Haitian Culture

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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Four Pillars of C2M

Four Pillars of C2M In missions, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the needs of the people you serve. Without a clear strategy, you can exhaust your resources quickly. You’re never going to end hunger or meet every need in a community, so it’s critical to identify why you’re doing ministry in the first place. The goal is not to end suffering in Haiti. The goal is not even to change Haiti, but to change eternity. In fact, real gospel ministry means meeting someone in their suffering in order to communicate Jesus. Everything we do must [...]

2024-06-17T11:25:17-07:00November 11th, 2022|Categories: Medical Clinic|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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The Birth of a Ministry

The 2010 earthquake changed Haiti in a way that can still be felt today. In a city of three million people, 300,000 were dead in the span of an afternoon. Tent cities became home to 1.8 million in the days that followed, and the persistent question became: “How do we make sense of this?” Tragedy raises questions that seem remote in easy times, but as Christians, we know that life and death are pressing realities in every moment, whether we think of them or not. Our ministry got its start in this context. Seeing the [...]

2023-04-06T16:26:16-07:00October 28th, 2022|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |
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A Greater Healing

One of the first things we do when a new child comes to our Children’s Homes is give them a medical examination. Because our kids come from situations where they were enslaved, we make it a priority to meet any physical needs as soon as possible. The first eight kids we brought to the Regency Home were lovingly and carefully examined by a medical team which consisted of three U.S. nurses who had volunteered their time and skills to help in this ministry. These nurses were seasoned professionals (each one had more than twenty years of [...]

2023-04-06T16:27:30-07:00October 21st, 2022|Categories: Ministry Outreach|Tags: , , , , |
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Mission Englise Chretienne Redemptrice

Standing on an empty lot, Pastor Poyis and I stared at the church’s walls. The roof hadn’t even been installed yet, but we expectantly discussed his vision for the church and the impact it would have beyond its physical building. Pastor Poyis shared with me that he wanted to name the church “Connect 2 Ministries.” “Let’s pull back.” I said, “The church needs to have a Haitian name, not an American one. The church’s name should be related to your heart for the community. What is your desire for this community?” Pastor Poyis said, “I would [...]

2023-04-06T16:30:46-07:00October 7th, 2022|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , |
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Walk for Restaveks (October 2022)

The title “restavek” has been used to describe an abused child who lives with and serves a family that is not his or her biological family. These children are either sold by their own family to another that is financially able to provide, or they are orphans with no family to care for them. The children are extremely vulnerable, living as modern-day slaves. The term, “restavek,” was once used as a verb. Meaning “to stay with,” it originally described the action of living alongside another, but it now communicates something very different. The majority of restaveks [...]

2023-10-31T12:03:01-07:00September 30th, 2022|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |
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Trip Memories

In June 2021, I drove our team back and forth from the compound to the Children’s Homes a few times. Most of the drive is on dirt roads, and because I grew up in Texas driving on ranches and farmland, I learned how to navigate these rugged areas. I have to say, these roads are extremely rugged. I learned why on Wednesday evening when it started to rain just as we were finishing. Within a few minutes, the roads were flooding. It’s only a half mile from the Children’s Homes to the compound, but each [...]

2023-04-06T16:34:11-07:00September 23rd, 2022|Categories: Ministry Outreach|Tags: , , , |
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Answers to Prayer

I want to share with you today about some work we did on a recent construction project in Haiti. We prayed for years for the means and opportunity to build our director’s house at the Mercy Home, and on this trip, the time had come. The team and I spent our first morning on site getting things set up for the week. We put the tools and a generator in a storage room and then started to lay out the area where we would build. Our plans were to build the house approximately 40’ by [...]

2023-04-06T19:29:16-07:00August 26th, 2022|Categories: Ministry Outreach|Tags: , , , , |
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2022 World Humanitarian Day

Shaina Grill has served with Connect 2 Ministries for more than eight years, and she currently serves as our Sponsorship Program & Special Events Coordinator. As we recognize World Humanitarian Day, we asked Shaina to share her thoughts on living life for others. My first trip to Haiti was my first outreach trip ever. I didn’t grow up in the church, so by the time I came to Christ, I had a young family and didn’t have an interest in serving outside of my local congregation. When our middle daughter was a senior in high [...]

2023-06-12T10:11:58-07:00August 19th, 2022|Categories: Ministry Outreach|Tags: , , , , , |
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