Adventist Church Launches Hope Channel in Haiti’s Major Cities

After nearly two years of making connections with the cable television industry in Haiti, the Seventh-day Adventist Church recently launched Hope Channel Inter-America in Haiti, in an effort to spread the gospel message to the millions of people on the island.  

Local church leaders said they considered it a milestone and a blessing to launch the television channel through two special live church services held on November 10, 2018, from the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

“It has been several years in the making, but we praise God that we can fulfill the mission of the church by sharing the gospel of salvation through television,” said Pierre Caporal, president of the Adventist Church in Haiti, as he spoke to thousands of members at the Adventist Temple No. 1 morning service.

Seventh-day Adventists in Haiti celebrate the launch of Hope Channel Inter-America during a special celebration at the Parc Ste Thérèse Stadium in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Haiti on November 10, 2018. [Photo: Abel Márquez, Inter-American Division News]

Hope Channel Inter-America’s Espérance TV channel, which is based in Martinique, now runs programming in French by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the French Antilles Guiana Union, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Esperance TV carried the initial live service from Haiti through its link shared with Tele Haiti — one of the oldest and most established cable television companies in Haiti, covering the two largest cities on the island, Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien.

The three-hour church service featured Adventist Church president Ted N. C. Wilson and Inter-American Division (IAD) president Elie Henry, who were in Haiti for the IAD annual year-end business meetings. The Adventist leaders congratulated local leaders and the membership for their dedication to the television ministry.

The French channel also carried a special service in the afternoon at Petionville’s Parc Ste Thérèse Stadium. The service featured baptisms and evangelism outreach across the four main church conference regions on the island, as well as musical performances and the official installation of the new IAD administration.

Wilson encouraged the members to continue being an integral part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and encouraged them to embrace the ministry of television the same way they have embraced Radio Espérance, the church’s radio station that has run for more than 37 years, as well as mission service through its educational and health institutions and schools in the country.

“This television ministry will teach hundreds of thousands the gospel truth,” said Wilson. “It will become an instrument of joy and peace but, above all, an instrument of salvation for the people in Haiti.”

That instrument of salvation is at the core of the mission of the new television outreach and one that keeps on expanding throughout the territory, said Abel Márquez, executive director for Hope Channel Inter-America. Márquez congratulated Haiti’s church leadership for persevering and joining the 18 countries and islands that broadcast the message of hope to millions throughout the territory in English, Spanish, and French.

“It is a huge step now as Hope Channel programming is getting to the most important cities in Haiti as part of the mission of the church,” said Márquez. “It will contribute to showcasing the image of the church in the region with all of its social and spiritual support that our message offers to millions of viewers.”

Márquez also highlighted the collaborative nature of local efforts. “The Haitian Union’s use of this television resource and the collaboration of the French Antilles Guiana Union in the production and technical support for the launch is an excellent result of teamwork fostered in our network of collaborators working for the fulfillment of the mission,” he said.

Caporal said that the church now wants to raise funds to build a studio. “We want to create television programs to air through the French channel,” he said.

The original version of this story was posted on the Inter-American Division news page.