Un pasteur haïtien en pélerinage kidnappé en Égypte

Greater Boston’s evangelical Haitian community prayed yesterday for the safe return of a Dorchester pastor and an Everett woman who were kidnapped in Egypt while on a religious mission to Israel , apparently by a 32-year-old truck driver demanding his uncle’s release from jail.

The Rev. Michel Louis, 61, pastor of the Free Pentecostal Church of God on Harvard Street and a woman Louis’ family and multiple reports identified as Lisa Alphonse, 39, of Everett were captured along with their tour guide Friday. Authorities said the kidnapper stopped their bus on its way to Mount Sinai — an area so perilous for tourists that even the U.S. Department of State forbids its employees from traveling across the region.


Louis’ family awaited word of his condition at his home on Talbot Avenue, while members of his congregation prayed for his safety.

“We’re all in good spirits because we know that the God we serve is in control of the matter,” Louis’ eldest son, Jean Louis, told reporters. “The only concern we have at the moment is that he is diabetic, and the longer they hold him, I assume that’s not going to work in his favor.”

Friends of the Alphonse family at a church in Somerville declined to comment yesterday. Efforts to reach her family were unsuccessful.

Louis called his father “our reverend, a leader, a father, an uncle, a brother, a grandfather and a friend to the community,” and said he’d been looking forward to his annual pilgrimage to Israel. He said the family’s hopes are bolstered by word that the State Department is trying to negotiate the captives’ release. Egyptian state media reported yesterday that authorities there are pleading for the tourists’ release.

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown called the kidnapping “distressing” and said he had been in contact with both the State Department and the hostages’ families.

“I will continue working with U.S. officials to do everything in our power to bring these folks home to Massachusetts safely,” Brown said.

The kidnapper, a Bedouin identified as Jirmy Abu-Masuh, told The Associated Press that Louis, Alphonse and their tour guide were safe, but he threatened to take more international hostages if police fail to release his uncle from prison.

A quivering Haytham Ragab, the tour guide, spoke to The Associated Press by telephone, saying Louis and Alphonse “are scared, but we were treated well.”

Louis apparently has been allowed to call his wife, who accompanied him on the journey, but their son declined to say whether he had spoken to his mother.

The captives were taken in broad daylight when Abu-Masuh stopped the packed tour bus along a road that links Cairo to the foot of Mount Sinai, where the Old Testament says the prophet Moses received the Ten Commandments. The route to the monastery is a frequent target by Bedouins who abduct tourists to pressure police, often to release relatives they believe have been unjustly arrested.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220715hub_pastor_kidnapped_in_egypt_everett_woman_guide_also_abducted

Bonne nouvelle: Ils ont été relâché ce matin.

The Dorchester pastor who was taken hostage, along with an Everett woman, in Egypt on Friday has been released, according to an Egyptian official and a hostage-taker, The Associated Press reported this afternoon from El-Arish, Egypt.

General Ahmed Bakr, head of Egyptian security in North Sinai, said the two Americans and their Egyptian tour guide were now under the protection of Egyptian security officials in Sinai, the AP reported.

The kidnapper, Jirmy Abu-Masuh, said he freed them after officials promised they would work on releasing his uncle from prison. He told the AP by telephone that he wanted to grant them mercy, because they had nothing to do with his dispute with police.

The Globe reported today that when an armed man intercepted a bus of Boston-area churchgoers, the Reverend Michel Louis, who was leading the group, volunteered himself.

Related
Boston pastor reportedly offered himself as hostage

The captor tried to seize a woman but Louis insisted he go instead, the Reverend Matthew K. Thompson, a friend of the Louis family, told worshipers Sunday at Jubilee Christian Church.

“Take me,” Louis said, according to Thompson.

In the end, the captor took both Louis and the woman, Lissa Alphonse, as well as the local guide-translator for the group of about two dozen Haitian and Haitian-American churchgoers from greater Boston. They were in the Sinai Peninsula on their way to Israel.

Thompson said the account of Louis’s valor came from the Rev. Jean J.M. Louis, the older of the pastor’s two sons. Jean Louis was present at the Jubilee service but declined to confirm or deny what occurred on the bus, saying he wanted to give his father a chance to tell his own story when released.

Earlier, Jean Louis, a youth pastor at his father’s church, led services at Dorchester’s Eglise de Dieu de la Pentecote Libre, the Free Pentecostal Church of God, rising before the packed congregation to pray in Creole and English for the release of his father and the two others.

He called their kidnapping a test of faith.

“For some reason or another, Lord, you allow it to be this way . . . . We know that it is a test, Heavenly Father,” he said, as the gathering of 150 swayed to music, joining him in prayer.

Speaking to reporters after the service, Jean Louis said he spoke early Sunday morning with his mother — the pastor’s wife, who was also on the trip — but declined to give details of what happened aboard the bus.

“We’ll allow Pastor Michel when he gets here to be able to give that testimony,” he said.

Jean Louis said his mother disputed news accounts that Louis had been given a chance to call her from captivity. He said his father, a diabetic who does not take insulin and relies on natural medicine and faith, was captured without his medication.

Prayers reverberated across Greater Boston’s Haitian and Haitian-American community Sunday for the release of Louis, 61, and Alphonse, a 39-year-old mother of two.

“We’re all praying very hard; we’re praying that she returns safe to us,” said Yves Bellevue, outside the Evangelical Haitian Church of Somerville, where Alphonse is a member.

Bellevue said his sister and Alphonse were first-time travelers on what has become an annual pilgrimage, and that his sister had called briefly to share the shocking news. “It’s horrible.”

The trip was the fifth such journey to Israel that Louis has taken through his church, and he was leading a group drawn from multiple Haitian-American congregations in the area, his son said.

They were on their way to the sixth-century St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai when the abductions occurred.

Thompson, pastor at Jubilee Christian Church, said Louis’s apparent attempt to save a fellow traveler reflected his character.

“He’s a hero,” he said. “He’s actually practicing what he preaches.”

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http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/07/16/americans-released-after-egypt-kidnapping/jpZfdE0hBozvWmqw0IEL5M/story.html