PUERTO PRINCIPE.- The local director of a missionary group in Haiti and a couple of American missionaries They were shot to death by gang members after leaving a youth group activity at a church, relatives said.
The homicides, which occurred on Thursday, of Jude Montis, local director of Missions in Haiti Inc., and Davy and Natalie Lloyd, young couples from the United States, occurred in the community of Lizon in northern Prince Port. They were killed as the capital crumbles under the relentless offensive of violent gangs who control 80% of the city, at a time when authorities await the arrival of a Kenyan police force as part of a UN-backed deployment with the that aims to quell gang violence in the turbulent Caribbean country.
Below we present some aspects of the missionary work focused on helping the children of Haiti and the gang attack that claimed three lives.
Work in Haiti
The website of Missions in Haiti says his goal is “to see the Gospel of Christ make a difference in the lives of Haiti’s youth.”
Davy Lloyd’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd of Oklahoma, created the organization in 2000 with the goal of focusing on children in the Caribbean country. David and Alicia Lloyd are full-time missionaries in Haiti.
“Although the entire nation is mired in poverty, children suffer the most,” they wrote on the website. “Thousands are malnourished, uneducated, and heading toward hopeless lives far from Christ,” they indicated.
Hannah Cornett, Davy’s sister, said they grew up in Haiti. Davy Lloyd traveled to the United States to attend Bible college and married Natalie in June 2022.. After the wedding, the couple quickly moved to Haiti to do humanitarian work.
Cornett said Montis, a Haitian, had worked at Missions in Haiti for 20 years.
The organization’s tasks include House of Compassion, which provides housing for 36 children: 18 boys and 18 girls, the website noted. “They are all destined to stay at the House of Mercy until they have finished school and are ready to live on their own,” she adds.
The Good Hope Boys’ Home provides a home for 22 boys, the website added, noting that the organization also built a church, a bakery and a school with more than 240 students.
The attack
A post on the Missions in Haiti Facebook page indicated that Davy Lloyd, 23, and Natalie Lloyd, 21, along with some children, were leaving a church when they were ambushed by gang members in three vans.
Davy Lloyd later called his family to tell them that gang members hit him in the head with the barrel of a gun, forced him upstairs, stole his belongings and left him tied up, Cornett said.
“No one understood what they were doing, there was no certainty about what was happening, but one was shot dead and now this gang entered full attack mode,” Missions in Haiti noted in its publication.
The couple and Montis fled to a home linked to the mission.
“They tried to take cover there, but the gang shot up the house,” Cornett added.
Ben Baker, Natalie Lloyd’s father and a Republican state representative in Missouri, posted on Facebook Friday that the bodies of Davy and Natalie Lloyd were transported without incident to the U.S. Embassy.
Grieving families
Cornett said Montis left behind two children, ages 2 and 6.
Montis’ family could not be contacted at this time. It is unknown if he used social networks and, if so, if his profiles are public.
Baker wrote on Facebook that his heart was broken “into a thousand pieces.”
“I have never felt this kind of pain,” he said. “Most of you know that my daughter and son-in-law are full-time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by gangs tonight and both were killed. They went to heaven together. Please pray for my family; we desperately need strength. And please also pray for the Lloyd family. I have no other words for now.”
Source: With information from AP
