Five years ago, I came to Haiti bright-eyed and bushy-tailed hoping to give a handUp to young men who had aged out of orphan care. I believed that Jesus and jobs was what they needed to catapult them into manhood where they would become leaders in their communities. We’ve had modest success. Several of the guys from our original group are giving back to their communities. They are working, going to church and learning valuable lessons from HUGG programming. We also have a Teens in Transition house where 13 young men reside, 7 of whom will graduate in 6 months.They...

    I never knew a box of jewelry could mean so much   When Natul asked me to write a short, little blog on what The HUGG Box means to me, I immediately thought about why I wanted to be the Admin for HUGG in the first place... to be apart of God's mission in Haiti and to give people jobs and Jesus.    I have a huge heart for missions and for loving on the broken but, I'm not able to physically go from country to country every week, month or year to tell others about Jesus (as...

    The last year has been ROUGH for Haitians and for a country that is used to rough— this is saying a lot.   I’ve avoided writing about it because the truth is---the complexities of the problems are beyond the scope of what we write about in this blog, but it HAS gotten to a point where we feel like we need to share some of these issues with our supporters.   To give you an accurate update—I am reposting from organizations and people in Haiti that I fully support and trust.     https://www.npr.org/2019/06/11/731640235/protesters-demand-resignation-of-haitian-president-over-corruption-allegations   "My Bread is...

    I was sitting across the desk from the retailer as she kindly shared with me that our pieces weren’t inspirational enough for her market. “Christian shoppers want more crosses, inspirational sayings and items that represent their faith.”   She wasn’t the first Christian retailer to give me this feedback.   I GET it. I really do.   At the end of the day we want to make our target customer happy. If they want more meaningful pieces that tell the world about their faith, then we need to deliver. But I would be remiss if I didn’t explain a...

    A Fact Many Americans Don’t Know….   That up to 80% of orphans in Haiti have one or two living parents.   Wait! How can this be? Then they aren’t orphans, right?   But the truth is they are poverty orphans. Moms and Dads in Haiti have to make an unimaginably hard decision to give up their child because it seems like the lesser of two evils—watch their littles suffer or place them in an institution that can provide for their basic needs.   There are an estimated 400,000 of these children living in orphanages in Haiti. Every...