In late September, pastor Jean Philippe Quetant and his wife Erna Plancher-Quetant were both shot and killed by a local armed gang home invasion while serving as missionaries in Haiti.
According to NBC 2 News, the couple had roots in Fort Myers ,Florida, and Pastor Jean Philippe worked at the First Haitian Baptist Church in Fort Myers. They had moved to the United States from Haiti years ago in search for a better life. After all five of their children, three of those being a set of triplets, had left the house and were in college, they decided it was time to return to Haiti. Pastor Jean Philippe’s vision was to build a church and an orphanage to provide clothing, food, and basic needs to a community in the poverty stricken nation of Haiti. They had only been their for a month.
Jean Philippe was a loving father who would routinely pray over his children at night while they slept, and he was known as a true protector.
One of their sons received a phone call in late September that his parents had been murdered in their home during a home invasion by a local armed gang.
Family members reported that the gang ransacked the home and stole their parents’ belongings.
Tabitha Quetant, their daughter, said, “It just feels surreal; they could have just taken everything and left them alone. They wouldn’t have done anything.” She expressed that “if I could speak to them now, I would just say ‘Mom and Dad, I love you and I thank you so much for the way you raised us.’ “
Their son Kevin said his parents always loved to give and help first and that a lot of people knew them as loving people. Their mother Erna was a frontline healthcare worker who worked long hours to help provide for their family while in the States.
A gofundme page has been set up by the family to raise money to bring the couple back to the United States to be buried and for the family to be able to say their final goodbyes. As of the time of this report, the initial goal of $28,000 has already been surpassed and $28,470 has been raised.
If you’d like to give, you can do so here.