Sunday in Haiti

We experienced church in Haiti this morning.  We went to Lucien's church (Lucien is the driver for VoH).  It would be safe to say we were amazed by the length of the service, the amazing singing by the congregations, and how many people, lay leaders, and musicians in a 400 square foot room.  We could feel and hear the passion that this Haitian church had for God.  We were welcomed and introduced during the service and at the conclusion of the service, many of the congregants shared the peace with us.  We recognized some of the liturgy and the doxology, even though we did not know the language.  Another interesting part of the church experience was the route we took to the church on some unbelievably narrow Haitian back roads that literally had us squeezing between houses.  No GPS could have found the church using that route.  

Following church we headed back to Hope House where we had a hot dog cookout with baked beans, salads, and chips.  After a brief respite, we took the opportunity to see a little bit of Haiti.  This year we drove up the coast and stopped in two places.  The first was driving out to the bay where we got out and dipped our feet in the Caribbean Sea. Then we stopped at the Earthquake Memorial.  The 6th anniversary of the earthquake was last week on the 12th of January.  The memorial is about 70% complete.  At this particular memorial, there are approximately 250,000 Haitians buried in a rock quarry.  Many of us were glad to see that the memorial continues to be worked on and is no longer just the frame it was on past visits.  

Then we returned to Hope House and started working on packaging more medicines.  We packaged tens of thousands of pills and cough drops for upcoming mobile med teams to use.  The team is really excited that we have set the next team up to begin serving as soon as they arrive.

Tomorrow we will be going to Village of Hope School and Little Children of Jesus - two of our favorite places.  We look forward to seeing the kindergarten students' opening, seeing the children we sponsor, and then interacting with those at LCJ.  

(L-R) Paul, Jim, Tim, Richard, Sarah F., Pastor Meehan, Ken, Greer, Chris, Saron, Diane

(L-R, kneeling) Sarah M., Scott