La Limyè Ministries

 2023  There’s just so many things I miss about down South at our home base. And yet so many things I’m eternally thankful have changed. Haiti life loves to throw curveballs and this year of evacuating and starting completely over was the biggest one to date for us.  Sometimes I can’t compartmentalize all the feelings. Happy and sad. Scared and at peace. Worried and content. Stressed and grateful. And although it’s been an eventful year, it’s also been a fruitful year.  I’m eager to see how the Lord guides us to minister in a new city during 2024. What’s to come is only known by Him and there’s a whole lot of joy resting in that.  There aren’t adequate words to describe my utmost gratitude and sincere thankfulness for people like you who sacrificially give to others, especially ones in a whole different country. God will bless you in return. I know He will because you are helping feed, educate, and employ many children and adults who otherwise wouldn’t have a ch...

  One year ago today.   I left on a whim. School was delayed a whole month so I decided last minute to fly to the States to visit family for 10 days and get some last minute supplies.  Half way to the airport the newly established gang was out in full force. Bullets flying, cars abandoned, tires spinning in the mud. And although I had been taking an armored car ever since I was held up at gunpoint earlier in the year, I was still told to lie down and stay down. The gang members were running down the side of the mountain and coming up behind us.  You’ve probably heard the rest. We made it to the airport, I flew to America, and then had absolutely no idea that the next time I saw my girls would be 6 months later in a brand new city.  ——  It’s been a full year since I’ve seen La Limyè Ministries home base. The 5 beautiful buildings full of so many memories, a house full of personal belongings, my sweet guard dogs and so many dedicated employees, neighbors, and...

   August marks 10 years living in Haiti and   February marked 12 years of being a follower of Jesus. So I’m reposting something I partially wrote a few years ago because the testimony of His faithfulness is too good not to share… The good, the bad, and the ugly  The blood, sweat, and tears  The highs and the lows  The mountain tops and the valley lows The births and the deaths  the thrills and the burnouts I’ve named babies and I’ve bought caskets.  I’ve watched the child overcome starvation and watched starvation kill the child.  I’ve seen miracles and I’ve seen witchcraft  I’ve seen the work of God and I’ve seen the work of the devil.  I’ve dreamed dreams and I’ve lost visions  I’ve had nothing and I’ve been full.  This island taught me to grow up faster than I thought I would through my 20s. And now my early 30s. This island life taught me how to pay taxes, drive without a GPS, and negotiate through any and every purch...

Our May 2023 update! Just an appreciation post about The Supplier of all good things.  It’s been so evident over the last few months of Gods faithfulness and goodness and outpouring of love towards us.  Nothing is simple about this season and yet God has proved over and over again that He’s graciously in control and His love will sustain us and His people will help provide for us and His grace is sufficient in our weakness.  So many ways we’ve been blessed in this season of changes and I can’t help but praise Him during it all.  The rental house, our belongings inside, the better sense of safety, finding a church, getting a school tutor, being able to afford food, respectful and dedicated employees back home, electricity and running water and green grass and a car with gas in it and connections to new friends here. And of course all of you that I know are praying for us and encourage us so often.  So many blessings. He’s been so good to us in this season of chan...

A much needed update for 2023  In March we were…. 🌟🌟🌟 REUNITED!!! 🌟🌟🌟 After 6 months of so many tears and questions and confusion not knowing what will happen or when or how… God parted the seas, He performed the miracle, He made the way and I am FINALLY back with my girls!! But…. It’s not at La Limyè. Unfortunately Haiti has gotten worse, not better. The gangs are still in control terrorizing the city, towns, and villages. Famine is real, kidnappings are rampant, and everyone lives in fear to walk down the street.  With one of the gangs having taken over a community just 20 minutes from us I decided it was time to evacuate the girls. Our town started to have a few issues but nothing major. But out of responsibility for these girls’ lives and for precautions, I evacuated them to a new city. A safer city. The girls and a few employees took a boat then a plane to a new, TEMPORARY home in a new city far away from the gangs.   La Limyè is still up and running by th...

 I know I’ve been quiet on here lately and it’s mainly  because the grieving process of separation comes in waves of manageable to unbearable.  Sometimes I’m just at a lost for words and can’t seem to be fully present here when I’m mentally there.  It’s been 118 days since I’ve tucked my girls into bed. 118 days since I’ve squeezed them tightly in a bear hug and kissed their sweet cheeks. 118 days since I’ve told them to be nice or zip your lips or clean your room. 118 days since we’ve sang songs together in half English and half Creole, or played hide and seek, or gone to the famous gas station convenient store because that’s about all there is to do in our town for fun.  I miss my job, my house, the Haitian culture, and most importantly the little ones I’ve raised for so many years. It’s been by far the hardest season to accept but God has been faithful. Little glimpses of light He shines down faithfully. He holds my broken heart tenderly and carries me throug...

News articles called it a massacre.  We called it the new nightmare of reality. In the middle of Tuesday night the gang killed around 16 people and set fire to over 10 homes and word is out that over a dozen more people are still missing. Over a dozen families broken forever. Over a dozen families traumatized forever. A whole community displaced as refugees because home is now a war zone. I woke up to the news yesterday and texted my friend who lives just up the road from me in Haiti. Both heartbroken and in utter shock for this to happen just 20 minutes south of us. Why are they doing this? I don’t know. Why won’t anyone help Haiti? I don’t know. How or when will I ever see my children again? I don’t know. But I still trust You, my Lord. With every ounce of my being. My town has been calm and I’m so proud of that. But the gangs new territory just South of us is blocking all traffic from the capital still. As in necessary supplies can’t be brought in and only a select few brave pe...

 5 weeks.  Five weeks ago I left Haiti having not the slightest indication as to what was about to unfold.  In 9 years I’ve never been stateside for more than 3 weeks at a time. Now I’m stuck with all the emotions and side affects that defeated mental health gives.  I felt completely blindsided. Had I have known, I never would have left my girls. I never would have packed that little bag and pulled out my passport. I never would have boarded that plane  and never would have said goodbye and told the girls I’d be back in a week. And I guess that’s why God sent me out before things got bad because He knew good and well it would have been an ugly fight trying to evacuate me after the fact.  Five weeks of wondering if my girls are safe as I jump out of bed to check my phone in the wee early morning hours to make sure the gangs didn’t pay a visit in the night like they have before.  Five weeks of trying to coordinate with the employees to scrounge to find a...

 Haiti update #3  October 5th   They lost almost all cell signal on Monday in our area. I called 12 employees in different parts of the city trying to find anyone with a little signal to check on the girls. One of my employees got on my roof and we were able to talk for 2 minutes before it cut off. I fell apart from not being able to talk to them and check in. This has just been a roller coaster of emotions. Early yesterday morning I received a message from the nanny who’s incharge while I’m gone and she said “ou pa bezwen pè Ellie. Estrès ap fè w malad. Si ou malad li pa bon pou nou. Pa bay tèt ou pwoblèm. Nou byen tifi yo anfom.”  “You don’t need to be scared Ellie. Stress will make you sick. If you’re sick then it’s not good for us. Don’t put problems in your head. We are ok. The girls are good.”  Her strength and faith in the middle of the fire is stronger than mine as I’m sitting safely on the sidelines watching it play out from afar. She has always put me ...

 September 28th. Update on Haiti.  I got a call around 11pm last night, there’s no water.  Running water is a luxury many don’t have. Which means for my community they must walk to my house to get semi clean not filtered well water in buckets or walk to the closet river to get dirty water that’s used for washing clothes, washing dishes, washing motorcycles, bathing babies, cows to drink, and trash to gather.  The wealthy use to pay 42cents for 5 gallons of filtered water. But now because of lockdown and all that that entails they bumped it up to $1.25 which is a lot when the nations legal minimum wage is $4.16 A DAY for an “actual” job and statistically 80% live on less than $2 a day. There’s no gas.  No fuel means these water companies don’t have electricity to run their generators because the government doesn’t give electricity in our town, we each own our own system. Without electricity they can’t filter water so they’ve shut down or they’re only letting each...

I’ve written a few updates over the last month on social media but haven’t posted them on here. So this first one was written on September 23rd. The next two blog will be updates to this one.  Pray for Haiti    As always, my friends, family, and anyone who supports or follows La Limyè deserves to know what’s all going on so I’ll try my best to explain it.  On Sunday September 11th I left Haiti for a 7 day trip to Memphis to visit my family. Things in Haiti have been tough for many seasons now but there was no indication in my mind that things would drastically get worse. Had I have had even the smallest thought that the situation would head south, I never would have left the girls.  Looking back, how everything played out was so God ordained for reasons I haven’t figured out just yet but  super last minute (since the opening of school was delayed) I spontaneously booked a ticket, threw 4 outfits in a suitcase and left only to barely make it on my flight due...

I wake up to a video of large groups of men, women, and children fleeing their homes in the middle of the night because the gangs arrived and war is happening and they were forced to evacuate with nowhere to go. There is no motel down the road. There is no spare bedroom at your closest friends house. There is nowhere to go but they have to go, somewhere, in the middle of the night, with no street lights.  They run.  My phone beeped and I opened the message. A dead man lying in the road covered in blood and taxis and motorcycles are just passing by. It’s just another day, a new normal sight to see. Perhaps gunned down by the gang. Perhaps apart of the gang and gunned down by police. No one knows. Did he lose his way as a teen and had no one to turn to? Did he get so desperate for food for his daughter that stealing was the only option he thought he had? Was that day just the day he would be taken from earth and his little boy is waiting for him to get home not knowing he’s drow...