08/03/2026
This is a message from our sister organization Together for Haiti. The region mentioned is Monthier, a place many IAM supporters have visited and ministered to over the years. We have led numerous medical trips to this area, we also aided in the building of the church and school and have supported the children daily through the Starfish Lunch Program. The news is not good, but God is in control. Please read below.
From Danny Davis:
Over three weeks have passed since heavily armed gangs attacked a remote mountain region where Together for Haiti has faithfully served for many years.
But for the families who call these villages home, time has not brought healing.
It has only brought more waiting.
For many years, Together for Haiti has served this region through four churches in four villages, one school, and relationships that span generations. These are not simply places on a map. They are communities where children learned to read, families worshiped together every Sunday, pastors faithfully shepherded their congregations, and neighbors shared life through every season.
Today, much of that has been shattered.
On the night of July 7, gangs launched coordinated attacks across several villages in the region. Men, women, and children were murdered. Entire communities were burned. Families fled into the mountains with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Others never made it out.
The violence has never truly stopped.
Haitian National Police continue to make their way into the region whenever possible. But the terrain is rugged and difficult to secure. As officers arrive, the gangs retreat into the mountains. When the police leave, the gangs simply return.
As a result, thousands of people remain displaced. Families who escaped are still unable to return to their homes, their farms, or their communities to see what remains. Many have no idea whether anything they owned survived.
Communication remains unreliable after gang members destroyed cell towers and blocked roads throughout the mountains by cutting down large trees. Even now, information comes slowly and often incompletely.
Current estimates place the death toll in the hundreds. Entire communities have been abandoned. Those who were able to escape have fled. For many who are still missing, families fear the worst.
Among those affected are people many of you have prayed for over the years.
One pastor we will call "Pastor Samuel" escaped with his family. But safety came at an unimaginable cost.
His daughter, "Marie," serves as principal of Together for Haiti's school, the only school serving this mountain region. In the days following the attack, she and her two youngest sons were missing.
By God's grace, they were eventually found alive. But the relief was mixed with devastating grief.
"Marie's" husband was murdered during the attack. So was her 17-year-old son.
No words can adequately describe that kind of loss.
Another member of our Haiti staff, whom we will call "David," and his family had recently moved away from the region before the violence erupted. They are safe, but "David's" sister was killed in the attacks.
In the midst of that tragedy came a remarkable story of courage. One of "David's" sister's children, who had also been missing, was eventually found alive with "Marie" and her two youngest sons. We still do not know everything that happened during those terrifying days, but we do know that "Marie's" actions helped save this child's life.
Even in humanity's darkest moments, God's image is still reflected in extraordinary acts of courage and sacrificial love.
There have been other small mercies.
None of Together for Haiti's pastors were killed. Every pastor and their immediate family escaped safely. Our school building, the only school serving this region, was not damaged. Neither was the church in that village. Because schools were on summer break, no students or teachers were on campus when the attacks began. Had school been in session, the loss could have been even greater.
Yet perhaps the clearest picture of this tragedy came on Sunday.
And then the Sunday after that. And the Sunday after that.
For the first time in memory, none of Together for Haiti's four churches in this region have been able to gather for worship.
The church buildings still stand, but the congregations are gone.
The pastors who once stood before their churches each week are now scattered across the region, comforting grieving families, praying with the displaced, and trying to shepherd people who have lost not only loved ones, but the communities they once called home.
On July 18, many funerals were finally held.
Some families were able to bury those they loved.
Others gathered without a body to lay to rest.
In Haitian culture, where funerals are an essential part of grieving and honoring those who have died, that painful reality is almost impossible to describe. Families mourned loved ones they could not recover, saying goodbye without the closure that comes from placing a loved one to rest.
Together for Haiti continues to respond as quickly and wisely as circumstances allow.
Our President, Jean Alix Paul, has been meeting with pastors from the affected communities to encourage them, pray with them, and begin assessing the overwhelming needs.
Together for Haiti is helping families relocate to places of temporary safety, supporting pastors as they care for displaced church members, and doing everything possible to restore communication and coordinate relief efforts.
Once again, the Agape Community Center has become more than a ministry center.
It has become a refuge.
Families forced to flee the violence have found temporary shelter within its walls while they wait and hope for the day they can safely return home.
But for now, that day has not come.
The roads remain dangerous. The gangs are still active. Entire communities remain inaccessible. Homes and farms sit abandoned while families wait, unsure what they will find, if anything, when they are finally able to return.
For Together for Haiti, this is not simply another crisis that fails to make the news in the USA.
These are lifelong friends.
Church members.
Neighbors.
Brothers and sisters in Christ.
Please continue praying.
Pray for families whose grief is still fresh.
Pray for those who remain displaced and uncertain about their future.
Pray for our pastors as they continue to shepherd their congregations without being able to gather together.
Pray for Jean Alix Paul and our entire Haiti leadership team as they continue making difficult decisions and preparing for the work that lies ahead.
And pray that God would make a way for Together for Haiti to safely reach these communities once access becomes possible.
As conditions allow and we are able to fully assess the needs, Together for Haiti will respond just as we have through every crisis over the years, with faith, compassion, and a commitment to stand beside the people of Haiti for as long as it takes.
One day these churches will gather to worship again.
Children will fill the classrooms of the only school serving
these mountain villages once more.
Families will return to the homes they fled
and begin the long work of rebuilding what violence has taken from them.
Until that day comes, Together for Haiti will remain alongside the people of these communities, mourning with them, praying for them, and preparing to help them rebuild.
Because hope is never more powerful than when it refuses to leave.
