Children’s Homes

Christmas This Year

On the outskirts of Port-au-Prince in Onaville this year, gangs took control. Many people were forced to leave their homes, and the kids from our Children’s Homes were among them. The last few months have brought uncertainty and challenges as a result. Because of the social and political instability in the country, this Christmas will look a little different than it has in the past for our friends in Haiti. Yet despite troubling circumstances, our children, staff, and pastors are looking ahead to December 25 with a renewed sense of unity and hope. This Christmas, the Children’s Homes and compound [...]

2023-12-19T13:31:21-08:00December 22nd, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , , , |
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Honoring Mervile Eduardo 2008-2023

An Important Message from Our Founder Mervile Eduardo was a beloved member of our Regency Children’s Home. He passed away suddenly on December 7, 2023, at the age of fifteen, from complications related to type 1 diabetes. His diagnosis was recent, and as anyone who has experience with type 1 diabetes will know, the condition is very difficult to manage—even in the US. You can imagine how difficult it is to manage in a third-world country like Haiti. Since Mervile’s diagnosis earlier this year, Haiti has been under duress from multiple gangs, which has exacerbated the scarcity [...]

2023-12-11T16:14:53-08:00December 12th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |
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Hope Through Tangible Means: Animals

In Haiti, agricultural challenges and economic hardships are a reality year-round. Haiti’s terrain is mountainous, which limits agrarian land. In many areas, the country has also experienced soil erosion and reduced fertility over time. Even in places where agricultural farming occurs, there’s no escaping natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. For all these reasons, farming is a risky business. That’s why at Connect 2 Ministries, we’ve focused on raising and keeping farm animals as a more sustainable solution. In the past, we’ve kept goats, chickens, and rabbits at the C2M compound. We would teach our children how to raise them [...]

2023-11-28T13:03:25-08:00December 1st, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |
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2023 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons resonates with the heart of Connect 2 Ministries. Each year on July 30, we join the global movement to end human trafficking as an extension of our ongoing ministry during the year. More than 120 children rescued from trafficking now call our Regency and Mercy Children’s Homes their home, living in an environment where they are loved, educated, and given a hope-filled future. Over the last two years, Haiti has experienced a prolonged period of social and political crisis. Today, we asked our founder, Greg Barshaw, to share what happens to restavek children [...]

2023-07-26T11:30:37-07:00July 30th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , , |
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2023 World Day Against Child Labor

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” —Romans 12:2 As Christians, it’s easy to do things that aren’t wrong in themselves, for no reason other than that they’re familiar to us. It’s easy to get caught up in the culture. But if we take Romans 12:2 literally, the patterns of this world are at odds with biblical truth. If that is true, then the question for us becomes what are [...]

2023-06-12T10:05:48-07:00June 12th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |
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A Future for Restaveks

One of the questions we often encounter is, “Why do we make our Children’s Homes into a permanent home for restavek kids rather than pursuing adoption?” It’s a fair question. In an ideal world, every child would have a stable family with loving parents. But that’s not our reality. Adoption is not always reliable or feasible. It can be an extremely long and expensive process which is a challenge for many families, let alone those already struggling to provide for themselves. In addition, many children have complex medical, emotional, or social needs that make adoption difficult. In either case, [...]

2023-06-21T15:33:59-07:00April 25th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |
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VBS 2022 Recap

During the last week of 2022, Pastor Poyis organized multiple VBS programs for the communities around Onaville. He asked all of our Mercy Network pastors to participate, and we were so excited to hear that each of the ten VBS programs was successful. The churches were full! The older children in our Homes are once again serving children in their surrounding communities. While it’s encouraging to watch these kids grow from a distance, it’s a special blessing to see them serving meals, leading worship and acting out Bible stories for 250 children who need the light [...]

2023-04-06T15:40:30-07:00February 3rd, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |
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Stories of Rescue

It’s a new year, and we couldn’t be more encouraged! As we look forward to what God has in store for 2023, we also want to pause and remember the amazing work He’s done already. Below are stories from two former restavek kids—child slaves—who have found safety, peace, and hope through the ministry of God’s church in Haiti. Fabian We teach in our Mercy Network churches that abuse, in whatever form it takes, is unacceptable—to the degree that if you have a neighbor who's abusing a child, you need to be involved in putting an end to it. Well, [...]

2023-04-06T15:54:22-07:00January 6th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , |
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Giving Tuesday 2022

Degna Horton has served with Connect 2 Ministries for more than seven years, and she has worked extensively with Regency Lighting on many of our construction projects in Haiti. As we recognize Giving Tuesday, we asked Degna to share her thoughts on living life for others. My connection with C2M began in December 2015. I was employed at Regency Lighting at the time, working as the executive assistant responsible for coordinating social impact initiatives. This was around the time Greg Barshaw shared his vision for building a home and school that would house up to [...]

2023-11-14T07:45:21-08:00November 29th, 2022|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , , |
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How Do We Rescue Restaveks?

Most children who become slaves were not born into it. A parent dies, and the remaining parent gives their child to a family who promises to take care of him or her. Or a rural family with a lot of kids sends one of them with people who say they’ll take the child to Port-au-Prince—for a price. The kid might then be sold to an intermediary before being sold again to a family looking for a house servant. Although they were born to free parents, they find themselves in this situation because slavery is an [...]

2023-04-06T16:25:10-07:00November 4th, 2022|Categories: Medical Clinic|Tags: , , , , |
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