A Building That Became a Testimony

Celebrating 50 Years of L’Estere Christian Church

In 1976, a church building was constructed in L’Estere, Haiti, in just two weeks. Fifty years later, that building remains a powerful testimony of faith, sacrifice, and God’s work in the community.

For Brenus Etienne, the church is more than a building. It is part of his story.

Brenus remembers watching missionaries from Whitefield Evangelism, including Reggie Thomas and others, come to Haiti to help his father, Pastor Frederick Etienne, build the church. They worked in the hot sun, carrying cement and water and doing the difficult labor required to complete the building.

As a young boy, Brenus was amazed by their willingness to serve.

“They were in the sun, doing those hard work,” he recalled. “They had the heart for God, wanting to help the community.”

Those memories have stayed with him throughout his life.

A Personal Connection to 1976

The year the church was built was also a significant year in Brenus’s spiritual life. At just 12 years old, he and his older sister, Judith, were baptized during a revival being held while the church was under construction.

Brenus still remembers the moment clearly: it was July 1976, at 9 o’clock in the morning, at a river with their father and missionaries assisting with the baptism.

For him, the memories of the church being built and his own decision to follow Christ are forever connected.

A Legacy for the Next Generation

Growing up, Brenus and his siblings were taught Scripture and Bible stories by their father. Church was a central part of their lives, and those early lessons helped establish the foundation for Brenus’s own faith and ministry.

Today, he wants the children growing up in L’Estere to receive that same foundation.

His message is simple: Teach children about Jesus.

Brenus believes that helping children become rooted in Christ is one of the greatest gifts a church and a family can give them. His own life reflects the impact of that investment.

For 50 years, the L’Estere church building has provided a place for people to worship, learn, grow, and encounter Christ. Its walls hold generations of memories, but its greatest testimony is not the building itself.

It is the lives changed within it and the faith that continues from one generation to the next.