If you’ve been around Connect 2 Ministries for long, you know that one of our primary ministries is caring for rescued restaveks in our Children’s Homes. The title, “restavek,” describes an abused child who lives with and serves a family that is not his or her biological family. The children have either been sold by their own family to another that is financially able to provide, or they are orphans with no family to care for them. Either way, they find themselves without stable parents before they ever come to our homes.

A term that immediately comes to mind when thinking about these Children’s Homes is orphanage. And in a sense, it fits. Our kids are separated from their biological parents, if not by death then by horrific circumstances, and the reality of their situations is irreversible. But we avoid calling and thinking of our Children’s Homes as orphanages for one main reason:

Our kids aren’t waiting to find a home; they are home.

When our founder, Greg Barshaw, first went to Haiti, the kids we worked with primarily came from parents who couldn’t care for them at the moment—but they would often come back. Very few were rescued slave children. After C2M moved to Onaville and built the current compound, things started to change. We were soon taking in children who had been sold and traded, and that dynamic required a different response from us.

Adoption is the goal in an orphanage, but adoption is difficult in Haiti. Because of this, we made it a priority to create an environment where restavek children could live permanently and without a move-out date. Our goal has been to give these kids the tools they need to live well in Haitian society, starting with a foundation of stable relationships—both among peers, and with the adults responsible for their care. We wanted to give them a home.

The Lord is at work in Haiti, and we’ve been blessed to see the fruits of ministry in a very powerful way through our Mercy and Regency Homes. By God’s grace, we’ve been able to welcome more than 120 restavek kids into our family, and we’re hopeful this work will only increase in the future. Praise the Lord for the opportunity to provide a home for the broken.