Sunday night marked the first Sunday evening since we’ve been in Haiti that rain hasn’t cancelled church. I was fortunate to play and sing “Revelation Song” on piano as a special – and a fellow missionary friend Matt preached with a translator…but it gets better. Unlike Sunday morning services, there was worship through music following the message and people stayed around to participate.
Now something important to realize when attending church in another culture – is that at times it can be hard to focus or feel like you’re part of what’s going on – simply because things are spoken and sung NOT in your language.
Rather than a distraction or frustration, I’ve found this experience to be almost like a puzzle, or a mystery scavenger hunt…what tune is this? What beat are they playing to? Do the words I’m thinking in my heart match up? Truth be told, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, so I make words up…and then of course, there’s dancing, clapping, and a whole realm of other things to offer before the Lord, which makes the adventure of worshiping in Haiti an absolute, fully-engaging blast!
Before I knew what was happening my feet were jumping and dancing…the joy of the Lord overwhelmed me – and then I saw my teammate Lucas bounding toward me in the front of the room – clad in a giant smile, leaping several feet in the air – he joined me in the aisle and we danced before the Lord. Next came my other teammates, Aubrie, Shawndell, Britt, Kayla, and Jeremy…everyone in various places around the room was dancing…and I couldn’t stop laughing.
The JOY OF THE LORD spread and people on the platform began to bounce around…the pastor running the evening service erupted with a giant grin on his face…and as I looked around the room people began to feel the JOY and FREEDOM overtaking the atmosphere — many started to dance, clap, and sing louder! We sang in English. We sang in Creole. No one wanted the song to end – so it went on, and on, and on…until we felt released. PRAISE THE LORD for HIS JOY and the PRIVILEGE TO WORSHIP!
