Weekend Plug-in 🔌

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(ANALYSIS) I can still see the joy on the faces of the Haitian people.

I traveled to the poor Caribbean nation in 2018 to report on Healing Hands International, a Christian humanitarian aid organization, drilling water wells.

As water gushed from a new well in one remote mountain village, a woman gleefully splashed the clear, flowing liquid on her face. Little boys and girls giggled as they cupped their hands under the spout, taking big gulps before filling plastic buckets to take home.

I witnessed a similar exuberant scene in a community near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

In a country beset with challenges, I saw hope. So much hope. And so much promise.

But now? 

Heavily armed gangs have overtaken Haiti. Fatally weak political institutions have collapsed. Kidnappings and homicides have surged, as noted by a United Nations report.

Just last week, an American missionary couple — Davy Lloyd, 23; and his wife, Natalie Lloyd, 21 — were killed in a gang ambush in Port-au-Prince. 

They died along with Judes Montis, 47, a Haitian father of two who worked for more than 20 years with Oklahoma-based Missions in Haiti Inc. Davy’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd, founded the faith-based organization in 2000.

“It wasn't Haiti that killed our children, it was selfish evil men who only have evil purposes, they do not represent Haiti,” a post on the organization’s Facebook page declared Thursday. “Haiti continues to cry for help and prays the world doesn't continue to turn their backs on the terrible conditions that these wicked men are making a country live through. Continue to pray for God's deliverance.”

As tears flow, Jason and Jennifer Carroll keep praying for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

A decade ago, the couple moved to the developing island nation to work with Healing Hands, which is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, but funds clean water projects around the world. 

The Carrolls quickly fell in love with the people and one boy in particular — a newborn named Edyson whose mother had died in childbirth. They took in “Edy,” now almost 10, and began efforts to adopt him. (Years later, they’re still engaged in that arduous process.)

I met the family — including two of their three biological children — on my 2018 trip.

They returned home to Kentucky the next year.

“It was just getting really bad,” Jason said of the security situation. “Jen and all the kids had to evacuate out by helicopter. So it was just getting too dangerous.”

Jason served as Healing Hands’ water project coordinator in Haiti, where the nonprofit drilled 350 wells. Back home, he rebuilds municipal water filters. Jennifer works as a dental assistant.

Bowling Green, where the Carrolls attend Hillvue Heights Church, is roughly 1,500 miles — and a world away — from Port-au-Prince.

Still, news of the slayings of the Lloyds and Montis hit the couple hard.

“It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible thing,” Jennifer said in a telephone interview. 

“I took Edy to school there four days a week,” she said of Missions in Haiti’s Christian preschool, about 15 minutes from Healing Hands’ gated complex north of the capital.

Jennifer knew Davy Lloyd’s parents and had met Montis. She describes David and Alicia Lloyd as “sweet, kind people who really had a heart for Haiti.”

“I know they must be absolutely broken,” she wrote on Facebook. “Please pray for their family.”

Jason told me: “It’s just really hard because we’ve still got friends and family (of Edy’s) there. It’s just really sad that the country is in such turmoil and chaos, and the gangs have taken over everything.”

Despite the sadness, the Carrolls maintain their faith in God.

They pray that the situation in Haiti will improve, even as they work to help loved ones — including Edy’s biological father and brothers — leave the country. His older sister, Rogeline, 22, already is in the U.S.

Jennifer urges fellow people of faith to keep lifting up Haiti to the Lord.

“Yes, there’s a tremendous amount of gang violence and everything,” she told me. “But there are so many good, good, good Haitians that are just caught and just struggling daily to get food, get water, take care of their family, take care of their children.

“And we pray that someday our missionary friends who want to return can go back there,” she added, “because so many of them really made a difference.”

Jennifer’s voice choked with emotion as she spoke.

“I just hope and pray,” she emphasized, “that God will make a way.”

Inside The Godbeat

I’m a Wall Street Journal subscriber and fan of its high-quality journalism.

But I’m perplexed by the newspaper’s latest move, shuttering its U.S. News regional bureaus.

This comes on the heels of the WSJ letting go Francis X. Rocca, its Vatican and global religion correspondent. Rocca was the paper’s last remaining Godbeat pro.

The Final Plug

I spent last weekend in Minneapolis.

I checked Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, off my bucket list. Read my new MLB ballpark rankings.

And I did some reporting, including a piece on the demand for church food ministries rising with grocery prices. Check it out.

I’m headed on vacation next week, but look for Plug-in again in two weeks.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.