In Defense of Heather Elyse [not public due to copyright issues]
In Defense of Heather Elyse
My name is Eric Ludy. I am a pastor, president of a Bible college, and the author of many Christian books. For the past two decades, my wife (Leslie) and I have been exhorting the American Church to pursue Christ-focused, Bible-based living. Our core message of surrender to Christ has always included a strong emphasis on living an outward focused life that rescues the weak, advocates for orphans and widows, and sacrificially serves the poor. Over the years we have often struggled to find modern-day examples of men and women who are truly living out the Great Commission of Christ in a powerful and world-changing way. Christian history is filled with examples of men and women in former generations who gave their all for Jesus Christ and lived sacrificial lives of Calvary love, but such fully consecrated individuals are rare in our modern times.
This is why my wife and I, along with our entire church body, have been deeply impacted by the life of a young woman named Heather Elyse. Miss Elyse has truly poured her life out for the vulnerable in a sacrificial, profound, and Christ-focused way. Miss Elyse is the founder of Giving Hope Rescue Mission in Montrouis, Haiti, and the caregiver to many children who would have died if she had not rescued them. It is our privilege and honor to have Miss Elyse in our church and under our spiritual leadership. We have been able to closely observe her life, her family, and her ministry, and we have been forever changed through knowing her.
Several years ago, Miss Elyse had a burden from God to help rescue vulnerable children in Haiti. She left her successful career and packed up her seven adopted children to move to one of the most destitute places in the world, using her own money and resources to fund the rescue work that God had called her to.
Miss Elyse’s willingness to take in children that no one else wanted quickly made her the caregiver for dozens of abandoned babies, HIV/AIDS children, Hydrocephalus babies and many others on the verge of starvation, debilitating disease, and death. Haitian hospitals and Haitian child services began to call her whenever they had an abandoned child who desperately needed food, shelter and care. Soon, Miss Elyse was caring for over 150 orphaned and abandoned children, seeking to find loving homes for them, and paying for all of their needs out of her own pocketbook.
Due to the high amount of children suddenly being brought to her, Miss Elyse developed a simple system, based on two key conditions, for determining which children to receive into her care:
The first condition was that the child genuinely did not have anywhere else to go. Taking in a child was always a “last resort” for Miss Elyse. Before she brought them into her ministry, she always searched for the biological family of the child (if they were alive) and attempted to reunify that child with family members, if at all possible. In many situations, Miss Elyse even financially supported the biological families of the children she rescued, in order to make it possible for the child to remain with family. But if the biological family was truly unable or unwilling to care for the child, Miss Elyse took the child, cared for him/her and sought to find a loving home for the child to grow up in.
The second condition had to do with the issue of life and death. If it appeared certain that the child would die (or be severely abused and neglected) without her intervention, then her answer was “yes!”
Following the Biblical pattern of Psalm 68:5-6, Miss Elyse desired to “place the solitary in families.” So, rather than merely run an orphanage, she established a “transition home” for these children, known in Haiti as a crèche. This allowed her to give these abandoned, unwanted and neglected children a strong hope and future by placing them in loving Christ-centered families through adoption.
Miss Elyse is a Christian. Her motivation is Jesus Christ and His agenda for these unwanted ones. These children have been abandoned. And, in almost every situation, if she had not intervened and said, “yes!” these children would have died.
But Miss Elyse represents precisely what the liberal humanitarian faction despises. And she has felt the full weight of their wrath and persecution as she has taken a strong stand for these vulnerable children and has become an advocate of Christian adoption. She has been falsely accused of trafficking, kidnapping, and stealing children from birth families. There is no validity to these claims whatsoever. Her good has been evil spoken of.
The reality is that Miss Elyse has donated her entire life savings to the cause of vulnerable children, and for the first three years of the ministry, supported over 150 children monthly on her own dime. She has given up everything for these children, just to see them live and have a hope and future. She has incurred typhoid fever, malaria, cholera, hepatitis A, parasites and many other physical challenges as a result of caring for these desperately needy babies that were thrown out and left to die.
Miss Elyse believes that all children should have parents, but that not all parents are fit to raise children. For example, parents who throw their children away as trash do not have the same qualifications to raise children as parents that would lay down their own lives to see their children live and thrive. This sane and very reasonable belief of Miss Elyse is at the center of the attacks that have come against her. However, I stand with her in this conviction and consider her belief in this matter to be sensible and right.
Over the last several years, Miss Elyse has helped many, many abandoned children be adopted into loving, stable, Christian homes. Every adoption Miss Elyse has done was handled legally, with the utmost integrity and Christian character. Her adoptions were never for her own personal profit, but for the rescue and help of needy children. In fact, rescuing these children and placing them with Christian families has cost her everything – her health, her resources, and her comforts.
She personally rescued my daughter. Thrown out in a sewer and abandoned to die, Heather Elyse was called by a local Haitian who witnessed the abandonment, and told where to find her near lifeless infant body. She went. And she picked up my little girl, covered in filth and blood, crawling with bugs, infected with disease and palpable neglect. She used her skirt to wipe off the filth and bugs from this dying little girl who had been thrown away. Heather’s one desire was to see that little girl live. She expressed the very heart of God to this abandoned child:
No one looked on you with pity or had compassion…Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" (Ezekiel 16:5-6)
Because of Miss Elyse, my daughter lived. When it was discovered that the biological parents and relatives were completely unable and unwilling to care for the child, Heather’s next desire was to see that little one in a family that would love her and raise her and bring her unto the saving grace of Jesus Christ. And she found us – the Ludy family. A child that would have died from starvation and neglect is now placed in a strong, loving, healthy Christian home. This is not human trafficking - this is human rescuing.
Miss Elyse has labored to clean up the corruption in Haitian adoptions. Families who have been scammed in a previous adoption through corrupt agencies can do an adoption through Heather’s ministry for free. She has labored to keep her adoptions as close to in-country cost as possible, while not making a salary the entire time she has worked in Haiti. In many cases, Miss Elyse loses money on the adoptions she does, and must subsidize from her own resources to keep her rescue mission stable.
Does this sound like someone selling babies for body parts? Does this sound like someone trafficking children for profit? Does this sound like someone seeking to destroy children? Or does it sound like someone seeking to help them?
The character of Miss Elyse’s life and the purity of her ministry are not things that I have merely heard about; they are things I have personally witnessed, both here in the U.S. and also in Haiti. I have personally witnessed Miss Elyse’s sacrificial love and Christ-like passion for the weak. She is living out the Gospel in a more clear and bold way than most Christians I know. And that is why it grieves me to see her being attacked.
Heather Elyse’s story is symptomatic of what is taking place right now the world over. Christian adoption is under siege and those that dare to unapologetically side with it are deemed the problem, not the solution.
As a person in the public eye, I understand false accusation and the power of vilification. I wish to be an agent of help to Miss Elyse. To be honest, I don’t think I have ever personally seen another human being so falsely and cruelly treated for doing the simple work of love. Her example speaks to me of the humble love of Calvary. And I pray that more would rise up and speak on behalf of this very special woman in our generation.
I praise God for the privilege of witnessing Miss Elyse’s life up-close. I am a changed man because of it.
For the Glory of the King and the rescue of the weak,
Eric Ludy
July 2013
http://66.147.244.241/~heathge4/2013/07/11/in-defense-of-heather-elyse-a-guest-post-by-eric-ludy/