Waves of Mercy

There are many missionaries in Haiti doing God's work, but there are a few that hold a special place in my heart. Madame Diana and Papa Larry. They are family. The two have been part of my family for over a decade now, and I had the privilege of interviewing them for a newspaper article updating our community on the conditions in Haiti as they stood last summer. Papa Larry had heart surgery just before our interview and was looking forward to getting back "home" to Haiti. I want to share that story with  you now.

Missionaries bring Haitian experiences to local children

(by Kim Lunsford, staff writer - July 05, 2011)

Messenger photo by Kim Lunsford

Broken and shattered, a people stand amidst chaos with disparity and uncertainty.

The land that is Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake remains a landscape of debris and broken lives. The already depressed country was struck down by the 7.0 earthquake which took the lives of as many as 316,000 people and shook the entire nation.

“Homes are shattered. Lives are shattered and broken,” Waves of Mercy missionary and co-founder Larry Owen said. “It takes years to get back to where it ought to be.”

Larry and Diana Owen run Waves of Mercy mission in Port de Paix and have been in the country for more than 30 years taking care of Haitian orphans, street boys and widows in need.

After starting their original mission, Northwest Haiti Christian Mission (NWHCM), the Owen family began raising their children to know the work of a missionary. Today, while home base is in Versailles, Ky., there are two of their children, as well as their spouses and their children, who live and work in Haiti alongside them running the NWHCM. For their retirement gift to themselves, The Owens’ created Waves of Mercy.

“There are people in Haiti who are starving to death just because they are starving to death. Then there are those who are starving to death because they were affected by the earthquake,” Larry said. “This is the kind of thing we face. Haiti is still very much in the healing process. Spiritually, and I have to be guarded how I say this, this is the best thing that has ever happened to Haiti. It was such a traumatic experience that really shook the whole world. What that did is put Haiti on a lot of people’s prayer lists that never even thought of them.”

Larry understands the pain and burden on the heart of the Haitians.

“Our business as a mission is to restore and release people,” said Larry. “It is to set them free from this burden that they have and just give them hope.”

“Madame Diana” and “Papa Larry,” as the Haitians lovingly call them, have been out of the field for a few months dealing with health needs. Larry was extra tired this past year after the earthquake. The work is tiring, difficult and labor intensive. A return stateside and a visit to the doctor uncovered a new challenge for the Waves of Mercy team. Larry had blockage in his heart and needed immediate bypass surgery.

“I have gone through the most difficult time in my life. It was so overwhelmingly shocking. The Lord literally carried me,” Larry said. “I know the Lord was preparing me for this challenge. I long to be with my people. They are family to me. As I struggle with wanting to be back in Haiti, I know there will be a time when I am ready.”

Larry said his surgery is similar to what the people are going through with the aftermath of the earthquake.

“Like the earthquake at first, it just seemed so terrible. It just seemed so unfair,” said Larry. “But what I have learned is compassion more than I ever have before and understanding. Through this struggle you can say one day, I have been restored. I have been released and I am at peace with my body. That is the same thing we are trying to do on the mission field.”

The wounds are still too fresh for many Haitians to see events through Larry’s eyes, but he believes one day they will say  it is a blessing.

“For them, those large number of people who died, I say, oh what a tremendous waste for them,” said Larry. “But for those who died, they caused a change in the country, they are patriots. When we fight our wars and we have victory and we set countries free, they are heroes. They didn’t die in vain. All these people who sacrificed for the country. For that we can take comfort. That is how I try to comfort our people in Haiti. They could have lived their whole life and not make a difference, but instead they did and what a blessing that is.”

Diana said, even though they are out of the field right now, the mission continues to function effectively at the hands of the oldest orphan boy who they raised and who is their minister. The programs set in place work with the Haitians to educate them and feed them among other things.

“There is still so much tragedy in Haiti,” said Diana. “God isn’t finished with Larry yet, and He’s not finished in Haiti.”

The Owens spent the past week with host church, Amazing Grace Christian Church in Grove City, celebrating with the children and teaching them about their work in Haiti during the week-long vacation Bible school. The children raised more than $1,000 to help support the mission of  Waves of Mercy.

Churches and individuals interested in getting involved in the work Waves of Mercy and earthquake aid can do so by contacting Lori Conley at (614) 506-3694 or at trousdalelori@yahoo.com. Donations of peanut butter, rice, beans, other non-perishable items as well as Clorox to clean water, white sheets for burial, sleeping bags and basic hygiene items are being accepted. Monetary donations will also be accepted through the website http://mercysaves.org.

Pain and Healing in Haiti

Photo courtesy of Waves of Mercy

Haitian earthquake survivor, 18-month-old Louvenda sits with her aunt in the home of a Waves of Mercy church family as she awaits medication to prevent infections from burns caused by the earthquake.

Photo courtesy of Waves of Mercy

Haitian earthquake survivor, 18-month-old Louvenda sits with her aunt in the home of a Waves of Mercy church family as she awaits medication to prevent infections from burns caused by the earthquake.

I want you to look at that little girls eyes. I want you to look hard at her and not feel something. If you don't feel something, then you probably shouldn't read further. I met Louvenda through this picture 2 years ago. I can barely stand it knowing that it has been two whole years since I fell in love with this beautiful baby. You see, there was an earthquake in Haiti. It changed lives forever. My friends at Waves of Mercy, an incredible group of missionaries who have made their lives caring for the already desperate Haitian people, were ones that were helping the earthquake survivors. It was my job, as a reporter to speak to them and bring their story  home. Here's the problem. I spent several hours talking to my friend Lori (who is now Conley btw ;-). Only to not write the story we had planned for the article. I got this picture and God started working. Everything I had written was deleted. I couldn't do it. I couldn't NOT talk about Louvenda. Her little eyes begged me to tell her story; to etch it in my own heart and others forever. Here is the story of Louvenda.

Local groups help earthquake survivors in Haiti

(by Kim Lunsford, Staff Writer - January 22, 2010)

Who will be saved? Mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and complete strangers are making that decisions for families throughout Haiti. Louvenda is one of the children who became a victim of the Haitian earthquake.

Last Tuesday, the 18-month-old child was playing around the fire as her mother prepared dinner. Many Haitians do not have what some would call a normal kitchen. Outside the home, a little more than two feet off the ground, stands a round container resembling a crude wok filled with charcoal that is more like burnt wood than the briquette most Americans are used to seeing. Squatting around the pot centered in that wok, Louvenda's family began to feel the Earth tremble just as the other Haitians in and around Port au Prince. The pot tipped over onto the girl leaving her badly burned.

Louvenda's story continues as she is forced, like many other injured Haitians, onto a bus to be transported inland for either treatment or even death from their injuries. After a 12-hour bus ride into Port de Paix and passing out from the pain, the girl's fate was no more secure than it was when leaving the capital city.

Three busloads of homeless and hurt Haitians were delivered to the Port de Paix airport last weekend. In Haiti, it is the responsibility of the family that brings in the sick to feed them and pay for the necessary medications. Many victims have no family to pay for their care. They were just dropped off. In the care of her aunt, with no money and no medicine for treatments, the hospital turned Louvenda away.

Nobody wants the baby. They believe she will not survive the gangrene infection that would soon set in.

Nobody but Madame Diana and Papa Larry.

Larry and Diana Owens run Waves of Mercy mission in Port de Paix and have been in the country for 30 years taking care of Haitian orphans, street boys and widows in need.

After starting their original mission, Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, the Owens family began raising their children to know the work of a missionary. Today, while home base is in Versailles, Ky, there are two of their children as well as their spouses and their children who live and work in Haiti alongside them running the NWHCM. For their retirement gift to themselves, The Owens' created Waves of Mercy.

"They are no longer in Haiti helping, they are there living," said Lori Trousdale, director of programming and ministry at Amazing Grace Christian Church in Grove City, and their daughter.

In their outreach, they are reaching to the street boys and widows in the Port de Paix area of Haiti and their role is increasingly adapting after the tragic earthquake that has changed everything. Madame Diana and Papa Larry will be working in the hospital of Port de Paix. They will feed the injured, clothe them, and begin to make preparations for a home for well over 100 refugees.

They are providing shelter for Louvenda and her aunt and the Silvadene cream that helps neutralize the infection that might just save the girl's life.

Trousdale said this small mission is different than the other groups that are now going into Haiti. Rather than being a mission that takes out administrative costs, Waves of Mercy uses all funds to provide what local Haitians need.

This is the reason some local churches and organizations are getting involved, said Cindy Knehans, church secretary for Christian Assembly in Columbus.

"We wanted to make sure we were giving it to someone who was not eating it up with administrative fees," she said.

Christian Assembly is partnering with Amazing Grace Christian and other area churches, organizations and individuals to help aide the earthquake victims. Currently Amazing Grace Christian is gathering items to help the Haitians, not only through this hurdle, but the one that comes in six months from now when they are going to have more needs.

"When there is a need, that's what we are here for," Cheryl George of New Birth Christian Ministries said. "God has put it on my heart to do as many sheets as possible."

New Birth is focusing on the burial cloths the Haitians need to bury their victims. Their outreach ministry, Food for the Souls works to feed and help the homeless.

"Anytime there is a cry for help, we are going to step up and put our best foot forward to help," George said. "We are all family. We are all God's Children. We were put here to help."




This story went to print on the above date, January 22nd. I got news on the following Sunday that the day before the story went to print, Louvenda passed. I cried for her as if she were my own. I wept openly for the loss of such a beautiful little girl who was doing nothing wrong and was taken from this world way too early. But then I rejoiced because I know that God knew He would be holding her. He knew she would be coming soon to meet Him. I rejoice today knowing that one day I will meet this little girl in Heaven and tell her about the story I wrote for her in the final days of her life, the story that I cried over every last word as God gave me them to print. I rejoice knowing that God does wonders everyday and through the story of Louvenda, many in Central Ohio who read the story gave to Haiti and helped others who were fighting the same battle.
It's not over, people. There is still so much suffering and loss in Haiti. The poverty is so incredibly prevalent. The people of Haiti are struggling to survive, and the battle is still being waged. I ask those who are reading this to please consider those still in Haiti helping and pray. But more than that, give. They still need help. Consider the missions there. I know Waves of Mercy is always needing help, and with Big Dave struggling for survival right now, I am sure Eyes Wide Open International could definitely use help. There are others there that you may know of, but consider giving or at least visiting the websites above to see what you can do to help!!