Easy Like a Sunday Morning

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Sunday is a big day in Port-au-Prince.  The buildings are so close together where we are in the inner city you could can literally jump from roof to roof.  Some of these smaller buildings that surround the school will hold a worship service in the evening, and we can hear praise singing throughout the evening.  However Sunday is still the big church day.

Sherry had made plans for us to attend a small church about 2 blocks from the school.  The church was actually a small upstairs room that seated about 75 people shoulder to shoulder.  There was a makeshift sound system made up of four old speakers, an old amplifier and powered by some very suspicious looking electrical wiring.  There was an electric guitar, an electric bass guitar, an electric piano and one microphone hooked into the system, and the volume was turned up as loud as it could go.  As guests we were given seats right beside the stage, as you guessed it right in front of the speakers!

The service was conducted in Creole so it was impossible for us to understand what was being said, but we could make out a hallelujah Jesus or hallelujah Father as it was shouted in unison.  The hymns were also sung in Creole so we couldn’t recognize the words, but the rhythm and the beat of the music was infectious and it was easy to see that the those who were singing were caught up in the spirit.

Sherry had arranged for Doug to deliver the message using one of the older students here as a translator.  Doug’s message centered around all of us being in God’s firm grip, but he did have a bit of trouble finding the correct translation for fastener.  Some words just don’t go easily from English to Creole.  However his sermon was very well received and solicited a number of amens from the church pastor and the congregation.

After church we walked back to the school for lunch and to unwind a bit before getting back to work.  There are plenty of work projects around, and everyone on the team has migrated into projects that fit their particular skills and talents.   Since it was Sunday there were no school children around so there was much less chaos to deal with.  However there are still many small children who live in the orphanage on the grounds, and they are quite curious about what we are doing and kept wanting to hang around the rooms where we were working.

It was cloudy for most of the day, which did give us a brief respite from the heat.  The predominant southeast breeze was steady throughout the day, but It was still quite warm and humid.  Since we did not have to contend with the sun constantly beating down on the building the rooms on the first floor were relatively cooler than the past several days.  It also made a small difference in the sleeping rooms on the third floor as they seemed a bit cooler by bedtime that they had each of the other nights we have been here.

We didn’t hear much from the LaGonove team other than they had arrived safely and had already started interacting with the local children.

We did get a picture sent over to us from Bill Gingrich entitled, “Street Scene on LaGonove.”  Not exactly the same street scene we have seen over here on the mainland, but these is a more common sight on LaGonove.

We are hoping to get more pictures as well as details on what this group is doing.

As the day ended we gathered for dinner and later devotional.  The main course was BLT’s and pasta salad. The tomatoes were locally grown and sold at the market area on the road outside of the school and were very good. Many of us had them both on our sandwich as well as on the side.  Once again a great job by the staff here.

After dinner we again retired to the Starlight Palace for devotional and to close out the day.  The devotion centered around Ephesians 2:10, we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  We discussed how as God’s handiwork we all bring different talents and gifts to this mission trip, and that God had already made preparations for the work we would be doing here.

Following devotion most everyone drifted back downstairs to start getting ready for bed.  With the cooler day, and hopefully the cooler night, most everyone was anxious to retire a bit earlier than usual to sleep a little more comfortably.

More to come on Monday, so for now goodnight from Haiti.