Saturday, March 26, 2011
Bradenton Missionary Recounts Horrors Of Haitian Jail
Danny Pye was freed last week after five months in a prison cell. But he's already planning to return to Haiti and the orphanage and kids he left behind.
The prison cell was 10 feet by 12 feet wide.
Men of all ages — usually 28 of them, but sometimes as many as 50 at a time — were jammed into the space for more than 23 hours a day. Their alleged crimes ranged from murder and rape to stealing a cell phone.
The conditions inside were deplorable, to put it mildly. Food and water were in short supply. Disease, beatings and riots were commonplace. Death was never far away.
That was Danny Pye's world for five months.
"Each and every day you had to fight to live," Pye said. "Fight to defend yourself, fight to eat. There was moments of time when I felt that I didn't have the fight in me."
The 29-year-old Bradenton missionary was jailed Oct. 13 in Haiti over a property dispute, without charges being brought against him. Pye, who has run an orphanage in the town of Jacmel for seven years with his wife, Leann, was released on Christmas Eve — only to be thrown right back in moments after walking out of the jail.
The charge? Owning a false identification card.
Three more months in a cell.
After the tireless work of Haitian attorney Osner Fevry and countless others, Pye finally won his release and returned to the United States last week, touching down at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport on Thursday for a tearful and "surreal" reunion with family and friends.
To top it off, Leann gave birth to a son, Joseph Daniel, just three days later.
"It was truly a God thing," Pye said.
On Thursday, Pye recounted his time behind bars. He spoke of men he watched die from a cholera outbreak, healthy men who withered away next to him in the jail cell without ever officially being charged with a crime. He said in his final weeks in prison he couldn't even bring himself to go outside during the precious moments it was allowed, for fear of the chaos and the violence perpetrated by the guards.
Pye credits his family, his faith and the daily letters he received from the 22 children at the orphanage — or, as he calls them, his kids — with helping him survive the ordeal.
"I had a deep longing just to hold them and promise them that's it's all gonna be OK, even though I didn't know that," Pye said.
Scars still remain. Pye said he's reached out to some of his former captors in an effort to forgive them, but anger also still lingers inside him. He's already seen a therapist. And there are also the physical effects — Pye lost 80 pounds during the incarceration and said he's still sore and weak after regularly sleeping on a piece of plywood and not seeing the sun much for five months.
Despite all that, Pye is already planning his return to Jacmel. He's considering a short trip with Riann as soon as he and his wife and newborn get a clean bill of health, with a full return to follow in May or June. In addition to running the orphanage, Pye said he'd like to start a prison ministry for those still behind bars. The fear of going back to jail, he said, doesn't bother him.
"Our heart and our passion is still for Haiti," Pye said. "I love the Haitian people, probably more now than I ever did. I think I can relate more to them because I lived as one of them, ate as one of them and worshipped and experienced life as one of them."
The ordeal has only brought the family closer together.
"I'm a little surprised and shocked that we seem to have come out on the other end stronger," Leann Pye said. "I definitely wasn't expecting that."
The next challenge is a financial one. Pye's incarceration exhausted the family's funds and devastated the ministry. The orphanage doesn't have a vehicle to get the kids to and from school, Pye said. He's asking for the public's help through the mission sponsor, Global Effect, a Florida-based nonprofit.
"We're going to be starting over," Pye said.
If there's one positive, said Pastor Jeff Weaver of Lakewood Christian Church, a mission sponsor, it's that all the media attention on Pye's plight could bring awareness to the needs in Haiti.
"Now you're in a situation (of) how can this be used to benefit the aspects that he's really involved in there?" Weaver said. "I think it's going to be cool."
Pye seems eager to get back to work.
"The last five months have been, by far, some of the most trying times in my life and in our family's life," Pye said. "But we're also starting to see God use it and starting to see some of the purposes in it."
Donations being sent to Haiti inside school bus
The people of Morgan County have come together to collect donations for the people of Haiti, and they're shipping those donations to the island in a container that is also a gift.
While visiting Haiti on a mission trip after the quake, the members of the Morgan County Hope for Haiti program decided to donate a bus to a Haiti mission.
"It cost between three thousand and four thousand dollars and we thought we want to use it in a cost efficient manner, so let's fill it up" said Pastor Paul Casteel
The call went out across the community and the community responded. Donations came in from citizens, businesses and even the schools.
Frantz Previl is the pastor of the mission in Haiti. He traveled to schools across Morgan County today to tell the children about surviving the earthquake, and to thank them for all they've done.
"My heart is overwhelmed by all of this," said Previl.
The goods inside the bus will be used to help those who have already been through so much.The bus itself will be used as a mobile clinic to help reach Haitians in rural areas of the country.
As soon as the bus is finished being painted it will be driven to Florida, from there it will be shipped to Haiti, where those donations will be distributed.
Donations are still being accepted to be taken to Haiti. You can contact Pastor Casteel at 606-362-6400.
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