When Esther looks out over the land in her community in Haiti, she can see the difference that love, faith, and care have made. But for most of her life, that transformation felt far away.
“Before I joined my Purpose Group, things were not good for my family and me,” Esther remembers. “Life was difficult, and it felt like I had so many challenges to overcome.”
One of those challenges was housing. Her family longed for a safe, sturdy home, but it always seemed out of reach. “Having a safe place to live with my family was always one of my biggest dreams,” she says. “Now, I am building a new house with four rooms. I’m not finished yet, but I keep faith that I will finish soon.”
Her progress, she says, is thanks to Plant With Purpose’s work in her community. Through her Purpose Group, a small community of neighbors who save together, learn together, and support each other, Esther learned practical skills to restore her land and strengthen her household. “Alleluia! It’s about to become true thanks to Plant With Purpose,” she smiles. “I am so grateful.”
Through the program’s training, Esther learned soil conservation and tree planting techniques that helped her farmland flourish. “With the skills and training I received from Plant With Purpose on soil conservation, my land produces much more now,” she explains. “I became a better friend of nature.”
Every year, she plants new trees on her land. Her children plant alongside her. “I encourage my children to do the same,” she says. “It’s a way for me to show them the importance of nature while serving God.”
In the Book of Genesis, God’s first command to humankind was to care for creation. For Esther, that responsibility has become deeply personal. “The changes in the community have shown that God is real and great,” she says. “He created us to take care of creation, including ourselves. I remember the responsibility that God gave me since the day I was born: to take care of His creation.”
Her work in the field is an act of worship. She uses compost and natural pesticides instead of chemicals, nurturing the soil that now provides her family with food. “In comparison to past years, there’s a significant change in the community in terms of plant cover,” she observes. The barren hillsides that once washed away with every storm are slowly greening again.
This transformation is not just in the land, it’s also in the people. “Even our relationships with one another have improved in so many ways,” Esther shares. “We serve each other through our Purpose Group. We pray together through our Bible reflections. We respect, encourage, and support one another.”
Where once there was isolation, now there is friendship and cooperation. The same spirit of renewal that restored the soil has also healed relationships. “We are living a better life now compared to before Plant With Purpose began working in our community,” she says.
For Esther, caring for creation and caring for others are one and the same. “By helping one another and working with the earth, we show love for God,” she says. “Plant With Purpose taught me that by protecting nature, we also protect our neighbors and our children’s future.”
She now sees her role not just as a farmer or a mother, but as a steward of God’s world. “I am grateful that God is using this organization as a real tool for transformation,” Esther says. “May God bless the donors’ hands behind this great ministry.”
Thanks to supporters around the world, Esther and her community are living out what it means to love God by loving creation.
