Our first full day in Haiti this last trip was Sunday, December 28th. After a late night (we arrived in the Mole at 1:00 am and I didn’t get to sleep until 3…) a lot of the team members spent the morning sleeping in and catching up on rest. For those of us up and ready we headed over to church. I actually got up around 8:30 and got ready for the service. First I went to the cafeteria and saw all the kiddos at children’s church! I was so happy to see all those familiar faces of friends and I loved hugging all the sweet kids from the orphanage. But since I was being a bit of a distraction to the Sunday school lesson, I grabbed a folding chair and headed to the big military tent AKA the church.
Some of the guys from our team – Jared, Caleb, Paul, & Troy – went to “big church” this week while the other team members helped out with the children’s church service in the cafeteria. I arrived at church early enough to hear the church announcements (which included a bunch of fun holiday activities and ministries our team would help out with later in the week!) and I sat on one of the wooden pews with Miss. Beth.
I love going to church in Haiti. Initially it is one of the most awkward and uncomfortable experiences ever. And most Americans, I think they honestly hate going to the Haitian church services. It makes them uncomfortable, it’s unfamiliar and unknown, and it’s impossible to understand all that happens. It’s 3 hours in a stuffy military tent, with mosquitoes and heat, with music that’s maybe not always polished or in tune, with people belting out songs in a foreign language and waving their arms in praise. It’s not comfortable or typical. It’s not the controlled “sit in a pew, sing some songs with words on the screen with a great band and light show, hear a powerful and polished sermon, then get up to get home before church traffic or the football game’s on TV” type of church service.
Isn’t that what “the church” has been reduced to in a lot of places in America and in a lot of American minds??
The Church is not called to be complacent or comfortable. The Church is called to be an active, dynamic body of believers filled with Christ, where streams of living water pour through them and reach out into a dark and cold world.
I love going church in America just as I love going in Haiti because when you get right down to it, you realize that this is the body of Christ, the children of God. In Haiti, once you get over the fact that there’s a language barrier and it looks completely different than a typical church service in the states, then you realize that these beautiful people are your own brothers and sisters in the faith. We are family, we are all part of God’s family through Christ. When we worship, even though in different languages with different sounds, we worship ONE God in ONE spirit with ONE heart. We are united as ONE in Christ.
Ephesians 4:1-7 "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift."
So this Sunday I got to experience fellowship and worship with my Haitian brothers and sisters once again. Even when I can’t understand all that’s going on or what song in the hymnal we’re singing or what verses they just referenced, I love being able to soak it all in. This is a body of believers, an imperfect and broken collection of broken messy people who are trying to obey and follow Christ in their lives, in the face of hardships, trials, and tragedies. But they believe it with their whole hearts, that God is bigger and better than anything they could face in this life here on earth.
And singing and worshiping with them, their rich, melodious voices filling up the hot, stuffy tent, rising up to our Father in heaven, here I feel it too. I feel my faith as a real and tangible thing. I see all that they have sacrificed to believe in God, all that following Christ must cost them. Like so many in the world there is a steep price that comes with being a Christian. And sometimes in my comfortable, American bubble I forget that. I forget that faith isn’t cheap, it is so incredibly costly and it should cost me something as well. God is not calling me to a complacent, safe, or comfortable life. He is calling me higher and deeper. He is calling me on, calling me to take the plunge of faith, to be all in for His glory. What is He calling me to sacrifice? What am I willing to let this faith cost me? Do I think it’s worth it?
Those are questions we all must ask of ourselves and being put in uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations allows me to see things from a different perspective sometimes. It allows me to think more deeply on things I may have never really examined or considered. And I love how God works in these mysterious ways.
This Sunday, after listening to the Pastor’s animated message about Moses (fitting as our teen conferences later in the week would cover the same story and how it looks at God’s provision for His people) we had the rest of the day to relax, get unpacked, and settle in for a full week of ministry! We unpacked all our large suitcases and organized all our team supplies. Then we had our team orientations with Jody before heading out into town to take a short tour and see a little more of the daily realities faced by those living in this small community. We ended our tour with a stop to the beach where some of the boys swam and played games while the rest of us sat on the beach. We watched the most beautiful sunset be painted across the sky and I was reminded that my Jesus, He goes with us there as well as here. He had been preparing our hearts for a week of ministry and although the next few days would not go like we had planned, He had something bigger in store for this week. All praise be to God for the ways He works in our lives.
Photo credit: Mikayla Minnick
Circle Haiti 