American missionaries killed in Port-au-Prince… | News & Reporting

Two young American missionaries were murdered in Haiti on Thursday, amid the ongoing crisis of gang violence rocking the country.

Davy and Natalie Lloyd and a co-worker named Judes Montis were ambushed by three truckloads of gang members as they returned from a youth group worship service at Missions in Haiti in Port-au-Prince, according to the mission’s Facebook page. While the gunmen stole several vehicles and loaded them with loot from the mission, another gang arrived and the two groups clashed violently.

“I’m not sure what happened, but one was shot and now this gang has gone into attack mode,” wrote a missionary who received reports in the U.S. “Davy, Natalie and Jude (were) in my house at the end of the property calling me on Starlink internet. So they’re barricaded in there, the gangs (have) shot all the windows out of the house and are continuing to shoot.”

According to reports, the missions in Haiti tried unsuccessfully to contact the Haitian police, but then the phone lines went down.

“PLEASE PRAY,” Missions in Haiti asked its 4,500 Facebook followers. “It’s going to be a long night.”

By 9 p.m. the orphanage was burning and the Lloyds and Montis were dead.

“My heart is shattered into a thousand pieces,” wrote Natalie’s father, Missouri House Representative Ben Baker. “I have never felt such pain.”

Last year, criminal gangs killed nearly 5,000 people in Haiti. Then, in 2024, the gangs joined forces, turned against the politicians who had once collaborated with them for power, and launched coordinated attacks on the government. The gangs set fire to police stations, closed the main airport and seaport, and broke out of two prisons, freeing an estimated 4,000 inmates. They vandalized government buildings, stormed the National Palace, and seized control of about 80 percent of the capital.

“Now they are a force unto themselves,” Robert Fatton, a professor of government and foreign policy at the University of Virginia, told the Associated Press. “The gangs’ autonomy has reached a critical point. That’s why they are now able to impose certain conditions on the government itself.”

The prime minister resigned in April and a provisional government council was set up to contain the violence and restore order.

A United Nations-approved peacekeeping mission of 1,000 Kenyan police officers has been repeatedly postponed. Two hundred of them were scheduled to land on Thursday – while Kenya’s President William Ruto met with US President Joe Biden at the White House – but the flight from Nairobi was cancelled at the last minute.

Police officers were given no explanation for the delay and were told to stand by because they could leave at any moment, Reuters reported. US authorities have said the force lacks the armored vehicles, helicopters, weapons and communications equipment necessary for the operation.

The American government has allocated $300 million to the mission. Since April, hundreds of American citizens have been evacuated by helicopter, and many nonprofit organizations have also coordinated emergency exits. However, not everyone has been able to leave the country, and some have chosen not to.

Missions in Haiti told supporters in March that their area of ​​Port-au-Prince was quiet and that missionaries were not concerned about their safety.

The organization was founded in 2000 by Davy Lloyd’s parents, David and Alicia. The mission primarily served children, providing them with food, education, and spiritual guidance. In 2002, about 100 children participated in the missions’ summer Bible school program in Haiti, and by fall of that year, 10 children were enrolled in the orphanage and another 30 in school.

According to donor reports, the school has grown over the past 24 years and now serves more than 400 children. And the mission has expanded, too, opening a church and a bakery that employs graduates.

The escalating violence in Haiti began to worry David Lloyd in 2022.

“There is no functioning government, there is total anarchy in Haiti,” wrote the elder Lloyd. “These gangs murder, rape, steal and destroy at will.”

He reported that the missions in Haiti were almost taken over by “one of the most vicious gangs,” but “we fell to our knees and God miraculously intervened and put that gang to flight!”

The missionaries remained hopeful and asked their supporters to pray for them and write to their U.S. representatives.

Davy and Natalie Lloyd joined the missions in Haiti in 2022 after graduating from Ozark Bible Institute, a holiness and Pentecostal school, and getting married.

Davy, who grew up in the mission, threw himself into maintenance projects, renovating bathrooms in the dormitories, repairing vehicles and building a new laundry room.

He told his supporters that when he returned, he could see Haiti’s larger problems more clearly than he did as a child, when he went to school and church, took care of the chickens and played with his Haitian friends.

“My eyes are more open,” the younger Lloyd said in a video shared by Missions in Haiti. “We really need a miracle. We need God to move us.”

Natalie worked at the orphanage and cared for the children. On Instagram, she shared pictures of her work: she repainted playground equipment, gave the children mangoes and coconuts, and taught them the whole armor of God.

The young missionary expressed some concern about the political situation in Haiti, but focused more on her joy in helping children and her trust in God.

“God always keeps his promises. He is unchanging and never wavers,” she wrote. “I want to put my hope in the One who never fails, the One whose grace is new every morning, the One who, when the seasons change, remains the same.”

A few days before the attack by the two gang groups, the missionaries expressed hope that help would arrive and that order would soon be restored. They saw US military planes flying over the town several times a day, presumably bringing equipment for the Kenyan armed forces. The airport has been reopened and gang activity appears to be waning, according to the missions’ Facebook page in Haiti.

“Gang Rule could end soon,” wrote David Lloyd. “We pray this happens, and the sooner the better. Thank you for your continued prayers.”