Day 5
Overwhelming….
Today we started our day at
6:00 AM enjoying a Haitian Church Service at Church on the Rock (Tent Church)! The beautiful Haitian people welcomed us and
you could feel the Holy Spirit fill the church.
This particular church holds church every day and service can last up to
4 hours. We stayed for about an hour. The Haitian’s have a very open and freeing
way about how they worship. Most are
constantly walking up and down or in between the aisles, hands in the air,
while praying either to themselves or repeating the Pastor’s words of praise. It truly puts one in awe to watch. I felt challenged by this as church attenders
in America don’t embrace the same freeness; at least at the churches I’ve
attended. It was a wonderful experience
and the view was amazing.
Then we went on a little road
trip of sorts. To say that the trip was
sensory overload may be a bit of an understatement. The sights, sounds and smells we experienced
are hard to put into words. Looking out the window of the “top top” (our
transportation vehicle) was mile after mile of more people than should ever be
located in a given space. Canals and
streets heaped with trash as far as the eye can see. People going about their lives in such a way
that would seem unfathomable to many of us, but for most smiles and contentment
radiating from many of the faces.
Traffic that just makes you wonder how in the world these people can possibly
get to where they are going (the MN zipper has not found it’s way to Haiti),
yet this organized chaos seems to work and amazingly people get to their
destinations unscathed.
We headed off toward
Carrefour to check out where they make beautiful Einstein wooden bowls. It’s great to see the Haitian’s being so
resourceful. They try to make the most
out of everything they have and use.
We visited the La Lou Orphanage/School
where we spent a beautiful afternoon with the children there. It doesn’t take long for the children to warm
up to us. Typically they either come
right up to us or as soon as we make contact with them by saying BonJou or BonSwa
they are jumping into our arms. We
painted their faces (and some painted ours!), played and sang songs. Always a little bittersweet leaving these
special places, but hoping that we were able to bring a little sunshine and
lots of love to their day because we know they bring lots of love to our day.
Our last stop of the day was
at the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince.
This was truly an eye opening experience for those who have not visited
hospitals of this kind before. Being as
blessed as we are in the United States, it is hard and sometimes very
frustrating to take in the conditions that some must endure. Walking into rooms filled with babies in
rusted cribs and not so clean sheets can seem to us, very unfair. But in their reality, these children are in
the best possible place they have. It
was an honor to pass out little bags of supplies to the mothers and fathers
sitting with their children, being able to hold these precious babies and share
in the beautiful music that Jeff provided.
We are so blessed to be traveling with Jeff—it is truly amazing to see
the powerful impact of music on all people!
The grateful looks on the parent’s faces were more than we could have
possibly hoped for!! Music is a
universal language of love everywhere!
We ended our day sitting
outside sharing pizza and fellowshipping together. What an awesome group God brought together to
Love the special people of Haiti!!!
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