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The story of Andre’s life, his marriage to Angie, their rescue of a small child and the many thereafter, is the story of one miracle after another.
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“TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, TO REACH THAT IMPOSSIBLE STAR” These words written by the composer Mitch Leigh and made a part of many a movie, including “Men of La Manche” Singers like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Robert Goulet, Perry Como, Cher, Jennifer Hudson, Tom Jones, Roberta Flack and Placido Domingo.
But it was Jim Nabors, who, as Gomer Pyle, made this song famous. The words are familiar, “To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe, To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where the brave dare not go, To right the unrightable wrong , And to love pure and chaste from afar, To try when your arms are too weary, To reach the unreachable star.”
These marvelous words about struggle and determination never found fuller meaning than in the life of one baby, born in Haiti in 1958.
SHE NAMED HIM ANDRE
A mountain woman found herself pregnant with her seventh child. Unable to even feed the family she had, her only choice was to abort this baby. But God had other plans – plans that have now evolved into a million dollar facility that has become home, sustenance, education and hope for the future in the midst of a hopeless society.
She named him Andre, perhaps part of a communal family name handed down from past generations. Its base is from the Greek name Andrelos. The name has deep and profound meaning, for it speaks of someone who is manly, strong, courageous and brave.
There were no 21st century amenities. No running water or electricity. No immunization or antibiotics. Rampant illiteracy with no schooling, textbooks or teachers. She realized his best hope at a future lay elsewhere.
SALVATION IN THE ORPHANAGE
Andre would be given to a Baptist Orphanage in Haiti. There he would get an education and find his first hope of a meaningful life as a Christian believer.
From his own experience, this child would learn the values of human life and the importance of every child that is born. The experience of being loved by someone other than a parent birthed Andre’s desire to care for others who were unwanted.
Two missionaries, Larry Pawson and Johaness Shuer, paid for Andre to go to school, which helped him get job training to enter data at a nearby hospital. He would later work for the United Nations, handling the distribution of relief funds.
FINDING PURPOSE
Andre met and married a beautiful Haitian girl, Angie, who shared his love for the unwanted children of his country. And that’s how it all started.
Soon after they married, they learned of an unwanted child.
Despite fears of an inadequate income and the housing they could provide, the lonely, forsaken child was taken in, enfolded in their arms, loved and cared for as if she were their own. Their commitment to her never waned and their relationship grew along with her.
But she wasn’t the only child – soon other children were dropped off as disposable items. The couple could not turn one of them away. Their small Haitian house was crowded with seven orphan children at a time.
This young husband had no ending to his quest for the unwanted, hungry and unloved.
THE DREAM
Soon it was apparent that they had to have some sort of space to house and provide for the children in their care. A small, two-room house was put together – not much by American standards, but a house nonetheless.
It was big enough for 15 children to crowd into and live. And the person caring for them, their housemother, was none other than the tiny, thin little girl the couple took in and raised all those years ago.
For a number of years the tin-roofed house – a shack by American standards – was a crowded home filled with the love of an orphan girl herself, now able to care for others who were among the unwanted and financed entirely by the man with the dream.
The dream of an orphanage grew from there. In 2003, through the generous contributions of many supporters, Andre was able to purchase about 5 acres of land and begin construction on what would truly be a permanent home for untold numbers of unwanted Haitian children.
That is the essence of this story – a story of one man’s dream of owning a mountain where castaway children could come to understand human love and learn of Jesus Christ and His great love for them.
A story about owning a mountain plateau to God’s promised help, and alone building on that dream until others caught the vision also.
“To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe, To bear with unbearable sorrow, And to run where the brave dare not go, To right the unrightable wrong, And to love pure and chaste from afar, To try when your arms are too weary, To reach the unreachable star.”
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