I posted the last post before we left for the evening church service. Every Thursday, the local church here has a church service in one of the villages that are close. I don’t really have the words to describe it, but i’ll try to get down the highlights.
1. This service is literally a table to set the main song leader or teachers Bible, and then people from the houses around bring out chairs to sit on. No stage. No building even. Just in the middle of the village surrounded by people and houses. It’s noisy, distracting, hard to listen, but people dial in.
2. The service was lead by a 17 year old kid, who we’ve been talking to all week because he sings in the choir. It was his responsibility to lead through the entirety of the service… setting up each element, then leading through the songs. He did this ON HIS OWN. Just made it happen. Incredible leadership from a young kid.
3. The person who spoke at the service wasn’t even the pastor. we’ve probably heard about 5 different Haitians give “talks” this week at devotionals and then at the church service. And they all can PREACH. It really seems as though ANY Haitian who loves God will get up and preach the gospel… crazy.
4. At the church service a women gave her testimony about her life. But it wasn’t a testimony that was what we may think… as in, I was like THIS, then God showed up and now it’s like THIS. It was honestly that she was in the process of it all. The junk. her husband is a drunk, she has 9 kids, and she is the one that has to leave to work, earn the money, care for the kids, and then take the abuse of her husband. She said she didn’t know if she could go on… and while holding her probably 1 year old child she sang… “love god… love god… love god…”
5. After the women gave her testimony, the church rallied around her… as if that’s just what you do. The song leader said now we are all going to pray for her… and in 50 different Haitian voices- did I mention like 50 people came to the service?- all out loud, they prayed. LOUD. It’s was the most beautiful thing I’ve heard.
IT WAS A PICTURE OF THE GOSPEL COMING TO LIFE AND LIVING AND BREATHING THROUGH GODS PEOPLE.
I’m struck by a few things that I’m sure I’ll still have to process along the way…. but mostly I’m feeling the words of Christ more than ever… “it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heavn.” These people don’t have classes on “community” or set up a “system” of caring. They just do it. It’s who they are. It’s what Christians DO.
After the service the pastor said that in this village there is a women who is sick, so they are going to go pray for her. Everybody goes. It’s what they do. There’s no care ministry. There’s nobody twisting anybody’s arm. They do it.
I’m struck by how much leadership there is among the men. Young kids leading songs and services, five different guys teaching… I work in a church that is MASSIVE compared to Haitian standards, and we have a hard time raising up leaders…. and here we are in the middle of Haiti, and in a church of about a 100, there’s more than enough leadership… because that’s the Gospel. Because that’s what you do.
I’m in awe of these people. Their life. Their love of God. The way that Christ has taken hold of their life and it’s changed literally everything about their life. They have new life in Him, and you can see it in the way the act, love each other, care for each other, pray and sing. OH man can they sing. I don’t think 1,000 people in our church are as loud as the 50 Haitians in the middle of the village.
well… God is surely stirring me… I’m praying I don’t leave the same and forget what I’ve seen. But that the power of what God is doing through this community of faith would drive me to action.
now I’m off for another day… God use me.
j