Children’s Homes

A Lasting Impact, Part 1 If you’ve ever wondered how much a church can impact a community, you should see the church in Haiti. On a recent trip, a few mundane events gained so much more meaning in my mind, as I had the opportunity to witness the church in action. On day one, as we began our drive to Onaville, the van’s hood started to rattle. Pastor Poyis pulled over, hopped out, and secured it, but thirty seconds hadn’t gone by before he got a phone call. A passing bus’s driver had recognized [...]

Laying a Foundation, Part 6 Friday Afternoon After breakfast (and seeing Chuck off to the airport—see Part 5 of this series for the story), some of the team went to finish work on the church while the rest of us focused on tying up loose ends at the Children’s Home. Our work with the kids went quickly, and we were saying goodbye after only a couple of hours. We went back to the compound, where we found the guys building a wardrobe cabinet and working on solar panels. We hung out with them [...]

Praying Persistently During my visit to Haiti in September with a small volunteer team, I wasn’t expecting Poyis to ask me to preach on Sunday. So when he did, I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Our philosophy at Connect 2 is to NOT have Americans preach because we want Haitians to see their own preachers bring God’s Word. I checked with Greg and both of us agreed that it would be good for me to be visible in front of the church, so they will know who I am.  Fortunately, you learn [...]

Building Hope for a Bigger Future, Part 1 Friday Afternoon Lunch came. It really helped to eat and rest a little sitting at the table. The temperature was 93, but the humidity made it feel like it was over 100. We got back to the Mercy Home around 1:30, and we were back at it by 1:45. But, right before we started, a really neat thing happened. In fact, this was one of the best highlights of the trip… Pastor Poyis, brought many of the Secondary School boys and girls over from the [...]

Building Hope for a Bigger Future, Part 4 Friday Morning We started off the morning together and I shared a devotional from Psalm 2 and Revelation 1. The passages gave a picture that the most central part of being a Christian is Christ and submission to  Christ. From before the foundation, through the writing of the Old Testament and Prophets, through His birth, life on earth, burial, and resurrection, until His heavenly state in Revelation 1, Christ is central. Christ is the reason we do what we do each day, and we [...]

Building Hope for a Bigger Future, Part 3 Thursday The goal for the afternoon was to put all of the beams on top of the posts. This was a big challenge because the beams were to be put on top of the posts which were at least 14 feet high and the beams were heavy. The plan was to have Allan and Dr. J cut the tops off the posts and then have John, Troy, Adam, Chuck and me come behind. Troy, Adam, and John were going to climb the ladder as one beam [...]