TIMELINE:

2000 - The Vision was born

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2001 - Fundraising started in Canada, including an ongoing pop bottle 
recycling project, BBQ sales and banquet dinners.

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2002 - 2-acre building site was purchased in Grand Goave, Haiti with Marc & Lisa's personal savings.

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2003 - The first team to went with building plans as construction began in July with the Church, Guest House, and Tech School. 

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2004 - An additional 2 acres were purchased increasing the size of the main campus. Construction continued on the school buildings. A temporary tin roof pole shelter was erected for the church. This simple structure has been expanded five times to accommodate the thriving congregation. ESL classes were opened enrolling over 100 students. Monthly rice and clothing distributions were established as a part of the Community Transformation projects. Two wells were drilled on the campus to provide clean water to the community and to the construction projects.

 

2005 - The Technical Institute was opened to the community with agriculture classes and a half-acre community garden was planted. The Technical Institute program developed to offer mechanics, textiles, music, computers, and business, continued ESL, and a full two-year carpentry course. Adult literacy classes were held. 

 

2006 - The Education Fund program started to help students with their schooling. 

 

2007 - The Bible College classes opened in the spring. A second church was planted in Tapion with 40 new believers. Our first Annual Pastors Conference was held with over 300 pastors and leaders. 

 

2008 - The first Bible College class of 50 graduated in June, along with the first carpentry students. In the fall, a separate parcel of 2 acres of land was purchased with the plans to establish a small local goat farm in conjunction with the Technical Institute to train local farmers and families in husbandry and healthy dairy consumption. A well was drilled on this land to provide clean water to the community of Chamette. A miraculous provision of another 7-acre parcel of land became available, just adjacent to the existing main campus, for the future construction of our long term goals- a local church/ multi-purpose building, an elementary school, and children's village.

 

2009 - The 7-acre parcel of land was paid off, and plans started for development. Residential building for housing teams and volunteers on the main campus was finished, the Technical Institute building finished and a brand new 25-computer lab set up for information technology classes. Cooking classes also started. The Technical Institute and Bible College served 350 students.

 

2010 - JANUARY 12th -  EARTHQUAKE. The impact of the earthquake caused extensive damage, including the collapse of the water tower, total perimeter wall & goat farmland wall and severe damage to the main floor of the Technical Institute. The school had to be demolished just one month after it’s completion and after 7 years of construction. The perimeter wall was rebuilt in 3 months, the water system repaired and collapsed water tower debris cleaned up.  In response to the overwhelming needs magnified by the earthquake, a temporary seven-classroom elementary school was built on the existing property and elementary classes opened in Oct 2010.  Construction of a Medical Clinic also began in the fall of

 

2010 - New engineering designs were made for the reconstruction of the Technical Institute. Plans for the South Campus property were drawn up including 2 water wells, sports grounds, gardens, a multi-purpose church building, a primary & secondary school, and a children's village with family-style homes for orphans and rescued restaveks (child slaves). 

 

2011 - The wall around the new 7-acre land (South Campus) was built. New construction of Technical Institute was started; ten community wells drilled in various areas. The local church shelter was re-built to accommodate our growing and thriving congregation and has now grown to over 500 members, and the Tapion church had grown to over 200. Haiti ARISE acquired a third church in the mountain village of DuFort.

 

2012 - The medical clinic building finished and opened for full-time operations in October 2012, with 6 new Haitian staff. The elementary school classes expanded to include up to grade 6 with over 350 students. The new Technical & Professional School reconstruction of Phase 1 of the building was well underway. The wall around the goat farm property was rebuilt. 

 

2013 - Construction of the Technical & Professional School building was completed and furnishings to equip the classes were purchased. Classes re-opened with 500 students in electricity, plumbing, tiling, construction, computers, English, Bible, and business. A brand new state of the art computer lab was installed with 25 laptops. Construction of the Children's village duplexes one and two out of six were started. 

 

2014 - Technical school shops were constructed and a container of tools and equipment shipped to stock the classes. A new generator was purchased and installed for the Main Campus to run the technical school, church and medical clinic. A steering committee was established for the development of the goat farm project. The construction of the children's village continued, with plans to open in the new year with the first two buildings. The church hosted our first Annual Youth Conference with over 800 young people from all over the country. The Grand Opening Inauguration ceremony of the Technical & Professional School and Friends Helping Friends Health Centre was celebrated in November. 

 

2015 - The Elementary School expanded to 450 children from pre-school to grade 6, additional classrooms constructed including a depot for library books. A tools depot was opened to organize and inventory tools for the Technical School shops. Classes in mechanics, sewing, information technology were added to the Technical & Professional School classes. Construction for the permanent elementary school building started on the South Campus property. The Goat Farm opened for full-time operations in November with 15 goats, barns & feedlot paddocks. Haiti ARISE staff expanded to 90 full-time employees. The local church began in-country mission trips to Du Fort & Camp Perrin.

 

2016 - A generator & solar power system was purchased and installed for the South Campus. The first home in Arise Children's Village opened with house parents and the first orphans received.  Construction continues on the elementary school building. The church continues to expand affiliation with churches in Jacmel, Port Au Prince, Les Cayes, and Port Salut, expanding our influence across the country. The fall of this year faced devastation throughout the south of Haiti with Hurricane Matthew. Haiti ARISE responded by repairing 125 homes and constructing 90 new homes throughout Les Cayes and Port Salut. 

 

2017 - Justice Assistance Office was opened in Petit-Goave to aid prisoners with no representation. We also completed our first of three buildings for the elementary school on the South Campus. The elementary school expanded to 580 students and middle school was added with 50 students in grade 7. The bathroom building was constructed for the elementary school as well. Arise Children’s Village housed two-parent couples with a total of 11 children in care. A third parent couple moved into the 2nd duplex unit 1. Construction began on our 3rd duplex, which when complete six homes will be operational. Mahanaim Church, our home church in Grand-Goave, hired an administrative pastor and expanded the church structure to hold 25 more benches, increasing the capacity to 850. 

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2018 - Haiti ARISE Ministers Fellowship formed, meeting quarterly with 40 church pastors and leaders throughout Haiti. Three churches in the Les Cayes area came under the affiliation of Haiti ARISE and a brand new Mahanaim Church was planted in Jeantiot with 150 new believers. Annual Pastors and Youth Conferences were held with over 350 in attendance. Our onsite medical clinic served 12,000 patients and held 8 mobile clinics. The 3rd duplex of the Children’s Village construction began as well as 12 new community homes were built and construction of a new Birthing Centre began. The Children’s Village housed 3 families with 16 children, 2 midwives were hired to begin work in our medical clinic and we hosted 20 teams from North America. Our schools had 350 students with 64 graduates in the technical school and a new partnership with Sewing Seeds International for a sewing program, 630 students in pre-school up to grade 7, and 13 students who graduated from our Kids4Kids Goat training program.

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2019 - Political unrest caused many challenges this year. The whole country went on lockdown in February and a team of 24 members that had come to host our first women’s conference with 150 women had to be airlifted by helicopter out of Grand-Goave. Consecutively, 17 team were canceled, no regular programs such as our pastors and youth conferences were able to carry on. Complete loss of city power and major gas shortages required the installation of a new solar system for the guest house. All schools, banks, businesses and the courthouses were closed from Sept-Dec and staff salaries had to be adjusted to meet the 30% inflation. Even so, our medical clinic continued serving the population with 14,000 total patients, including assisting with 150 surgeries, and we opened a daily baby nutrition program serving 1200 moms with babies monthly. We completed the construction of the concrete structures for our new Birthing Centre and an Autobody Shop. While in session, our technical school had 150 graduates, we sponsored 11 university students, had 480 students in pre-school to grade 6 and 68 students in grade 7-9, 25 students graduated from our Kids4Kids Goat Farm program and we were able to assist 175 wrongfully accused prisoners to find freedom. We also fed 7550 families and 25 churches through our Feed a Family Campaign.

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2020 - Covid-19 brought the world to a halt, including Haiti. A team of men led by Marc cut their trip short and returned from Haiti just a day before all flights shut down worldwide. Canada was in lockdown for the first time ever. Haiti too had no flights in or out for months. Marc and Lisa with their family were forced to remain in Canada for the remainder of the year until December 2020, when they took the chance to leave for Haiti with the whole family, just days before Canada went into another lockdown. In Haiti, most of the schools, church gatherings and clinic operations had to be closed or limited to small numbers to prevent the so called spread of Covid, although it was not apparently present in Haiti. This year we experienced the loss of many dearly loved friends and partners of Haiti ARISE, including Desir Gay, our Haitian tools manager, and Rod Stutzman, pastor of Prosser Community Church in WA who helped support the purchase of the Children's Village property. 

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2021 - Hopes were high coming into the new year, with the hosting of our Annual Pastor & Leadership Conference and a small American team. A dear friend of Haiti ARISE, Barry Hoffman, came to join the Honorats in Haiti despite the warnings of Covid. While here, all flights back to Canada were again halted, delaying his return to Canada. Just a month after his arrival in Haiti he passed away on campus, causing a traumatic experience for all with a process of repatriation. PCR testing and quarantine hotels were also introduced in Canada, causing the Honorats to remain in Haiti until July, just days before the Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated, spiraling the country into deep chaos. 

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2022 - Travel to Haiti was not possible. Many ministries throughout the country and our regular teams were virtually shut down. Even so, the ministries of Haiti ARISE continued strong, with the Haitian national staff taking deep ownership and responsibility to assure the operations of every department to carry on. With over 200 full-time employees now working for Haiti ARISE Ministries, every department kept their doors open and international support held steady. Challenges in Canada pushed the Honorats to make the move of their North American base to Florida to facilitate easier travel to Haiti and the growth of our US support. 

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2023 - Although the country of Haiti plummeted into even greater instability caused by the overrunning of dangerous gangs, small teams were able to return without publicity. More and more of the capital city of PAP was quickly being claimed as gang territory, pushing residents out of their homes, and causing refugees to flee to more rural areas like Grand-Goave. All of our schools experienced growth, pushing the Technical College to over 350 students and the Elementary & High School to over 500. The construction of a new high school building started, the school admin building was finished and the construction of the first quadplex in the children's village began. The Children's Village grew to home five families in the three duplexes with 30 kids altogether. We also built a new church in Les Cayes, drilled a community well and prepared plans for a guesthouse. 

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2024 - Every aspect of Haiti ARISE Ministries continued to grow with even more influx of refugees. The Technical College saw enrollment of more than 500 students, with 86 graduating in trades such as sewing, plumbing and electrical. The number of students almost doubled in the Elementary and Secondary schools with 100 in pre-school, 300 in elementary and 300 in high school, with classes all the way to grade 13. The construction of the the high school continued to the third story, preparing for installation of a computer & science lab, and library. Fundraising for the new main campus church building reached over $100,000 and plans were finalized for construction. 

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2025 - Haiti ARISE is expanding! In partnership with another ministry called 5812 Global, we were gifted a new campus by Blue Ridge in Leogane, including a guesthouse and three other buildings suitable for housing, administration and classes. The construction of the third story of the High School continued, installation of internet at the schools was made and plans to begin the construction of the main church campus are underway.

 

FUTURE:

We continue to move forward with the vision laid God has given us. Our future endeavors include:

• Community business development including a bakery

• Construction of 2 more quadplexes for the children's village

• Development of beachfront property for hotel & hospitality services training 

• Construction of permanent church building

• Construction of dormitories for technical school students

• Expand affiliations with churches & ministries in other areas​

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NORTH CAMPUS PROPERTY PLANS: