7/12/15

Our Sunday began around three or four in the morning when we were awoken by the majestic creature known as the domestic rooster. You know those cute little roosters perched on barns piping out a pleasant “cock-a-doodle-doo” in those books your parents use to read you as a kid? Well, they sound almost exactly like that, but louder and ten times more obnoxious (And like a bird and not your Grandma reading you a picture book). After bucket showers (that are not as bad as everyone has made them out to be) we had our first Haitian breakfast, which was great: Haiti bread, scrambled eggs, fresh bananas, weird soft packaged cheese (but delightful, none the less), avocado, and juice.
After that we were off to shirts in long pants and patterned skirts. Coming into Pastor Robby’s was a strange mix of familiar practices of worship and a exotic passion that is rare in American churches. As we filled into a few middle rows worship was already in full swing. Almost everyone’s hands were up and the song leaders were practically dancing. As we stood through what seemed like hours of songs as our sleep deprived legs threaten to give out, we were finally told to sit. Pastor Robby called Tim up and gave him a huge bear huge then insisted he gave a short message. Soon the entire team was up in front of the church performing one of our VBS songs.
Pastor Robby’s sermon was interesting, very different. The translators spread throughout the group fed us bits and pieces of the message. Just when I started to feel like I was getting down the general jist of the sermon, Pastor Robby started to make animal noises and jumping up and down (He was describing Jesus’ birth place…I think). No matter what I’m making it sound like, it was a very powerful experience. The Haitian Christians have a zeal for God that I’ve never really seen before. There was also a lot of hugging, and if you don’t know me, physical contact is one of my least favorite things (especially with strangers).
The rest of the afternoon was pretty laid back. We huge out at the base and had the classic peanut butter and jelly lunch. The team practiced our VBS songs and with the help of the translators, came up with the Creole version of each song.
After supper we ended the night with a stop-and-go a chapella worship session. Everyone’s looking forward to our first day of VBS tomorrow.
-Michael



Bonswa! Today was our first full day in Haiti! We went to Pastor Robby’s church this morning from 8-11, which might be the longest church service I have ever sat through! The length of the service didn’t matter though when we saw how passionate their church is. Pastor Robby even asked TVD to preach in the middle of the service which would never happen at our church but it worked! He wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as Pastor Robby though who made animal noises and jumped in the air to “catch” the feet of Jesus. Most of the translators choose not to translate the service but I was lucky enough to sit next to David, who summarized what was being said for me. It definitely helped me appreciate the experience more! We also recognized the tunes to a lot of the songs even though they were in a completely different language. After church we stayed and talked to some kids and the pastor for awhile, which was nice because we will be working with them for the next 4 days! The rest of the day  stayed at the base and prepared for VBS. It rained again this afternoon so we could not go out and do ministry but we were happy about the temperature cooling! Overall, today was a restful day before our busy week starts! Pray that the VBS goes well this week and we impact the kids’ lives! Bon nwit!
-Annika

Hello! I’ve been enjoying Haiti so much! And with all of the culture, God and friends I feel just a “little” overwhelmed. And while I have no idea how to write a blog post or what one writes on a blog post, I wanted to share a verse I happened to come across while meditating. The verse is 2 Corinthians 2:2-3 and it reads like so; "You yourselves are our letter written on your hearts and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets but on the tablets of the human heart." When I read this verse, it really made me think of everything I had done in the last 24ish hours and everything I will be doing for the rest of this week. And when I thought about all of these things, I thought how I have shown that God lives in me and how I may have not shown that God lives in me. And now I just feel that I am more prepared to make sure that more of my actions reflect God’s word. But as I was thinking about all of this, it also occurred to me that this applies more than just to our missions out of the country, but to the missions in our home towns, in our friend groups, and most importantly, in our schools. And with all of this to reflect on, I come back to all of the exciting things we have done and all of the exciting things that not only the group has planned, but what God has planned. (A shout out to Mom and Dad, I’m still ok!!:)  
May God be with and bless,
--
Evan

The team did a song to kick iff VBS. they had the children join them. 

Tim speaking in church

Sunrise Monday morning!!!