By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
CAP HAITIEN, Haiti (LBM) – One year after Louisiana Reach Haiti moved its operations from gang-ravaged Port-au-Prince to the safer city of Cap Haitien, Haiti, ministry leaders celebrated reunification of multiple Children’s Village residents in their care while bracing for rising operational costs.
Since the relocation on July 4, 2023, two girls in the Children’s Village have been reunited with their families, leaving 15 children in the ministry’s care. Additionally, the Children’s Village by the end of July plans to move into a new home after rent at their current building recently increased from $7,500 to $11,000.
LRH President Darrin Badon said while the situation is challenging, he is confident and grateful for God’s continued provision.
“We continue to do what we have been called by God to do, which is to make any difference in Haiti, to defend the oppressed, to be a father to the fatherless,” Badon told the Baptist Message. “Everything there is more expensive than it was a year or two ago. Families are facing challenges in Haiti, and we are just here to meet the needs for many who have lived in fear since the gangs forced so many out of Port-au-Prince.”
BACKGROUND
In 2015, a Louisiana Baptist team felt led to create a permanent presence in Haiti and partnered with Pastor Odvald Louis and his members at New Evangelical Baptist Church in Croix-Des-Bouquets. The Haitian congregation and Louisiana mission teams combined to complete a Children’s Village in Croix-des-Bouquets. They also teamed up to dig a well and built a church building and school in neighboring Canaan.
However, the facilities in both cities were overtaken and vandalized by gangs in early 2022, Badon said.
LRH then refocused its ministry on multiple fronts:
— In February 2022, escalating gang violence forced the Children’s Village to relocate to the Florida House, a Florida Baptist Convention-owned home for missionaries in Port-au-Prince. The facility housed 21 children and six staff members. After more than a year at the Florida House, the gangs started closing in on this area as well.
— Meanwhile, God opened doors in New Orleans, allowing LRH leaders to help relocate Pastor Odvald Louis and his family from Haiti, which he fled after surviving an attempt on his life.
— Additionally, LRH began partnering with Connect International Church, a congregation in New Orleans that in April 2022 formed and hosted an international church (led by Haitian American Pastor Dawest Louis, a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary) that reaches out to Haitians and other nationalities; and
— On March 26, 2023, two staff members of Louisiana Reach Haiti made it safely to the ministry’s Children’s Village in Cap Haitien after they became trapped four weeks earlier in Port-au-Prince because of gang activity in the area. The women left on a bus from the capital city early March 26 and took the eight-hour bus ride for a long-awaited reunion with the children and staff at the Children’s Village.
PRAYERS NEEDED
Badon said that prayers and financial support are needed so they can continue to meet the needs of children in their care, including one of the female residents that ministry leaders are hoping to reunite with her parents later this summer. Twelve children still are without sponsors, which are available for $30 each month.
For more information, visit louisianareachhaiti.org. Gifts may be mailed to Louisiana Reach Haiti, 18112 Kenner Dr., Prairieville, LA 70769.
