The first thought I had when I woke up this morning was guilt. I was lying in bed pretty comfortable and I began to think about the tent city I had visited yesterday and the conditions that the kids I spent time with were living in. None of them had beds, breakfast or a shower.
We had a prayer time right after breakfast and I began to break down and weep because I couldn’t reconcile my situation with theirs. I found myself drawn to the scriptures and in particular to the book of Psalms.
Psalm 5:11-12 “But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sign for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.”
This spoke to me in particular because I kept seeing people yesterday who seemed to be "glad" in spite of the difficult situation that they were in.
We headed out to visit with a Haitian pastor and as we were driving down the street we saw this:
Our translators told us that what was happening in Haiti had never happened before. People dancing and singing in the streets. I shot this video and was amazed at the joy that the people had on their faces.
A few minutes later we went to a tent village to meet with some pastors. A pastor that I was shaking hands with told me "Watch, here comes my church", sure enough at that moment his entire congregation began walking across the field towards the church praying and shouting. He asked us to come to his church which we did.
Of course when you are asked to "come" to a church in most 3rd world countries you are almost always escorted to a seat at the front and asked to preach. I turned to my good friend Rhett and said. "You go first" Rhett stood up and immediately started weeping and sharing a powerful message. I had the opportunity to follow him and I talked about the amazing stream of people as they came out of the prayer services yesterday. Just then Anne Jackson and Jeremy Zach walked in and were also asked to preach.
I had intended to end this post tonight by putting up pictures of the church we preached at and to show how in spite of their situation and the conditions of the church they are dancing and singing.
But……the bandwith is dead. I'll redo this post when I get some more speed.
Needless to say I was affected today by feeling guilty but then seeing an amazing resilient church worshiping and dancing and praising God and it changed me.
This is so spectacular. I can feel the love pouring out of you as you write this. Divine blessings to you, as you continue to share Christ’s love with these wonderful people. The video is so fabulous! Thank you, thank you for going and doing so much for them. Your heart is feeding these people in so many ways, you can’t even know yet.