I teared up at a worship service that I didn’t understand the words to.
The church at Mission of Hope holds a worship service every Tuesday night, along with their normal Sunday service. It was our last night in Haiti, I had a lot of packing to do before we left, and I never understand much of it anyways because it is in Creole. But, I love the people that I see there. I love how we can worship the same God in a different language and I love how even though I often don’t know the meaning of the words we are singing, I can feel the heart behind the worship. (But I do know “pou kase tout chen” are lyrics to a worship song that mean “To break every chain”!)
A sat in the section where all the orphan children sit, surrounded by the goofy, sassy kids I have come to love this month. Honestly, seeing these kids again was the real reason I wanted to go to church. I didn’t know what the words I was singing meant, but I couldn’t help but tear up when I looked to my left to see 12 year old Widler singing his heart out with his arms in the air and when I looked to my right to see Ochenelle whispering prayers with his hands over his face. Little Stevenson, sitting two rows in front of me, turned around every few minutes to look at me and smile, reminding me how much I’m going to miss that cute face. I hugged my sweet friend Wousmita, a young girl I met playing basketball our first week here, for the last time. And Iverson then asked me, “When are you coming back to Haiti?”
These children have stolen a piece of my heart. Their parents have died and they don’t have family to raise them, but Mission of Hope is doing great things to raise them as family, love them, feed them, and teach them about Jesus. However, like every other volunteer group who comes to Mission of Hope, we also have to leave them, something they are far too familiar with. Why do I get to move on when the lives of these Haitians remain the same? I can only trust that the love we poured out to them made an impact and that God will continue to work in their lives and send people to continuously love them.
A few minutes into the service, Charles, a MOH bus driver, walked into the church. Charles attended the English class I helped teach over the weekend. At this class, I was given the opportunity, with two of my squad-mates, to share the gospel with him and invite him to church. He was so receptive of it and eager to learn more. I spotted him at church on Sunday and sat next to him, excited that he actually came, and then to see him walk in to church again on Tuesday made me so happyh! I won’t know what happens to Charles in the future. All I can do is trust God to grow the seeds we planted.
As the pastor prayed in Creole (for what seemed like the longest time ever), I prayed for the people we had met in Haiti. I prayed for the orphan children sitting around me, that they would know how loved they are, that they would finish their education and pursue goals, that they would seek after God whole-heartedly and become leaders in their faith for Haiti. I prayed also for Charles as he starts a new relationship with Jesus, that he would truly come to live his life for The Lord.
Join me in praying for Haiti as we leave this beautiful country. Join me in praying for all the people we talked to in the villages, for the people we planted trees for and painted houses for, for the pastoral training that will happen at the conference center we worked on, for the amputees receiving prosthetics, for the malnourished kids we carried in our arms and swung jump ropes around, for the orphans who will receive the donated clothes we sorted, and the adults we taught English to. God is moving in Haiti!
And with that, our awesome first month in Haiti has come to an end! We are now off to Bolivia, but first, a 17 hour layover in Miami tonight. (Hence the middle of the night blog post…)
To all my supporters back home, thank you so so much for getting me here!
Here are a few more pictures from the past month:
Our living situation: bunk beds with mosquito nets
Nono the prosthetist
Team Deep Pursuit by the water in Bercy
A cutie from Transformation Village
My buddies from the MOH orphanage, Widler and Iverson, after church.
