With broken hearts, we are grieved to share with you that Deanna Newman, a missionary serving with Real Hope for Haiti since 2015, passed away unexpectedly in her sleep on July 24, 2024 and is now with Jesus.
In all that we have had to endure in Haiti, this is one of the greatest challenges we have faced. Anna was a selfless servant, a prayer warrior, an incredible teacher, and a faithful friend. It was one of the great honors of our lives to call her a sister in the faith and co-laborer in Christ.
Her work at Real Hope Academy was especially meaningful to us, as she cared for, poured into, effectively taught, and truly loved our missionary kids at Real Hope for Haiti. She sheltered and shepherded our children through some chaotic times, covering them in prayer and filling them up with the Word of God. We are forever grateful for everything she invested into our children. We are also thankful for the unconditional love she showed others, her contagious joy rooted in Christ, and her unwavering commitment to trust in the Sovereignty of God. Her words and deeds were a massive encouragement to the RHFH missionaries, our Haitian staff, our patients, and the entire population of Cazale. Her example is one that God will use to shape all of us for the remainder of our lives.
There was not an area of Real Hope for Haiti she didn’t touch or impact in a significant way. She hugged on the kids in the Rescue Center daily, she prayed for our clinic patients, she mentored some of our Hope Homes kids, she taught Bible classes to many young ladies in Cazale, she wrote monthly devotionals to encourage our Haitian staff, she assisted with pharmacy inventory and in-kind donations, she served on our development committee and actively helped communicate our gratefulness to all our donors that help make this important work a reality.
Any of you who have visited RHFH and met Deanna know she was full of Jesus, and that Christ fueled her love and devotion to selflessly serve others. Her obituary describes her well, saying, “Deanna was a beautiful human being inside and out, her joyful spirit, effervescent smile, and infectious fun-loving personality was a gift to us all. Her life is a testament to the power of sacrificial service and unwavering faith-she has fulfilled her calling.”
She was one of the greatest gifts and biggest answers to prayer that has ever come RHFH’s way. We are forever grateful for God’s goodness in allowing us to share life with Anna. We will continue to remember Anna and honor the impact she made at Real Hope for Haiti and throughout Cazale in the weeks and months to come.
You can read her complete obituary here.