made it more comforting,” Willio said. “I worked to get to Haiti, but it was more like Haiti came for me and the Lord just opened up so many doors where I had no choice but to say yes. So in the times that I had doubt, it was always comforting to know that I did not choose to go to Haiti; I was sent.”

“The work is not complete.”

-Willio Destin

And the call has been confirmed, Willio says, by God putting the right people in place at the right time. Another piece of strong evidence that God has brought confirmation to the Destin’s call is the continued success of the Bible Institute and the family’s adjustment to living in Haiti. 

Things have gone so well that, over time, Willio has come to realize that his service should continue indefinitely in Haiti. From what began as a shorter-term plan that would be reassessed every five years, Willio is now comfortable with defining his ministry training pastors in Grand Goave as his “life’s work.” 

Remaining in Haiti beyond the first five years was an easy decision as Willio considered the needs of the Institute, which now has a staff of seven, and the men it serves. 

“The work is not complete,” said Willio, the executive dean at the Bible Institute. “And there’s still so much more I feel I can do. Why leave when each year under your belt is another year you feel you’ve learned more, you’ve grown more and you can serve students better? You can teach better, you can train better, and be more helpful to your staff.” 

In the first seven years of the Destin’s residency in Haiti, they have seen the Bible Institute open its doors and welcome its first graduating class in 2019. Despite ongoing political unrest in and around Port Au Prince, God has drawn men to the school to be trained in bible doctrine and preaching, which is badly needed in a country where false teaching, including Roman Catholicism, has a strong foothold. 

The Bible Institute’s first graduating class included three graduates in 2019, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 ceremonies were halted. The Institute now has a growing staff of seven and a program that boasts 48 students and a waiting list of prospective students. 

 After a series of challenges in the 2019-2020 academic year, the school is preparing its second graduating class this June with twice as many graduates as in 2019, another indication of God’s grace and confirmation of the usefulness of the Destin’s service in Haiti. 

“Definitely, we’ve exceeded our goals,” Willio said. “What the Lord has done the past seven years has gone above and beyond [my expectations].” 

“…it always goes back to the Lord and the need to exercise your faith. He is the One who gives us faith and He sustains it.”

~Willio Destin