Our Lady of the Lake has been twinned with St. Bertin Catholic Church in Petit Bourg de Port Margot, Haiti for 40 years. In 1982, OLOL became one of the first U.S. Catholic parishes to form a twinning relationship with an impoverished parish in Haiti through the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas (PTPA).
PTPA was founded by Theresa Patterson, a member of St. Henry Catholic Church in Nashville, after making her first trip to Haiti in 1978 with Harry Hosey (now deceased). After witnessing the extreme poverty and suffering in Haiti, Theresa made it her personal mission to seek and build long-term twinning relationships between U.S. parishes and poverty-stricken parishes in Haiti and Latin America. Today, PTPA has more than 300 twinnings.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The majority of the population lives on less than $3 per day. The parish community of St. Bertin is very poor and has very little to give to support the church. OLOL is the primary source of financial support for St. Bertin through the monthly green envelope collection. Every month, funds are sent to the pastor of St. Bertin to support the ongoing operation of the parish.
