Sights and Sounds!

So today is my last day Port-au-Prince, and later today I am planning on attempting some type of retrospective. It may not be complete until I am back in the States for a while, but I will start. This morning I wanted to do a post of some pictures and video from church on Sunday and other adventures. :)

On Sunday I went with a team from Georgia to Pastor Pierre's church. It was a small little hot room, but it was a simply lovely service. To get there, we had to walk through a bunch of tents:



When we got there, it was Sunday School, and like I said before, they memorize Scripture every week and stand up and say it aloud to the church. Would that we were so dedicated! We were seated in the front row, as in all Haitian services. In most, I have actually been on stage!



"All Scripture is inspired by God"





They had all of us stand up and introduce ourselves, and I was able to do so in Creole! I was pretty proud, if I do say so myself. My accent may have been a little off, but Miguelson said I spoke the right words. :)

I took some video while we were there. The first is of worship led by Pastor Pierre:



This is of prayer time. One of our leaders made an astute observation- in so many of our services in the States, prayer is a transition time. We bow our heads, and when we look up, the worship leaders are in place. We pray again when it is time for them to sit. Very rarely do we all just focus on talking to God. This was very convicting for me! Prayer is something that does not come naturally to me, but I am shamed and embarrassed when I pray with the Haitians:



This last one is also of worship. Here the services are in Creole, and the translators don't interpret every single thing that happens. They will give us updates sometimes, and they translate the sermons. Sometimes we recognize some of the hymns, and we join in in English. Well, Pastor Pierre busted out with this, and at first I didn't even recognize it:



He sang, in English mind you, "Lord Prepare Me to be a Sanctuary", "All in All", "I Love You Lord", and "This is the Day". It was very sweet!



One of the Pastor's 10 kids!



My view driving away:



See the cross in the mountain?





On Monday, Kay and new Sarah (My replacement is also named Sarah! She just graduated from the University of Cincinnati and is doing this as an internship through a missions program in her church. She is pretty great!) and I went shopping. The offices are moving now that Disaster Relief is closing and Haiti Rebuild is starting, so we need to outfit the new place. We found this guy- notice his mischievous special design and try his handsome appearance :) :



We also went to the grocery store and found... wait for it... SALSA! I have been CRAVING salsa for the past couple of weeks, and it was glorious! Kay and Sarah:



I can barely contain my excitement!



On Wednesday Dennis, who has been my supervisor during my time here, and who is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, and I went to lunch to a fancy restaurant. I had spaghetti:



My entourage (Please notice the mural in the background. It is more than just mountain peaks...)



Dennis and I in front of the sign. The name translates to "Gold Finger":



Today I am going to work with new Sarah on new Buckets of Hope paperwork, then I am hoping to take my boys Miguelson and Dasy out to lunch.

As glad as I am to be coming home, it is going to be pretty hard to leave Haiti behind...

Sweet

So yesterday was church, and I forgot my camera. At first, I was TOTALLY BUMMED, but as the service progressed I was so glad that I didn't have it, because I would have been distracted and would have been a distraction. And it would have taken away from the sweetest worship service I have ever attended. So I will try to paint you a word picture. :)


I went to church with Dennis Wilbanks, who is the current Incident Commander here in the Disaster Relief office. He works with Partnership Missions, and has been coming to Haiti for 12 years. Plus he is super great. He was asked to preach at a church he visited this week, and I jumped along. The church was in Croix de Bouquets (Cross of Flowers) and was about a 40 minute drive from the CMBH house.
The building was small- smaller than the room we use for the nursery at Coquina. The floor was cement, they had a tin roof, and there were thatched reed walls that didn't quite reach the roof. The seats were small rickety wooden benches, and everything was painted either coral or sea foam green. All of the Haitian churches I have attended have fake flowers hanging down from the ceiling, and this church also had a couple of paintings of flowers nailed to a board in the front.

When we arrived, there were only 7 people there, and the pastor was using a megaphone to sing. It was almost like Coquina- nobody arrives on time. :) Slowly people drifted in, and after a few songs, it was time for Sunday School.

The congregation split into three groups- adults, youth, and children. Everyone stayed in the same room for their classes. It was incredibly distracting for me, not to mention the fact that I could only understand about every 6 words, but they were totally focused on their teacher. The adult group was talking about Hebrews 11. Because most of the people do not have Bibles, and probably can't read, they focus on memorizing scripture. The adults today memorized Hebrews 11:1- "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." After Sunday School was over, the classes stood and recited what they had learned for the entire church.

Then worship started. And went on. And on. And on. :) But it was great! They sing old-fashioned hymns in French here, and some of them I even recognized and could join in. Two of the songs I recognized were "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" and "To God Be the Glory". At one point, a little mouse ran across the stage under Dennis' chair and outside through a hole in the wall. It was literally a church mouse! For instruments, they had two drums and a thing that looked kind of like a giant cheese grater that a guy ran a stick up and down. I was surprised at the rhythm they gave to those hymns. It was fun!

The worship was broken up by times of prayer and sharing. One passage shared touched my heart especially- Psalm 95: 1-7:

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

Then they had a time of special music. One group of 5 young men- they called themselves "Imitators"- got up and sang a song about how in heaven we will have new names and there will be no difference between us. Then a little girl about 9 years old got up and sang a hymn. She sang so loud and clear. It was BEAUTIFUL. Then one of the guys from Imitators sang another song. It was obvious that all of the girls were in love with him. :)

When they did the offering, the pastor said in the prayer that "Even though we don't have a lot, you put enough in our hands so that we can share." Every person in there gave money, even if it was only a few coins.

Dennis preached from Luke 19:1-10- the story of Zacchaeus. His points were that 1) Jesus sees you, 2)Jesus knows you, and 3)Jesus needs you. This message was perfect for the people there today. He was very animated while he spoke, and everyone was absolutely captivated. This line got me- "Jesus says, 'I have come today looking for Zacchaeus. Those with a broken heart. Those with no purpose. I have come to give hope and to give life everlasting." When he called for a time of prayer at the altar, almost everyone went forward. And when Haitians pray, THEY PRAY. On their knees, shouting to the Lord.

Then we sang a few more songs, and the service was over. Like I said before, was probably the sweetest service I have ever attended. I can’t even think of another word to describe it. It was so clear that the congregation was there because they love love love Jesus. I am so grateful to have been there.

Worship!

Two posts in one day- crazy, I know! But I don't want to get too far behind.

Yesterday I went to an orphanage about an hour outside of Port-au-Prince for church. It was beautiful! Out in the country, nice breeze, green grass! But no trees. Haiti is 98% deforested, which causes lots and lots of problems.

I rode along with a group of guys from Fruit Cove, Florida who have worked with this particular orphanage for several years. It is run by a Haitian woman named Sister Marie who now has 27 children in her home, a community center, and a church. She is a busy lady! A team from Palatka First Assembly of God had been there all week serving. They led the service, which included lots of music and lots of prayer. We stayed and had lunch and took a tour of the grounds. It was a nice morning, and I got to do what I wanted to- hug a Haitian child!

Pictures!


The orphanage's residents sit in the front


Receiving prayer for healing





This beautiful little girl has TB and was on the brink of death when she came to Sister Marie's.


He played with this box for at least 10 minutes.


Bathtime for babies! They have 4 infants right now. A set of twins whose mother couldn't provide for them, the boy in the pink bucket whose mother was killed by a car while walking on the sidewalk, and one little girl who appeared on their doorstep.


This little guy loved to splash!


Please remember to pray for the babies of Haiti!