Hostage in Haiti, a missionary testifies to the power of prayer
Father Jean-Yves Médidor, missionary of the Clercs of Saint-Viateur, was kidnapped in Croix des Bouquets, in Haiti, on March 10. Now freed, he looks back on the experience of his abduction to Fides Agency.
"I was not afraid to die, I was sure that God would not abandon me. I was just waiting for the day and time of my release. I was more worried about my family and my religious family, who didn't know how I was and who were pressed for a long time by the bandits."
The monk was detained with 30 people, in "two small rooms". Among them, an evangelical pastor kidnapped at the same time as him and with whom he prayed, but also gang members. "There were two beds for 10 people", he explains before specifying, "the other hostages had to be content with cardboard mattresses placed on the floor".
"The conditions were very precarious", he continues, "we were fed once a day, we had no drinking water, no toilets... we used a hole for our needs". But he claims that during the detention he had full confidence in God. "I was not afraid to die, I was sure that God would not abandon me. I was just waiting for the day and time of my release. I was more worried about my family and my religious family, who didn't know how I was and who were pressed for a long time by the bandits".
Since his release, Jean-Yves Médidor says he feels "good morally and physically". He was able to see his loved ones, family and friends, and members of his community.
This kidnapping remains for him "a new experience in my spiritual journey". "I have felt the power of prayer in these difficult times. I have never felt alone. I have never been discouraged. There are so many people who are still in the hands of the kidnappers. Some have been for more month. I consider myself lucky to have been a prisoner for only twelve days. In our daily prayers, we think of all those people detained against their will. Some of them are sick and fragile. May God watch over they !"
MC
Image Credit: Shutterstock / carlos huang
