One month has passed since an Ohio Christian mission agency announced its members, including a Rusk County family of four, successfully escaped from armed captors in Haiti.
Since, then the Rusk County father is speaking publicly about their captivity, enduring faith and deliverance.
Ryan and Melodi Korver and their children, Andre, 3, and Laura, 10 months were among the hostages taken on Oct. 16 as part of a missionary group from Christian Aid Ministries of Ohio. The family, who was in Haiti for the first time and 6-1/2 months total, attends Shiloh Mennonite Church southwest of Conrath.
The captive families were from Amish, Mennonite and other Anabaptist communities in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ontario, Canada. Two were released last November and three more were set free on Dec. 5, but most of the hostages spent almost two months in captivity before being flown out of the country on Dec. 16.
According to Christian Aid Ministries officials, the 12 remaining hostages plotted their escape and they felt “God calling them to leave.”
Ryan recently addressed the Shiloh Mennonite Church congregation, speaking for 2-1/2 hours. A recording of his account was obtained by the Ladysmith News.
Ryan’s nearly three-hour account is more extensive than but not contradictory to that of the ministry’s narrative given by spokesman Weston Showalter days before Christmas soon after all the hostages were back in the U.S.
Ryan hoped his first-hand account of what happened would accurately describe the events that took place, but at the same time not frighten others away from leaving the comfort of home to go where God calls. He thanked the home congregation for their prayers, adding the hostages received little information about what was happening in the outside world and with their families back home.
While threatened at times by armed guards, they also experienced moments of inspiration through sights of beautiful sunsets and brilliant rainbows or an almost miraculous recovery by a hostage’s serious health issue.
The gang
Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, holds the grim record of the world’s highest kidnapping rate per capita, according to Washington Post reporting. One gang — 400 Mawozo — was responsible for 80 percent of abductions in Haiti from June through September, according to Gédéon Jean, director of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince. Haitian officials say the group was behind the Christian Aid Ministry kidnapping, too.
From Creole, the gang’s name loosely translates to “400 simpletons,” or “400 inexperienced men.” But the group is widely feared for using rape and assassination to maintain its grip on Haitian streets, businesses and power players. It has also been associated with extortion and a new trend of mass kidnappings from cars and buses. And it has targeted clergy and churches — a red line for many in the Catholic-majority Caribbean nation.
Why did they go?
Ryan described Haiti as a poor country with its people in desperate need, and the congregation as a group of individuals trying to do the best they can to help.
“[The country] is all beautiful, but in reality, at least around the big cities, it can be a violent place with a lot of gangs and very weak governments. The police are scared of going certain places and doing certain things for fear of angering the local gang leaders. It is a lot of lawlessness,” he said.
Ryan added he understood why some might question, why go there, especially with their young family.
“I know I wondered the same thing sometimes, but it was a good experience for us and for me. God took us through a number of experiences we weren’t asking for necessarily, but working with the team we had down there and the way things were done, it was a blessing,” he said.
Ryan said the missionaries witnessed amazing things, calling the experience a blessing and a time of personal growth despite the volatile environment.
“You stay close to God. You don’t want to be living in defeat. You don’t want to let your relationship with God grow cold,” Ryan said.
The Korvers are not alone in speaking publicly now about the ordeal.
Dale Wideman, a 24-year-old missionary from southwestern Ontario who was the only Canadian, told Nation World News he believes God called him to go to Haiti. He said his job with the missionary group was to transfer medicines and other supplies to Haitian clinics, and to keep a list of other donated items such as food boxes, hygiene kits and school books.
Wideman was driving when a swarm of trucks surrounded the van — first cutting off access to the road in front of them, then blocking the road behind them.
The gang members got out of the truck and walked to Wideman’s door.
“They kicked me out of the van, hit me and threw me in a different vehicle,” he recalled. “Many things were running through my mind, but I remember thinking: ‘That’s it, they’ll take me into the countryside, shoot me and throw my body in the bushes.’”
He prayed. He thought of his family, and wished he could talk with them.
“I asked God to allay my fears, I was ready to die if this happened,” he stated.
Austin Smucker of Madras, Ore., told the Portland Tribune being kidnapped in a foreign country would demoralize most people but it seems to have left him invigorated.
Smucker, 27, a construction worker, went to Haiti in October with Christian Aid Ministries to rebuild homes after the August earthquake there.
“I believed in prayer when I went down there,” Smucker told the Madras Pioneer, sister publication to the Portland Tribune, “but I believe in prayer more since I came back.”
The calling
Word came from Christian Aid Ministries last October it was time for its members in Haiti to visit an orphanage CAM sponsors in Haiti. They were going to interview and photograph about 18 children to help relay CAM’s good work back home.
Members of the group who were going stood in a circle. They committed the date to the Lord. They prayed. They asked for His protection. They loaded up a 15-passenger Toyota van they nicknamed “The Bus.” The compact vehicle was crammed full with supplies and 17 people, including a CAM medical director and warehouse director.
On the way to the orphanage the group passed smoldering remnants of burning tires police had pushed to the roadside, likely from an earlier roadblock. It was an area where Ryan had seen a roadblock before with vehicles parked sideways in the roadway, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary.
“We kind of knew that this was an area that tended to be a problem,” Ryan said.
At the orphanage, they met the director and played with the children. The facility was described by Ryan as neat and clean with well-behaved children.
The way back
About 1 p.m., the group boarded the “The Bus” for the ride back home.
The way back would be the same as before, through the area they saw gang activity earlier.
“All of a sudden there was a roadblock in front of us. There was a box truck and a pickup crossways in the road with no way to get around it,” Ryan said.
The driver slammed on the brakes. He stayed as far back as he could. He pulled a quick U-turn in the road and headed back in the direction they had come.
He was doing the best he could to get out of there, according to Ryan.
But the gang was after them.
“They had a small white pick-up, and they overtook us. They got around us, cut us off and hit the brakes. We had no choice but to pull off, and by then we were staring down the barrels of four assault rifles,” Ryan said. “These guys were in the back of the truck aiming in the windshield at us with ski masks and yelling. It was quite intimidating.”
Gang members glared through windows, opened the vehicle’s side doors and gave the occupants a good look-over.
“I didn’t understand much of what they said, and I don’t think they said much,” Ryan said. “They were telling us they wanted our phones, and they wanted our money.”
Group members felt the gang wasn’t overly demanding so they were not overly compliant with handing over their valuables.
Gang members suddenly were motioning the group through. They also felt fortunate to be able to head back in the direction they were originally headed. They were free to go, they thought.
Taken hostage
Minutes later, they were face-to-face with the same roadblock.
“The Bus” was diverted onto a side road. It was pinned between two other vehicles, one ahead and one behind.
“They forced us to stop and yanked [the driver] out of the driver’s seat and threw him in their vehicle and put one of their guys in [our vehicle] to drive,” Ryan said.
“The Bus” was being driven faster and faster on the rough road. The missionaries began to sing. Passengers were hitting their heads on the roof. The driver was slapping at the roof, ordering passengers to be quiet.
“I think I spent more time with my hair plastered to the top of the van than I did with my rear on the seat I was supposed to be sitting on,” Smucker told the Madras Pioneer.
The bus traveled “quite a way off the highway” before coming to a clearing.
“There were lots of gang members there. Lots of guns,” Ryan said.
The hostages were attempting to hide phones and cash in a baby’s diaper bag, when a guard stuck his head inside the vehicle and threatened to kill the hostages if any hidden phones were discovered.
“At that point I thought it would be a good idea as I didn’t think my phone was worth that much,” Ryan said.
They handed over their phones, but they were allowed to keep their wallets, IDs, credit cards and a small sum of Haitian money. This action would become invaluable weeks later, during their escape.
“They wanted all our money and our phones. They told us they would kill us if we were hiding anything,” Smucker said, “but they were drunk or on drugs. So, I don’t know if they meant that.”
The missionaries were herded out of the van and lined up. They sang as gang members took video, perhaps for use as propaganda.
The driver, who had been pulled from the vehicle earlier, was returned.
“We were thankful to be able to stay together,” Ryan said.
Where they stayed
The group was herded into a 2-room house with a porch on the front and side. The first night they were all crammed into a single room. Gang members slammed the door, propped a stick against it and rolled a rock in front of that.
“There we were. We started to realize what they had in mind,” Ryan said. “We had a double mattress and two singles. That was all we had room for. It was tight enough that we couldn’t all lay down at the same time. There was a bunch of guys laying in a semi-circle and they all had their legs piled on top of each other. I don’t think I could sleep that way, but I think they actually did some.”
The hostages sat. They sang.
The acoustics in the room were pretty good, which boosted their morale.
Ransom demand
Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the Mawozo’s alleged leader, Wilson Joseph, nearly a year ago, according to the Associated Press. He faces a string of charges that include murder, attempted murder, auto theft, hijacking of goods and kidnapping.
Joseph goes by the Creole nickname “Lanmò Sanjou,” roughly meaning: “Death doesn’t know which day it’s coming.”
Despite the warrant against him, he has posted videos describing in detail some of the crimes the gang is alleged to have committed.
In April, 400 Mawozo kidnapped five priests and two nuns, among them French nationals, and held them in harsh conditions for three weeks. The gang demanded $1 million for the group’s safe return. Haiti’s justice minister told the Wall Street Journal a ransom was paid for the release of just two of the abducted priests. The group was ultimately released.
As the country’s politics and economy continue to spiral downward, some gangs have become increasingly brutal and brazen. The situation became even more volatile in July, with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which triggered a battle between rival factions fight to gain control of the country in the face of a struggling police force.
400 Mawozo was believed to be responsible for 80 percent of abductions in Haiti between June and September, according to the Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Haiti.
The U.S. government has a long-standing policy of not paying ransoms for American citizens abroad.
Joseph arrived at the hostage’s location with Ryan’s phone, ordering them to call the ministry to demand ransom.
They called Barry Grant, CAM’s field director in Titanyen, Haiti, and briefly explained what was going on.
The gang leader grabbed the phone, and demanded $1 million U.S. for each person.
“My initial reaction was, dream on pal. But as the weeks wore on it wasn’t funny anymore,” Ryan said.
—Part 2 of 3 next week: The other hostages next door, some hostages released and a sign from above.
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