St. John's Mission Trip to Haiti: Day 5 - Christ Driven Leadership/Service to Others

Today we attended a worship service with a local congregation headed by the housekeeper at VoH health center and her husband. Esther and Luke have been friends of Bert and Roberta for many years. The church is celebrating their 8th anniversary on March 1st. It started in a vacant lot and now there is a structure to worship in. God is blessing this growing congregation. The service today aligned well with our mission trip as the sermon focused on Christ Driven Leadership which is to love and to serve others. While none of us understood Creole, we were fortunate enough to have a congregational member who spoke English and was able to convey to us the sermon message. Plus, the message was one we are familiar with which is to praise God. This service, like others we've attended in Haiti, included vibrant and passionate singing which really amazed our team. Most of what they were singing was from memory. We all were a bit surprised that in the front rows were the children of the congregation while their parents sat behind them, which isn't the case in the U.S.

After the church service, we then headed for a brunch at the Visa Lodge which in a nice location overlooking Port-au-Prince. Many of us have eaten there in the past. We ate on the open-air patio with a pool as a backdrop to the city of Port-au-Prince and the mountains in the distance. It was buffet style and the main course included goat meat, guinea hen, rice, beans, couscous, salad, mashed potatoes, and pickalese (spicy cole slaw). Needless to say, the food was excellent and we probably ate too much. We enjoyed the lively music from the band and they played for us at our table. Did we mention it was another beautiful, sunny day in Haiti (something different...haha!)?

We went out to pay our respects at the earthquake memorial. Unfortunately, the memorial was cordoned off as they are still in the process of building it, and we were unable to really view the memorial. Therefore, Bert took us to the top of a local mountain where we were able to view the entire valley towards Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic. There were many breath-taking views and we enjoyed seeing more of Haiti.

Tonight, Jim and Sarah, your blog authors, will be leading devotions. That should be very interesting! Tomorrow will include a visit to Little Children of Jesus and finishing up projects around Hope House. More to come tomorrow!