In Haitian culture, to go to church you must have nice clothes. Our contacts Rod & Deb Wray noticed that most kids do not go to church because they only have ratty clothes – or- none at all. So, They began a service that has been called the “come as you are” church, A place where kids can come naked or clothed and be loved the same no matter what.
Every Sunday morning here in Haiti we get to participate in this amazing place!
We start by waking early (around 6am) to do a team devotional, pray, eat some breakfast & then we load up the truck and head out.
—-We ride in the bed of the truck, so the breeze is really nice. The cool air is refreshing since I have forgotten what A/C is like and I am usually sweating most of the time—
We make a few stops to pick up some other people who help put on the service and then head in to the slums village where the church is. As soon as we pull in the village we already have a mob of kids excited to see us, smiling & chasing our truck. By the time we make our way to the gate of the church there are hundreds of little Haitian kids around us, each one wanting to be hugged & loved.
When we get inside the walls we set everything up and get it ready for the kids. Then, we worship for a bit and move in to a time of prayer. We pray for the lives that were about to enter through the gates of the church.
We are told to line up down the sidewalk because all the kids are going to want to hi-five & hug us, and that would make it easier since there will be 1,000-1,500 kids coming in!
As I stand there I begin to pray over each & every one of the kids coming in, praying over the hands that touch me, and the eyes that stare at my white skin. I pray for Jehovah’s LOVE to cloak them, for His awesome healing to relieve their pains & for the Holy Spirit to speak words of our Fathers love to them. We did this for about 45 minutes. We were lined up on both sides of the sidewalk so every single child was getting covered in prayer.
IT WAS AWESOME!
Then, they start to sing. These kids came to life, I could see the sadness & hurt disappear & could feel how they love singing words of praise to our Father. I could feel His LOVE covering them and giving them joy.
I played my guitar & Hannah sang a couple of worship songs with them & they LOVED it. Some of them even picked up the songs pretty quickly!
I have never seen so much joy come from kids than this. It was real, true happiness. These kids KNOW Jesus.
One of the Haitian men starts to play a video and begins to give the lesson of the day along with it. It was really cool to see how in tune and focused everyone was. They actually wanted to hear about God!
Then they wrap it up with prayer over themselves, their parents & the ones who wanted to begin relationships with our Daddy!
After it was all over, we made two lines. A food line & A clothes line.
We gave every single one of these precious little kids a pack of food sent by Feed My Starving Children (We do prepackaged food because of the Cholera outbreak), dresses for the girls, shorts & shirts for the boys & cloth diapers for the little ones.
This is something that is done every single week. These kids not only lean about our amazing Daddy, they get to truly see the way He works.
I have been a part of a lot of distributions in my life. I have done plenty of volunteer projects. This one took the cake. I got the chance to see God work in these little kids lives. I saw hope light up their eyes & fill their hearts, even though I cant even speak their language.
Our God crosses all barriers because He is The I AM & now I truly understand what that looks like.
This “Come as you are “ Church, full of little Haitians, some clothed & some naked, is truly stepping out and being Jesus with skin on.
I am only in month 2 of 11 & Daddy has revealed himself to me so much. I am starting to become the person I have been praying about. He is so very good to us.
