Prayer Requests

Walk for Restaveks Recap (March 2023)

One of the causes closest to the heart of C2M is caring for restaveks. Restaveks are children (usually from poor families) who are sent or sold by their parents to live with and work for wealthier families in Haiti. They are usually expected to perform domestic chores in exchange for food and shelter. Restaveks are often mistreated and denied basic human rights such as education, medical care, and the freedom to leave the household they work for. Many are subject to physical and emotional abuse, and some are forced into child labor or prostitution. “Restavek,” meaning “to stay with,” [...]

2023-06-21T15:53:56-07:00March 17th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , |

Walk for Restaveks (March 2023)

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, which means Haiti’s children are some of the most vulnerable. Many of them have become child slaves—restaveks—as a result of their parents giving or selling them to others. That's where our Children’s Homes come in. One of our top goals at C2M is to provide safe and loving homes for restavek children, offering them food, shelter, education, and most importantly, the love of Christ, on a daily basis. However, this goal comes with challenges. Over the last year and a half, the country of Haiti has faced severe social and [...]

2023-04-06T15:32:22-07:00March 3rd, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , |

How Should We Respond to Poverty?

Every day, 16,000 children die from starvation around the world. That means 16,000 died yesterday, 16,000 will die today, and another 16,000 tomorrow. By contrast, we live in a place where we throw away enough food to end child starvation. Statistically, if we took all the money we spend on dog food alone, we could stop world hunger. Can you imagine that? When we think in those terms, it’s especially shocking that child slavery still exists only 700 miles off the coast of Florida. We see a dramatic need to fill that gap and say, in very practical terms, “This [...]

2023-04-06T15:35:05-07:00February 24th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , |

Let’s Pray Together

What a treasure to hold my children’s small hands in mine, watch them grow, and enjoy their childhood. It’s not something I take lightly. Especially since I know not every parent or child has the same privileges. I’m wearing these bracelets my daughter and I made together at the Simi Walk for Restaveks last October. They remind me to pray for Mickenson, our sponsored child, his brothers and sisters in our Children’s Homes, and all the restaveks in Haiti. They remind me to pray for Haiti’s broken government, broken economy, and broken people. I’d like to be candid that it [...]

2023-04-06T15:37:14-07:00February 17th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , |

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 [...]

2024-06-08T06:43:33-07:00February 3rd, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , , |

Ministry Under Pressure

This last year has been one of adjustments. Haiti’s continued social and political turmoil has made us think outside the box about ways to support our ministry partners in Haiti, and we have seen some encouraging fruit. In the midst of dark times, God is still at work. We have been able to give food recently (in a very limited capacity), but we’ve still been able to offer some resources through our clinic and serve as support for our Mercy Network pastors. Pastor Poyis and Jimmy are in communication with these men consistently, and they are faithful to let [...]

2023-04-06T15:41:17-07:00January 27th, 2023|Categories: Ministry Highlights|Tags: , , , |

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 [...]

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: , , , , |

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: , , , , |

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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