Got a Little Crispy

How was church today for you? Could you hear the children sing? Because I can tell you, the children in Haiti, know. How. To. Sing.

Today was a full day of pure joy. We all woke up bright and early this morning either to watch the lovely sunrise, or take a run through Port-au-Prince.  The day started out nice and hot.  The whole team dressed up very nice for church at Grace Church in the city of Titanyen.  The service was beautiful.  It was two and a half hours long, but it was worth it all.  The first 45 minutes of the service was all worship. Every voice in the sanctuary was belting out the words to every song.  There was a section of kids in the center of the room with their hands raised, singing with passion.  It was a beautiful thunder of angelic voices.  You could pick out every child’s voice that sang freely. There was no fear.  

Many of the children we visited last Wednesday reunited with our team at the church service.  Lots of them fell asleep in our arms.  We also had the whole team go up on the stage to lead the song Holy Spirit all together.  Kara also gave a powerful message on four stages (that she used chairs to demonstrate on stage) of our faith and relationship with Christ. The first is coming to meet God, the next one is when we continue to learn about Jesus, the third was becoming fishers of men, and the last was baring fruit.  Her words not only impacted and inspired the Haitians, but also her team.  She has been such a blessing to all of us this week in countless ways.

After church this morning, the whole team hopped into the tap-tap, and drove up to Wahoo Beach.  We spent a majority of the afternoon cooling off in the ocean, entertained by rafts and trampolines on the water.  At one point, all 16 of us laid down in a circle on the trampoline, tanning under the sun… or so we thought.  Some of us applied the sunscreen, and others may have “forgotten”.  But it didn’t matter if you had or hadn’t, for all of us got a little crispy.  This Haitian sun is aggressive, I tell you. But sunburn didn’t take away any of the fun.  The sight from the beach was absolutely stunning. You could stand on large rocks and stare off at the endless ocean next to mountains reaching the clouds.  I couldn’t think of a better way to end the week.  

When we got back to the house, we settled down and dipped ourselves in sunburn cream.  We sat on the balcony and reflected our day as usual with pictures, words-of-the-day, and lovely worship.  This week has been so real, it’s just unreal.  There are no words to explain the experiences we’ve had.  Pictures, videos, and stories are only a taste of how Jesus moves through His people.  From holding the sick and diseased children whose smiles bring deep joy, to rubbing the tender feet of the well-lived elders.  They touched our hearts once we touched their faces.  The Lord moved our hearts once we opened our eyes to what He had in store.  Although garbage and broken down homes filled the streets, Haiti was unbelievably beautiful.  It’s what makes Haiti beautiful! When driving in the tap-tap, we would see the day-to-day life of so many Haitians for only a few seconds.  We would laugh with the girl who made her new bracelet, and cry with the boy who was malnourished and diseased with no doctor to see.  So many were oppressed by hell itself.  Yet with all the joy they overflowed with, it would be hard to tell.  The Holy Spirit is so alive in every part of this country.  No one knows how big the world is, until they actually see the whole world.  But do you know who does see the whole world? Our Heavenly Father.  He moves through every inch of the air.  A friend once told me that it’s easy to see God as an American idea.  But God is Haitian, Guatemalan, Ethiopian, Chinese, Brazilian, and all of the above.  The Holy Spirit is flowing through Haiti just as much as He is in the United States and everywhere else.  Yet He is so personal and close to each of us.  What a privilege it is to serve such a sovereign King.  Although this week has ended for us in Haiti, there is SO much more The Lord has has planned.  

It is only the beginning. 

Sincerely,

Allison Eide