Day Two, June 12, 2011

Sunday morning started with a double dose of worship Haitian style. We all joined the children at the Children of Hope Orphanage for part of their service. Bobby and Louvee have a local Pastor who not only provides Sunday morning worship for the children, he comes each night for the singing of psalms and night time prayers with the children. That ritual ends with the children kissing and hugging any available adult prior to going to their beds. Many in our group participated in the evening ritual last night. I particpated this evening. It is sacred time for all involved.

That same sweet spirit overflows into their Sunday worship together. Those that have Bibles, follow along with the scripture reading and all participate in the singing and recitation of memory verses. The singing is particularly joyful with clapping and smiles. Some of the children left their seats and joined us to be held and cuddled as we watched their church service unfold. It was all in Creole and French, so we did not understand the words, but we understood the Spirit.

We went by small truck transport, a tut tut, I think Bobby called it, to a local Thomazeau Free Methodist Church.

The ride itself was a new adventure for most of us and the roads are so bumpy. But the welcome we received at the church was so warm. The service had already started, but Lucia came out and shook hands with each of us and escorted us to the seats that had been saved for us. The Pastor let us introduce ourselves and made a plea for our help with the capital campaign for fans for the church. Of course, each of us donated and we used some of our emergency cash for the trip to help as well. I was blessed to participate in the music worship and thrilled that our group entered the worship service so actively. Roger was even able to parrot the words to their choruses! After the service everyone shook hands with us and welcomed us to Haiti.

Everyone we have met so far has been open, friendly and glad to see us in the town. I feel no sense of safety risk, although, I know I still need to be careful and help others on the team to do the same.

So much joy in the morning and the afternoon turned into all out chaos! We did a dry run of vacation Bible school by setting up learning stations. We were suppose to have interpreters, but they did not arrive. We had a puzzle station, a story circle, activity area with balloons and a coloring area. The children were blown away by the "stuff" and immediately starting hoarding it away, down their shirts, in their pants, anywhere they could. It wasn't until we met afterward that Roger and Davi shed some light on their hoarding.

While the kids are surrounded by caregivers that love them, see to their needs and they have food and shelter and an education, yet they do not own anything. The hoarding was instinctual and the things they took ended up in the only thing that is theirs; their school backpack. Of course, the absconding of supplies limited the ability of group leaders to continue their process because each new group had less and less to work with! In the end all the children joined the reading group in my area for the distribution of candy. I am ashamed to admit, in order to get some semblence of order I gave a very loud shout and then started putting my finger to my mouth and saying "shush......" quietly. You know, it almost worked. I think they were quiet for all of 20 seconds! The rush for candy was unbelievable. Bobby told me they never get candy, so this was a big deal for them.

It was a very emotionally draining afternoon. After their arrival,Jim's group from TJS were thrown into our evening gathering listening to our sense of failure, learning more about the atypical orphans served by Bobby and Louvee (abandoned, medically needy, physically and emotionally abused children), and still managed to ease themselves into the rhythm of our group. Everyone shared and it was sweet and wonderful and therapuetic.

My personal thanks to God for today, is for this group of people who have joined me in Haiti. They have so lovingly allowed me to be me and have abandoned themselves to the work at hand.