Cléo and Huguette Leblanc

New Richmond, Quebec



E-mail: cleohug@globetrotter.net		 Leblanc
Current ministry: Cléo and Huguette moved to the town of New Richmond, Quebec on the Gaspé peninsula in September 2007. In some ways they have come full circle, since New Richmond is Cléo's hometown and where the Leblancs began their married life and their Christian walk many years ago. A small nucleus of believers in the area have been without a pastor for many years and have welcomed the Leblancs with open arms.

Family: Cléo and Huguette have two adult children.
Spiritual Background: Cléo was born in New Richmond, Quebec in the Gaspé region, the only son in a family of eleven children. As good practising Catholics, his parents sent him to a boarding school directed by priests when he was just twelve years old. There he learned proper moral standards and a good discipline for life.

He became an elementary school teacher in his hometown. He married Huguette and they had two children. During this time he became materialistic and his goal was to make enough money to retire by the age of 45. When he had almost everything he wanted, he realized that possessing things was not a fulfilling goal and that he was forgetting God.

In October 1978, a friend shared the gospel with him. Cléo was shocked to learn that the God of the Bible does not teach a religion, but instead reveals we can have eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ. When his friend asked him to read Romans 5:8, the Spirit of God seized his heart and he understood his need to be saved. He accepted the Lord the same evening.

There were no French evangelical churches in his area at the beginning of his Christian life. Nevertheless, God sustained his new faith and used him in evangelism, administration and teaching. A few years after his conversion a church was founded in his town.
Ministry Experience:

The Lord gave Cléo the desire to study theology. God used His Word, particularly John 17:3, to convince him to sell everything and go to Bible school. He studied at Institut Biblique Béthel for one year and later continued his theological training with SEMBEQ while also serving as a teacher at the Christian school at the Église Baptiste Évangélique de Sherbrooke and as associate pastor in that church from 1988 to 1991.

From 1992 to 2005, Cléo and Huguette ministered to the church in Rimouski, in a region of the province with very few Christians. Then from 2005 to 2007, the Leblancs lived in the Montreal area and served as resource persons with the Fellowship French Mission. They had a ministry of encouragement to churches without a pastor, including the congregations in Baie-Comeau, Chibougamau, La Sarre and Lachine.