Love for Haiti: Rise And Shine And Give God The Glory Glory!

Sunday, October 12th: Day 4

I slept well last night on my air mattress. I was very lucky that mine stayed inflated throughout the night. Poor Cynthia. Her air mattress has lost air every single night since we have been in Lotore. Every night she tries a different air mattress, and every morning she wakes up on the concrete. Hopefully tonight she will get a good night's sleep!

I woke up around 5:30am to prepare for church. The plan for the day was to attend church and then have clinic later in the afternoon. I got out of my bed, got dressed, and had my hair braided by Mandy. It was a very cool morning because we had a big storm the night before. It was a very calm and pleasant morning and I had the opportunity to walk around the compound and take some pictures. It was so beautiful this morning! Here is just a quick reminder of the layout of the grounds.

From left to right: Adult Medical Clinic room/Men's sleeping quarters, cistern, and cook house.

L to R: Pediatric clinic (behind Ambulance), Cook's Room, Adult Medical clinic/Men's room.

L to R: Storage area, dining room, Girl's room, Dental clinic, Pediatric clinic, Cook's room.

L to R: Showers, Haitian Men's quarters, Carmel's Room.

On the porch outside of Carmel's room, some of the guys were practicing singing. They were also practicing on the keyboard for Church.

L to R: Carmel, Aurturo, Ariel, Dens.

I walked around the side of the building to back. Here is the pathway behind the school .

This was the beautiful view I saw as I came around the corner of the school.

Okay, this may be TMI (too much information). Some of you may be wondering (other's may not), how do you/where do you use the bathroom? I know, I have not mentioned it yet. Well, here it is. These are our bathrooms. If you take the pathway behind the building, this is where it leads you.

This little building has a total of 4 bathrooms. The 2 you see on this side with doors and locks, and then there are 2 more on the other side that are open to anyone, no doors. Our team uses the ones with doors and we are the only people with keys to the locks. This way it is a little cleaner and more private. Now remember, there is no plumbing here. All this is, is a big hole in the ground with this building fashioned over it.

This is what the inside looks like. Dave has brought us toilet seats! Now, these pictures will never do the toilet justice. Again, this is something you have to experience to understand. We bring our own toilet paper and hand sanitizer out to the toilet with us. Before you even get to the door, you can smell the stench! Using the toilet is like the last thing that anyone wants to do. It is much easier and pleasant smelling to just pop a squat and go in the woods. However, this is kind of hard when you have people everywhere and children following you constantly. So, sometimes you just don't have a choice and have to use the outhouse!

Before I go inside, I prepare myself and get everything ready to spend as little time in there as possible. I try to leave the door open a little while to air it out, yeah right! Then I take a huge breath and jump in! I will stop right there. I am sure you can only imagine what happens next.

Okay, sorry for the gross stuff. But hey, that is part of the experience right!

A really cool thing happened as I was leaving the toilet! I know, weird right! As I was locking the door to the bathroom, I heard someone call my name. I said "what". I looked around, and no one was there. I could not see anyone at all! I heard my name clear as day too. At that moment I realized that it was the Lord calling to me! How cool! It is amazing how clear it was. It made me think how many other times the Lord has called me but I was always too busy to hear or take the time to listen. What an awesome experience!

As I walked back around to civilization, I found a few children that live close by wandering around. Ed's daughter had snuck some stuffed animals in his suitcase to bring to the children, so he was passing them out this morning.

Little Richardson. How precious!

His sister, Italine.

I went back into our room to do my morning devotional and catch up on some journaling while waiting for church to start. It is so funny here because it seems as if the people have no sense of time. There is no set time for ANYTHING! Things just happen when they happen. There way of life is so different from our strict routines/schedules and always being so busy.

Laura took this picture of me.

Julie reading her book.

Chris and Matt waiting for Church to start.

I found Frederick reading his Bible.

This morning was very relaxed. It did not seem rushed like the other mornings have been. We all had the opportunity to take our time and enjoy the morning. It was very nice.

All morning, this sweet little old lady swept. She swept out all of the rooms to the building, the porch, and then the ground! Yes, the ground! I have never seen anyone sweeping the dirt before, and with such pride! I was amazed!

It was time for breakfast. I had a peanut butter sandwich and a coke.

I took this picture because I didn't think my family would believe that I would be able to have caffeine (like Coke) in Haiti!

Chris was not feeling very well this morning, but he was still ready for Church.

Dave enjoying his morning coffee!

The ambulance left yesterday afternoon and then came back late last night with Pere Soner! He made it just in time to perform church services this morning! It was the first time I met Pere Soner and he was very kind.

The Ladies!

Cynthia, Mandy, Leslie, Me, Julie, and Laura

The ladies dressed in our Sunday best!

Me and Bob!

Ed and Laura

While I was sitting on the porch observing my surroundings, I noticed this young guy walking around the courtyard. I noticed that he was barefoot but carrying his shoes in his hands. I then saw him on the porch polishing/cleaning his shoes.

I quickly realized that he was walking around barefoot on the hard rock covered ground so he would not get his church shoes dirty! I was blown away! I have never seen anything like this before. It was a very profound moment!

Before I knew it, we started to hear music playing. That was our cue to head to church! As I was walking to church, I noticed everyone else arriving also. All of the Haitian people were dressed in their Sunday best. All the girls had beautiful dresses on and their hair was fixed perfectly with bows. They had on frilly little socks and patent leather shoes too. The men had on nice slacks, button up shirts and ties. Everyone looked so nice! I was amazed that everyone was able to keep so clean with all of the red clay everywhere!

The front of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church.

Walking inside the Church.

All of the benches that we were using for clinic had been moved into the church earlier to be used as pews for the service. If you look to the very front of the church, you might be able to see a long concrete bench to the far right. That was where our team was designated to sit. In front of the entire congregation!

As we were walking in, the church as filled with music and joyous song! Oriel was playing the keyboard and a Haitian lady was using a microphone (powered by the generator) to sing. Of course it was all in Creole so I didn't understand, but it was still very beautiful! It was so amazing watching all of the Haitian people singing praises to God, even under their circumstances. It was very emotional watching them and realizing how truly rich they were in spirit.

The service was conducted by Pere Soner and Carmel, completely in Creole. Even though we did not understand what they were saying, we were able to follow the flow of the service. It was kind of interesting. I guess it was repetition from church at home (i.e. The Lord's Prayer). I really enjoyed listening to Oriel and Arturo playing guitar and keyboard and singing.

All of these little children were squeezed onto one small bench for church. They were so cute! I was amazed at how well behaved they were. There was no crying or arguing! Some of the American children need to come to Haiti to learn how to act!

Brian was even invited on stage to sing a song in English! He leads music/worship at his church at home. His song was very beautiful, I was very impressed! Brian receieved a round of applause from everyone once he was finished!

Brian singing!

The team sitting up front.

Precious little girl with her Sunday bonnett!

Pere Soner took a moment out of the service to introduce our team to the congregation and they all applauded us, how sweet! We then had a time of offerring and greeting. It was very nice because every single person in the church wanted to greet or pass the peace to each team member! It took a while, but it was such a wonderfully nice gesture! I loved shaking hands and spreading peace to everyone!

Soon church was over and we all spread out into the courtyard. It was time for us to change into our scrubs and get ready for clinic.