Marc & Lisa Honorat
Founders
Marc and Lisa Honorat founded Haiti ARISE Ministries from a vision of planting a Bible College to help train godly leaders. This vision grew to encompass everything that Haiti ARISE is now endeavouring to accomplish to help the Haitian people. Marc is a native Haitian and has a desire to see change in his nation because he knows the peoples' plight so well as he experienced it himself.
Born into an impoverished family of 15 children, his parents gave him up with some of their other children, with the hope that they would receive better care.
Marc’s father was a voodoo priest, which brought even more poverty to the family as he sacrificed his animals and crops to the devil. Marc, however, was spared from the influence of voodooism when at the age of five he was given to a lady to be her restavek, a term for a Haitian slave child, in exchange for food and shelter. Sleeping on the floor and receiving one meal a day was his payment for cooking, cleaning, carrying water, and working in the garden for his mistress. He was not permitted to attend school and was often treated harshly. This is still a very common practice in Haiti.
At age twelve he was rescued by his brother and placed in a children’s home, where he was allowed to attend school for the first time. Thanks to the sponsorship of a very generous and loving Canadian woman, he was able to graduate high school at age twenty-five. He then attended Caribbean Christ for the Nations Bible College in Montego Bay, Jamaica, for two years, and finished his Bachelor’s Degree in Theology at Evangel Bible College in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His heart has always been to go back to guide and encourage the people of Haiti toward change.
It was in Jamaica that Marc met Lisa, born in Washington state to a family of six. Raised in a Christian home, Lisa has long felt the call of God on her life to be a missionary and pastor’s wife. When her first opportunity for ministry came, it was to Jamaica. This was a life-changing experience for her, not only because she met Marc, but also because it taught her what it really meant to lay down her life for others in need. Marc and Lisa quickly knew that God called them together, even though circumstances made it seem impossible.
They began a three-year long-distance courtship, during which time Lisa served in Rome, Italy, teaching African and Filipino refugee children in the International Christian School of Rome, and Marc returned to Haiti. In 1999 they were reunited in Canada, attending the same Bible College together, and were married in May 2000.
They then began ministering in Haiti one to three times a year, bringing food and clothing to the poor, evangelizing, holding leaders’ and couples’ conferences, and visiting various churches. In July 2003 they started Haiti ARISE Ministries, investing their own savings into the first piece of land and building a team around them to help raise up godly leaders in Haiti. They now live and work with Haiti ARISE Ministries as overseers and directors of the ministry, regularly traveling between Haiti, USA and Canada to grow the vision and share progress of the ministry, meet with the Haiti ARISE teams, and build relationship with the supporting churches, businesses, and individuals.
Marc and Lisa have six children: Asher, Miesha, Jasmine, Ariana and Austin. They are in the process of adopting Kiki. The Honorats are dedicated to their calling to Haiti and raise their children to share in their heart to touch others' lives.