^{Ro 12:15 (NIV2011)}  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

This blog I wrote for the church just last Friday, but I thought it wise to shoot it out here as well. Above is one of my favorite Haiti pictures, with my daughter Megan and one of the school kids. Can you guess which one is Megan? I used to keep a website with a weekly blog about my writing and traveling to Haiti and dumb things I’ve done. Sometimes I just wrote about dumb things I did while in Haiti. You can read my old Haiti blogs here. I’m no Haiti expert, but I’ve been able to go every year or so since 2007.

I didn’t go this year.

I may never go again.

The last time I saw our Haiti missionaries Byron and Shelley and their family, it was in Boise ID, where we got to be part of their daughter’s wedding. But then they went back to Haiti, where many depend on their support.

• The 200 kids who come to their school need their support – not just in education, but also for food.
• Three orphanages depend on our missionaries to keep them supplied with food and supplies. When you give to AP and missions, it does a lot more than pay for electricity and childcare. It goes around the world.
• NOTE: We CAN still get finances to them, which helps them to barter or buy off the street. You can support them directly here. Or through AP here, just designate it for Haiti.

Currently, the nation is in chaos. The two airports are shut down. The unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry (accused of having links to the assassination of the previous prime minister Jovenel Moise) couldn’t even get back into the country after visiting Kenya for assistance. He resigned on Tuesday. Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier (so named for incinerating his enemies—although he claims it comes from his mother selling chicken when he was younger), has consolidated most of the gangs and taken over 80% of the capital of Port-au-Prince.  

On one of my first trips there, in 2008, I believe, I had a Haitian tell me how his slave ancestors had fought for their freedom from the French over 200 years ago. Not being able to win their freedom, they pleaded with the voodoo gods for help, “And,” he said, “we’ve lived in hell ever since.”

Haiti seemed bad back then, but now we realize hell was still a long-distance call. Now it’s local.

Reuters said that, “According to the U.N., some 360,000 people are internally displaced while close to 1,200 have been killed and nearly 700 injured since the start of this year, with widespread reports of rape and torture, and access to basic supplies and services blocked.” By some reports, there have been more deaths in Haiti this year than in the Ukraine, and with morgues unable to pick up the bodies due to gang rule, the city of Port au Prince is beginning to stink. ABC News reported this morning (last Wednesday) that according to the World Food Program, there are 1.4 million people in Haiti one step away from famine.

And I was frustrated this morning because my earbuds wouldn’t sink to my phone while at the gym. Hmmm. Perspective.

And this from the Human Rights Watch a few days ago,

“Criminal groups, which control much of the country, including nearly all of the capital, Port-au-Prince, have killed over 1,100 people and injured nearly 700 others just since the start of 2024, according to the UN. Nearly 13,000 people were killed, injured, and kidnapped by criminal groups between January 2022 and early March 2024. Thousands of women and children have been victims of sexual violence and over 362,000 people have been internally displaced. The rates of food insecurity in Haiti are among the worst in the world. Many children are out of school, and child use and recruitment by criminal groups are on the rise.

“We are abandoned to our own fate; nothing works in the country,” a 23-year-old mechanic in Port-au-Prince told Human Rights Watch by phone on February 19. “There is no state, the police are scared, and they have no way to defend us from the gangs that shoot, kill, kidnap, rape women, and take away everything from us on a daily basis.”

Our missionaries, Byron and Shelley, are still in Port-au-Prince with their daughter, their fellow missionary, and friend Sue at the children’s home with four children, ages eight to fifteen. Ben and Becca are also there with their 3-year-old and newborn. (Please be praying for them as Ben is waiting for his US visa, and the baby is waiting for her passport so that they can leave when the airport reopens). At a different location missionary and son Andrew is with his wife Dawn and new baby. Bryon, Shelly, Sue, and Andrew have been at AnchorPoint at one time or another. There is also no electricity, but that isn’t all that unusual. What is different is that it is also pretty impossible to obtain diesel for the generator.

Here is some information directly from Byron and Shelley that I gave on Sunday, as well as some updates from talking to them this week. Communication is a bit sketchy, but you can get a feeling of what life is like I believe from what we have received.

Thank you for your prayers. There is a lot of trouble in Haiti right now. We’re in unchartered territory, and just doing our best to process as we go.

The gangs have been holding food containers hostage at the port. There was already a shortage of food. Now the distributors can’t open to sell, even if they were able to obtain the containers. We are seeking to purchase food items for distribution at three orphanages where we steward food supplies, but do not know what we will be able to do.

The food sacks for our especially poverty-stricken students were distributed on Thursday, but I don’t know what we’ll be able to do this week. For now, school is closed – so those children will not eat either.

Saturday night was very bad – they are trying to take the police station … and they were all over our neighborhood. If you are caught out of doors between 6 pm and 5 am, expect to be arrested or shot.

They did make another effort to take the airport yesterday. Both airports are closed, meaning we cannot leave Haiti, nor can we leave PAP. It is bizarre.

We have a lot of unknowns right now. Lots of heavy gunfire last night, some of it moved behind our house.

For now, we would appreciate prayers for cool heads, wisdom, and the availability of supplies. Specifically, water. We have 12 – 5 gallon containers left for our house and for the children’s home.

Right now, the gangs are fighting against the government and police. Should they succeed, things could change very rapidly for us. We’re quite aware of this.

We do need wisdom for when the time comes.  Thanks for your prayers.

It’s awful. Hungry children, nothing to feed them. 

So where is God in all this? He is in Haiti, with the suffering. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from a German prison before his execution during WWII, “Only the suffering of God can help” (Letters from Prison). And as Kenneth Surin wrote, “The only credible theology for Auschwitz is one that makes God an inmate of the place.” (The Impassibility of God and the Problem of Evil).

I’ve been asked, and you may be asking yourself this question, “Why didn’t our missionaries leave already!?” The simple answer is that it is more difficult than you can imagine. There are children there that may not be their blood children or their adopted children, but they have raised them since infancy. How do you leave them at a time like this?

And how could Jesus leave Haiti at a time like this? He can’t. 1 John 3:1 says, ^{1Jn 3:1 (NIV2011)}  See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

God doesn’t ever leave us or forsake us. ^{Dt 31:8 (NIV2011)}  The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” If Jesus was in the fire with Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, He will be with Byron and Shelley and family in PAP.

And if you know Him, He is with you, in whatever you are going through.

This is when theology gets real.

I hope you can support them financially and in prayer. That’s all we can do right now, so let’s do it. Let’s ^{Ro 12:15 (NIV2011)}  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.