Lauren and Katie with the Lutheran Church of Hope Team share their Haitian worship experience.
Hi everyone,
We woke up this morning to another beautiful Haitian morning. We started the day making French toast before we headed out to church at John Robert’s church. We were eager to head to this church community because we had spent the previous night rehearsing a song to share with the Haitian people. It was a beautiful service, and even though there was the ever-present language barrier, we felt like the Holy Spirit transferred through the joy, laughs, and hearts praising the Lord that we shared together. We had the opportunity to sing our prepared song, “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” (complete with hand motions) to the church community and it was a hit! Following our performance, John Robert’s wife translated the song into Creole and sang it for us, so the church community could understand what we sang them, which was a really cool experience!
Singing in Church
After church we headed into town to grab lunch at a local restaurant. We scarfed down some ethnic Haitian food which included chicken, rice and beans.
After lunch we did house visits to five local families. During the visits we delivered rice, beans, oil, spaghetti, and chicken bouillon. We got to experience first-hand how God is working in each of these families’ lives and they shared their stories with us. It’s amazing to see how these families operate, specifically when we delivered food to a family with 6 kids. Even though they had so little and struggled to feed so many mouths each day, their joy for the Lord was so transparent and shown through strongly to us.
Another family we visited brought us a different experience. This family was very ecstatic for the food we had brought, but was hesitant in sharing joy for God. When conversing and interacting with them, it was apparent that they were not quite committed to following in God’s path. Dave Nell helped us share why God is the answer to everything.
Praying with family during food distributionOne word sums up this trip: Joy.
Not only are the Haitians so full of joy, we are too. Their joy is transparent and we have easily caught a hold of it, each day full of so much laughter it brings tears.
Bondye beni nou (God bless you)