Source: www.persecution.org
Date: May 24, 2024
Haiti (International Christian Concern) – Gang members shot and killed the daughter and son-in-law of Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker Thursday evening in Port-au-Prince, where the couple served as missionaries.
Davy Lloyd, 23, and Natalie Lloyd, 21, who married in August 2022 and moved to Haiti three months later, were returning home from a youth event when a group of armed gang members ambushed them. The couple served with Missions in Haiti, Inc., a missions organization that Davy’s parents started in 2000. Jude Montis, 20, the organization’s Haitian director, also died in the attack.
“My heart is broken in a thousand pieces,” Baker shared on his Facebook page. “I’ve never felt this kind of pain. Most of you know my daughter and son-in-law Davy and Natalie Lloyd are full time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by gangs this evening and were both killed. They went to Heaven together.”
Missions in Haiti, Inc. made a desperate plea for prayer on its Facebook page Thursday night, writing that “a gang of 3 trucks full of guys” had surrounded three of its missionaries. According to the post, gang members tied Davy up and beat him before stealing supplies and vehicles from the ministry. When another gang learned of the attack, they soon “came to help” and started shooting at the couple as they hid in a home owned by the organization. Missions in Hati, Inc. representatives attempted to negotiate with gang members before the Lloyds and Montis were killed.
In a newsletter shared by Missions in Haiti in May 2023, a staff member wrote, “The gang leader in our area controls one of the ‘nicer gangs’ in Haiti. This gang works to keep the ‘bad guys’ out of our area, and we pray that they will continue to be strong enough to keep some semblance of peace in this area.”
The recent spike in violence in Haiti has forced dozens of NGOs to pause operations. In 2023, Doctors Without Borders suspended its services when 20 armed men kidnapped a patient from their hospital. While Haiti has long suffered from instability, gang violence and criminal activity have wreaked havoc on the country since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the devastating earthquake in August 2021. The 400 Mawozo gang — the largest gang in Haiti — is known for its history of targeting religious groups and continues to scale up its activities. In October 2021, 17 Christian missionaries were kidnapped while traveling to an orphanage just east of Port-au-Prince.
“Our hearts are heavy with the news of the death of two American missionaries in Haiti,” International Christian Concern’s Advocacy Manager McKenna Wendt said. “The gang members who waited outside of the church to target the couple doing good for their own community represent the purest form of evil. I am reminded of Tertullian’s quote, ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’ We pray that the deaths of Davy and Natalie Lloyd will not be in vain, and we pray for the salvation and repentance of the gang members who took these innocent lives.”