Alleluia! Healing Haiti Team Arrival Day - We are here!
The anticipation for this journey has been a bit different for each of us. God knit this team together and chose us and this week, and we are READY! And we are ready with arm and eyes wide open to serve and love this week! In the words of Bob Goff and our evening devotion, "Love is never stationary. In the end, love just doesn't keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does." We are READY to do.
-Shannon
Our time has finally come to an end here in Haiti.
Today we spent the day worshiping, reminiscing and enjoying our last moments together.
We had our final breakfast together and then headed to Rendez-Vous Christ Church. It was such an amazing experience. Rendez-Vous Church began with a small group of young adults meeting in a room at Haiti Teen Challenge with a dream of planting a church to reach the unchurched. They launched the church in 2016 with about 40 people and three months later they needed to expand. It has grown to 1,300 people.
Revndez-Vous Church has a wonderful blend of styles. The songs alternated between Creole and English. They even had headsets for us to hear the translation of the message. The music filled us up and lifted us up. Hands raised up high as we worshiped together and sang at the top of our lungs.
Pastor Julio Volcy was giving a sermon series called “Nothing Divides Like Politics.” With a lot of unrest happening in Haiti, this was a very bold topic to be touching on. The message was also incredibly applicable to us as well. His main message was about when we choose to carry someone’s burden, what once divided us diminishes. He reminded that we need to choose to love our enemies and love one another. No matter how different they are. We were encouraged by the message and the music. What a wonderful way to start our week.
We then went back home to begin packing up all our things. We gathered for lunch and went around and shared the one word that summed up our time here in Haiti. Words that came from our team were: Love, Changed, Gift, Relationship, Refreshing, Remember, Prayer, Grateful, Holy, New, Honored, Simplicity, Blessed and Peace. Our team was emotional as we all shared how this trip has moved us. We’re a family and this experience bonded us forever.
Our time here in Haiti had us go deep into what God was doing in our lives. And we also wanted to celebrate our time here. We decided to go to the Elite Hotel and swim in the pool and enjoy these last moments together. We played pool games, card games and talked more about what amazing work God has done during this week.
A trip that was planned a year ago, and seemed so far away, and was uncertain during the time of Covid, has now come and gone. Every moment seemed so bitter sweet as we realized it would be the last time we would experience this together.
We ended the evening with dancing and games. Kat and Katie organized a bean bag tournament. And then we finished our evening with salsa dancing taught by Jean (who is the Director in Haiti that we met earlier this week). We laughed really hard as we learned new moves and even how to dip. There may have even been some crashes. :)
