President Jovenel loved agriculture; we filmed his solar run irrigation pumps for “jardins” all over Haiti. His banana farm in Trou du Nord is where we first met Jovenel in 2015; he was driving a tractor and told Frere Joel, “Everything you see here is going to be banana trees.”

Frere Joel says, “I thought he was crazy or a great visionary.”

Sure enough, we kept going back to film Jovenel’s progress and within a year, four square miles of banana trees were producing and being exported to Europe! We produced a La Bonne Nouvelle episode about Jovenel and Trou du Nord, released it on a Friday night to TNH.

Saturday morning, Jovenel called, “Frere Joel, I didn’t sleep last night; President Martelly called and asked me to be the PHTK candidate; I don’t know what to do.”

Frere Joel told him, “This could be good or this could be bad.”

I told Joel, “Call Jovenel back, God told me he would be president!”

Jovenel then battled through three elections and won every one; my husband told me, “You can’t call him Jovenel anymore, you have to say President or Mon Excellence.”

One day not long ago, President Jovenel told Frere Joel, “When this is over I’m going back to my farm in Trou du Nord.”

Today as we remember those humble words, we know that God has promised us a garden for eternity where there is no more pain, no more tears, no more sickness, no more evil men. It is this “jardin” garden God has chosen for our dear friend. We take comfort in this knowledge, we will see President Jovenel again.

Mon Excellence est excellent!