Paul came up to me shortly after we arrived at the airport and said “Well, I just saw an older woman singing ‘Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul…’ while she was cleaning the men’s room.”
Then he said something that captures part of what drew us to Haiti to begin with.
“There must be something different about these people if a woman is able to sing worship songs while she’s cleaning a bathroom at the airport.”
I case you didn’t hear, our good friend Paul Yokubaitis and I were able to take a quick trip to Haiti a couple of weeks ago. Becca and I wanted to share some of the highlights here with you. I’ll share some more of the details of this trip in future posts, so this one will serve as a recap.
Sunday at QC
Sunday Morning, we headed across the street to Quisqueya Chapel where I preached in the morning service. It was great to be back there with those people again. I was able to see some people I hadn’t seen since 2006!
One of the things I miss the most about that church is the singing. When Ronald sits at that piano and the praise team gets up on the stage, the congregation sings in a way I rarely see in the states. Here’s a short clip that Paul grabbed with his iPhone:
Below is some audio he grabbed from another song:
“Shout to the Lord” being sung at QC.
On that particular Sunday, the singing was lead by a visiting Korean worship team from Toronto. Yes, you read that right. It was international church at it’s best with Haitians, Americans, Europeans and Korean-Canadians worshipping together.
Maxime’s Birthday
Since it was my good friend Maxime’s birthday that day, Paul and I headed to Epi D’Or in the afternoon, bought a birthday cake and went to Maxime’s house to celebrate with his family. He hadn’t received electricity in a couple days, so we lit some oil lamps and gathered around his table to laugh, sing, eat cake and drink Haitian Coke. For those of you who know his kids, you’d be shocked to see how tall they are now. Little Josematte, who was just a couple of months old in the earthquake, sang Happy Birthday in Creole, French and English. Crazy how time flies.
Monday at STEP
We spent most of the day Monday at STEP seminary in Bolosse, meeting with leaders of the seminary and connecting with the Crossworld team there. Once we raise our support and make the big move as a family, I’ll be serving with STEP teaching classes, leading Spiritual Formation groups and helping the administration. The meetings were very productive and left me feeling eager to get down there and get to work!
One of the big projects I’ll be tackling is the development of a strategic communication plan for the school as it begins to share it’s story with the world and expand its donor base allowing it to re-build.
I’m particularly excited about that. Communication has been a big part of my role at DTS these past few years, so it will be exciting to use some of these skills at STEP.
I’m also excited to step into a teaching role after we complete some language learning. STEP has ten tracks it would like to offer as a part of it’s four-year degree program, but only has enough faculty to offer two. The need is significant and I’m looking froward to putting my DTS training to work.
The best part of the day was getting to connect with some more of the team STEP has in place. We are very excited to be joining them!
Tuesday and Wednesday
Tuesday and part of Wednesday we worked through our long list of to-do items and were able to visit with several Haitian and Missionary friends along the way. One of those to-do items was to get a sense for what the housing situation may look like when we arrive. We were able to get a couple good leads on some places. There is one place in particular that would be perfect – as long as our fundraising and timeline work out, it looks like it has potential to work out.
As we worked through our list and made visits here and there, I was reminded again of the solid community we’ll be a part of once we’re there. This move would be a lot more scary if we didn’t already have a solid network in place on the ground. In addition to our awesome Crossworld team we have friends from various missions and organizations all over the city. It’s going to be great to be a part of that community again and to serve along side them.
Finally, one of the best highlights of the trip was being able to visit with Falonie at her store. Falonie lost her home and her business in the earthquake and was forced to live in a tent with her kids for about two years afterwards. In 2012, we brought a team down to get her back into a house and help her get her business started again.
What a joy it was to see how successful the business has become since we left her! Not only has she been able to support herself without any further outside help, but she has expanded her store to offer quite a bit more product.
When we walked into her store, it nearly brought tears to my eyes to see all the Lord had done in her life.
The best part of the trip: Hanging out with Karl and Ann. Paul and I stayed in their home and we were able to spend some good time together. It’s hard to describe how much their friendship has meant to Becca and I over the years, but it is safe to say that relationship has been the major catalyst in helping us to consider long-term ministry in Haiti.
Karl turned 72 yesterday and after 16 years of serving in Haiti, they will return to the states next week and continue their ministry with Convoy of Hope from Florida. Even though they’ll be in the States, it’s safe to say I’ll have his US number on speed dial.
Stay tuned here on the site for more updates from this trip. There were some cool things that happened and as we move through the spring, we’ll be sharing them here.
