Friday, May 6, 2016

Hamilton/Loween Fritday May 6th

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