March 20, 2011: Day Two

First full day in Haiti. It got "cold" last night, which surprised me. But I wasn't about to complain because I knew it was going to get warm later. We slept with the door open to keep it cool. Only disadvantage (besides me being freaked out because my bed is right inside the door) is that when the sun rises at 5.30, it floods the dorm with light. I was up with the sun, so I began making lists. After people started moving, I got ready for Church (love those military showers). I wasn't sure what to expect from Church this morning besides well-dressed Haitians and a three hour service. But whoa. You know how the Bible says "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them"? Well, God was SO present today. As I watched the Haitian congregation worship in Creole without hesitation, it made me think. These people, who have next to nothing, have all they need because they have God. The shout and clap and sway and don't care who says what. They come as they are. They worship with a child-like heart. Why can't I do that? I'm embarrassed by my bad voice. God doesn't care as long as I'm lifting my voice to Him. During Church, I turned around to say hello to three little giggling girls behind me. As I extended my hand in greeting, they took it and didn't let go. They stared at it and picked at it. My guess was that they'd never seen skin that fair before. I invited them to come sit with me. There were kids surrounding us during service and all of them were little sponges. They loved pens and paper and drew for us or practiced writing. God did some of His best work with these kids. After Church, we socialized. I met five teenage/young adult Haitians who were awesome. Francz (who is 24, was born on Valentines day, and is one of our compound guards), Emanuel (drummer for the worship band and Francz's cousin), Peter, Jerry, and a long French name that starts with F but I can't remember. After that, we headed in for lunch. Work was done around the compound (doors, windows, walkways) between lunch and youth group. Youth group was SO fun. We sang, prayed, and discussed what we'd do if we were scheduled to get married at four but at 3.55, our mother needed to be taken to the ER. We also discussed, by request of the youth, differences between America and Haiti. Traffic and weather came up, as did fast food, which couldn't even be conceptualized by the Haitians. We learned a couple Haitian songs, then it was time to play. That was a blast. Foursquare, soccer, frisbee...I tell you what, they take soccer seriously. Skirts, bare feet in gravel...doesn't matter. I had a blast with them. We got yelled at to come in (bummer), so the Haitians left and we headed in for dinner, hilarious conversation (spin the bottle), and debrief. Bed around 9.30. I love this team. I love these Haitians. I love love LOVE the Lord and what He's doing.