Well, we had quite the early
morning! Since Haiti does not participate in daylight savings, the sun rises
pretty early, which resulted in fear that I had missed our tap-tap ride to Tent
church for 6:00am service. Thankfully I
did not. We all had some coffee and jumped into the back of the tap-tap and
headed to church. I had no idea what to expect, but a large open building with
a full worship band in the front was not what I planned for. All I can say is
that God was present and moving in that room. The Haitians were either praying on
the ground or walking all around the church. These beautiful people had their
arms held high worshiping and thanking God. We even had the opportunity to pray
with a stranger next to us. We had zero idea what the other was saying, but it
didn’t even matter. We knew God understood. Church really made a lot of us
emotional. It is hard for me to fully understand how they have so much faith
and love the Lord so much when they are living in such poverty. These Haitians
wake up for church service at 6:00am service everyday, yet we have a hard time
waking up for an 8:00am service once a week.
It really put a lot into perspective.
After
church we stopped by Elder School on our way back to Cite Soleil to deliver water.
Healing Haiti has partnered with them over the years, especially since the
earthquake. It was amazing to hear about the students and get to interact with
them.
Our first stop in Cite Soleil was
very difficult for most of us. There was desperation in the children to be held
and fighting for water. It was hard to see and honestly, I started to shut
down. These people are relying on this water to live yet I am getting
frustrated about the chaos. Later we talked about this experience and one of
our team members had some great insight. Of course it is easy to love on the ones
that do not cause trouble and to turn away from the ones that do. However, that
is not what God does. He loves us all, even though we are not perfect and do
make mistakes. It was a great reminder that I needed.
We also
got to visit a deaf orphanage/boarding school called Monfort. This was not
originally on our itinerary, but I think God is trying to tell me something. I
studied sign language for many years and loved it. I was just short of becoming
an interpreter and over the last few months it has been on my heart to get back
into sign language. Personally, this visit was beautiful. I was able to
communicate more so with these children than with hearing Haitian children.
Haitian sign language is a little different, but we were still able to
communicate and learn new signs. The kids loved playing soccer and drawing with
chalk. I found myself joyfully crying as I watched these beautiful children
play. Seeing that they had a place where they could fit in was amazing. Alright
God, I hear you! I’ll look into studying sign language again.
After
some delicious pizza at Pizza Amour, we ended this day of extreme highs and
lows with some salsa dancing on the patio. Jean, the Haitian director for
Healing Haiti, taught us some salsa moves and had us all laughing hysterically.
God is moving here in Haiti, and He is most certainly moving within this team.
Our plans have changed many times this week, but the new plans have been
exactly what different team members have needed. Funny how He just knows…
-Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment