Day 5 Church in Haiti

Today, we got to go to church in Luly.  It is the same building as the school house in Luly where we have been doing the teacher training.  We had devotional this morning and it was my turn!  I decided to give each person a piece of paper to write themselves a letter that they will give me and in a year, two years, etc I will randomly give it to them to remind themselves of their time in Haiti.  Hopefully, it will be really encouraging for them to be reminded of Haiti.  I also had my favorite breakfast: French Toast!  woo hoo!

On the way to church I kept as much as I could soaking up the Haitian culture.  I was looking at everything, all the people, the houses, or I guess tarps, the markets and the busyness of Haiti.  I was quiet and just tried to take it all in.  I never want to forget everything I saw.  We got to church and the little school house was packed!!!!  There were a row of white lawn chairs on stage in the front and I knew they wanted us to sit there in front of everyone as guests.  Jason said we could not say no, so we just sat there.  They introduced us and went straight into worship.  Now, let me tell you, these Haitians can dance and sing!  They were praising the Lord like I have never seen it done before.  They have nothing, yet are praising Jesus!  How awesome.  It makes me feel awful for getting upset in America, if I had a bad day...Wow.  This people danced to songs that lasted 30 minutes.  I started dancing with the oldest lady there and she would not stop.  I have never sweated that much in my life.  My calves started to burn, it was awesome.  A woman was there to wipe the sweat off of the band members and she came to be twice to wipe the sweat off of my face and arms.  I felt honored that she respected me enough to wipe it off.  Of course it was hilarious because she did it and because I was sweating 3x more than anyone there.  The Haitians sing with all their heart, mind, soul, and body.  It was awesome.  It brought tears to my eyes, I could not stop.  They were praising the same Lord that we do, even with all of their poverty, they still dress up so nice and praise Jesus.  I could not understand anything except for Amen and Hallelujah, and Jesus (JZ).  I felt more alive during this worship service, than I have at home.

I sat next to an open window next to Sean.  When we were standing and singing I could see out the window and there were these little boys singing to the words and clapping their hands.  When I danced they would dance and laugh.  I would look out and see some boys without pants, and then I would look again and they would be naked dancing!  So funny!  There were also children in front of the stage sitting and clapping their hands to the music.

They asked Pastor Jason to speak so he talked about how beautiful the Haitian people are.  We practiced a skit about the Prodigal Son earlier that week and performed rather than have Jason just read it.  They loved it!  Our team each gave $20 to the church and that is a fortune for them.  It felt so good to bless them!  After church we hugged the Haitians and said good-bye but a lot of the kids stayed because we were there.  It was really uncomfortable because the church gave us crackers and pop to drink and the kids were just starting at us.  I did not drink the pop, but ate the cracker very quickly.  I offered my pop to a Haitian member on their staff team.

On our way to church

Jason speaking to the church and praying

The lady that wiped my sweat.

The kids are even dressed out