Haiti Day two August 11

Haiti Day Two

This morning starts as most days in Haiti with one exception, it’s Sunday, The Lord’s Day.  In Haiti there are many churches and many attend them.  Our team got up and dressed, loaded up the truck and off to church we went.  It is about a 15 minute ride to the church.  As we drove out of the compound and into the main roads we saw several families who had dress for church (Sunday best) and were walking.  To the best of my knowledge they would walk out to the main road (some miles) and catch a tap tap (Haitian taxi, an asian truck with a cattle bed all decorated up), then they would arrive at their church.  As we traveled up the main road a we encountered a large crowd along the side of the road and when we got closer we realized it was a funeral.  The streets were filled with people dressed for church walking to their places of worship.  My mind wondered how we in American would react to walking to church.  Further up the road we arrived at the church, it was packed.  We greeted and were greeted and then an usher took us to the front of the church and sat us as guest of honor.  As we entered the building I could tell we were fixin to have church.  The Spirit of the Lord was there and as the pre-service music played I watched as family after family filed in with smiles on their faces and they were dress in their best.  They were ready for worship and hearing the Word of God.  Amazingly the church was outfitted with all the equipment we have, the instruments were up to date, the sound system was kicking and their video projector shared the latest news and songs for all the see.  Promptly at 9:30 the choir director stood at the podium and he music changed.  The staff and elders all marched in from the back and it was on.  I expressed to our group later that even though I could not understand the words they were singing, I worshipped with them.  Some of the song were familiar tunes and I sang along in their language, it was uplifting to Jesus.  I was greatly blessed on this day to share in Communion with the church as it does every first Sunday.  It was very orderly and worshipful.  At this point we were about an hour and 10 minutes in and I thought the service was ending, but it was just beginning.  More music announcements, and welcome then the message.  Pastor Judes  preached from I Peter 1 a message entitled How to remain clean in an unclean world.  It was amazing and convicting.  I can see why this church in Haiti is growing.  Following church we were greeted by the congregation.  Pastor Judes was a very humble man and I felt blessed to be in the presence of a saint of God.  Pastor Judes wife is still in the states following a 3 month kidnapping, pray for her as she recovers.  We left the church and go changed and headed to a restaurant called Hot Fresh.  We all ordered and in Haitian fashion it too about 2.5 hours for us to eat lunch.  The food was ok but the conversations were priceless.  Our next journey took the team to the lookout point of Haiti.  From the top of the mountain you can over look the entire city of Port Au Prince.  Visually you see where the earthquake impacted the city and then you see seas of blue tarps everywhere.  This is my second trip to the point and my mind drifts back to the same thing, In Matthew Jesus was standing on a hillside and the Bible tells us that He looked on this with compassion, helpless, hurting and like sheep without a shepherd.  Haiti for me is that, a hurting nation flailing helplessly in red tape of government bureaucracy and international influence that keeps it from being a successful country.  The decent from the lookout point was interesting as we had planned to pick up Domino’s pizza for supper and had a little trouble finding it.  It did allow for us time to tour some of Port Au Prince and see several roads multiple times, but fun none the less.  Our day would end with the team sharing thoughts from their day.  Ready for day three.