I know we are a few days behind on our blog...but we have been so busy, and by the time we get home we are either exhausted or there is no electricity or internet service!
Just want to share a few thoughts about our Sunday. We got up together and had breakfast and decided as a group that we would not only go to church at the mission with Dr. Kerry, but we were going to attend a church service of Franz, a Pastor that has been working along side us at the construction. He was thrilled to have us visit his church and made us feel extremely welcome. We all had to get up in front of the congregation and introduce ourselves. In creole I might add.....I was very impressed with the team effort! The service was a traditional Haitian church service and was several hours long. (He said he would end service early since we had another service to attend....so it was only 2.5 hours long....) I have to say on behalf of all of us.....to see the Haitian people praise God in the midst of their circumstances, was a blessing to be a part of. Their authentic joy and love for the Lord was so evident you could feel it through out the service. We had the opportunity to pray over one of their sisters in Christ who was struggling with her disabled little girl and knowing how to take care of her. This was such a touching thing knowing the culture. In Haiti, they believe that if your child is disabled, you can bring them back out into the ocean and leave them. Having a disability makes them feel that the child is not even that....a child. So they can "throw them out in the ocean". So knowing those beliefs and seeing this young mom praying for help for her child was a very emotional thing for many of us. She sat in a chair at the front of the church to be prayed for and you could see her heart...she immediately went to her knees and started praying herself. There also was a little old woman in their church who did not have a home. This church in one of the most impoverished areas of the world, where they do not even know where their next meal comes from, but they pulled together their very limited resources and rented her a home. I asked how old she was and they told me nobody knows.....that even when you ask her, she doesn't know.
Our second service for the day was at the Mo-We International Fellowship Church. This is the church that Dr. Kerry is the Pastor of. Heather had the opportunity to play the keyboard for the worship part of the service. It was nice to be able to sing worship songs in English! This is part of why this church started, to be able to minister to those missionaries and their teams from all over the world. There is no other English speaking service in the area. One thing that really sticks out in many of our minds would be the Missionary we met named Heather. Heather and her family sat in the back two rows of the church....yes I said two rows! She has 17 adopted children, both American and Haitian. Dr. Kerry reminded us that we need to completely surrender our lives ....even that one thing that we really want to just hang on to. So many of our team were so impressed with the faithfulness of the young misisonaries who work with Dr. Kerry. Their hearts are so pure and all they want to do is be obedient to God and do his will.
We came home after church and rested for a while and ate dinner. After dinner, we went back up to the International Fellwoship Church for their first ever prayer meeting/worship service. Those of you who go to "The Call", this was just like a service from there!! It was one of the favorite things for many of us this week. We had the chance to pray with others for the leaders and pastors in Mo-We. We met many other missionaries, visitors to the area and others from the community that came to the service.
We ended our night with some girl scout cookies and headed off to bed for much needed sleep!
Please pray for our continual good health and good spirits.
Nou renmen ou!!!
Just want to share a few thoughts about our Sunday. We got up together and had breakfast and decided as a group that we would not only go to church at the mission with Dr. Kerry, but we were going to attend a church service of Franz, a Pastor that has been working along side us at the construction. He was thrilled to have us visit his church and made us feel extremely welcome. We all had to get up in front of the congregation and introduce ourselves. In creole I might add.....I was very impressed with the team effort! The service was a traditional Haitian church service and was several hours long. (He said he would end service early since we had another service to attend....so it was only 2.5 hours long....) I have to say on behalf of all of us.....to see the Haitian people praise God in the midst of their circumstances, was a blessing to be a part of. Their authentic joy and love for the Lord was so evident you could feel it through out the service. We had the opportunity to pray over one of their sisters in Christ who was struggling with her disabled little girl and knowing how to take care of her. This was such a touching thing knowing the culture. In Haiti, they believe that if your child is disabled, you can bring them back out into the ocean and leave them. Having a disability makes them feel that the child is not even that....a child. So they can "throw them out in the ocean". So knowing those beliefs and seeing this young mom praying for help for her child was a very emotional thing for many of us. She sat in a chair at the front of the church to be prayed for and you could see her heart...she immediately went to her knees and started praying herself. There also was a little old woman in their church who did not have a home. This church in one of the most impoverished areas of the world, where they do not even know where their next meal comes from, but they pulled together their very limited resources and rented her a home. I asked how old she was and they told me nobody knows.....that even when you ask her, she doesn't know.
Our second service for the day was at the Mo-We International Fellowship Church. This is the church that Dr. Kerry is the Pastor of. Heather had the opportunity to play the keyboard for the worship part of the service. It was nice to be able to sing worship songs in English! This is part of why this church started, to be able to minister to those missionaries and their teams from all over the world. There is no other English speaking service in the area. One thing that really sticks out in many of our minds would be the Missionary we met named Heather. Heather and her family sat in the back two rows of the church....yes I said two rows! She has 17 adopted children, both American and Haitian. Dr. Kerry reminded us that we need to completely surrender our lives ....even that one thing that we really want to just hang on to. So many of our team were so impressed with the faithfulness of the young misisonaries who work with Dr. Kerry. Their hearts are so pure and all they want to do is be obedient to God and do his will.
We came home after church and rested for a while and ate dinner. After dinner, we went back up to the International Fellwoship Church for their first ever prayer meeting/worship service. Those of you who go to "The Call", this was just like a service from there!! It was one of the favorite things for many of us this week. We had the chance to pray with others for the leaders and pastors in Mo-We. We met many other missionaries, visitors to the area and others from the community that came to the service.
We ended our night with some girl scout cookies and headed off to bed for much needed sleep!
Please pray for our continual good health and good spirits.
Nou renmen ou!!!
RSS Feed
