Get to know Pastor Bazile

Part One

Pastor Gumps Bazile is Head of Operations for Haiti Empowered in Haiti. He provides spiritual guidance for our villages in Léogâne, and leadership to our organization based on his vast knowledge of Haiti and her people.

We want to take the time to share some of his story so that you can better understand the heart of those who are working so hard to make a difference in this war-torn country.

Pastor Bazile was born the youngest of 6 children and raised by a single mother. He never knew his father, not because he died, but “because he simply abandoned my mother I was still in her womb.” He had three sisters and two brothers and life was difficult. You can only imagine the challenges of a single mother, raising 6 children alone, without the help of their father or any other support. The family lived in extreme poverty and his mother worked very hard to take care of the children. She worked at running a small business and placed an emphasis on education. While she didn’t have very many resources, she knew that having a solid education would be critical to changing their situation as they grew, and she put everything she could into making sure they went to school.

As he reflects upon his life as a young man, he remembers a time when the country felt secure and where people could move around without problems. The primary religion of the area was Voodoo, and while his mother didn’t raise the family around those activities, they also didn’t know Jesus. Looking back, he knows that they were poor but recalls that things didn’t cost a lot of money during that time either.

Pastor Bazile remembers a time when he was very sick as a young child. In Haiti, it is very expensive to go to the hospital and patients are expected to provide everything the medical team might need for their procedures. They must prove that they can pay for the treatment up front, or they do not receive care. Because of this, many Haitians do not seek medical care and ultimately die. Pastor Bazile’s mother scraped together all she could and took him to the doctor. It was determined that he would likely not be cured and that she would return the next day to take him home to die. Pastor Bazile remembers vividly a man at the foot of his bed telling him to get up and walk and to go home because he had bigger things for him. As he walked out of the hospital, physicians and other patients were shocked as only moments before he was about to die. Pastor Bazile did not know who that man was, but he knew that there was a purpose to his life.

(to be continued)