Pastor Jean knows what it means to grow up in deep poverty, because he lived it. Raised in the remote highlands of Madagascar, his childhood wasn’t just humble, it was defined by scarcity. To reach the nearest town, he’d walk five days without stopping. His dreams were modest: “I wanted to become a teacher,” he recalls. “And to have indoor toilets.”

Life in the village, he explains, lacked almost everything. And yet, even as a child, Jean believed in something more, something bigger than the limitations of his surroundings. Later, after being transformed by Christ and completing his education, he felt called to return to the very place he once struggled to survive. But this time, he came home with a mission: to help children who were living the life he once had.

“Only Christ can change somebody’s life,” Pastor Jean says. “But that doesn’t deny the power of education. If you combine the two things together? That will shape somebody into a completely different being.”

Alongside his wife, Aina, Jean founded House of Hope Madagascar, a Christ-centered orphanage and school designed to rescue, restore, and educate children who’ve been abandoned, orphaned, or forgotten in southern Madagascar. His ultimate dream? That one day, a child raised at House of Hope might grow up to lead the country he loves.