A Great Sunday
Today was one of those days that God used to encourage me and confirm that I am right where He wants me. We got up this morning and went up to the orphanage for church. Right now they are doing church there each Sunday. The kids were so excited we were there and very dressed up for church. Several of the kids got up and sang (and some even danced). Matt preached about what it means to be “All Things New” in Christ. It was a wonderful time of worshipping The Lord with our kids.
We went back to Christianville for the usual Sunday brunch (pancakes and eggs) and another couple staying in Christianville (David and Lori) invited us to go to the beach with them. This is something that we haven’t even done once during our time here. We have gotten really bad about never taking time to do some of the fun stuff around here so we said yes to the beach. We headed out and drove for about 30 minutes toward Grand Goave to a beach David and Lori knew about. We were greeted by a Haitian man who I assume was the owner of a small hotel and strip of beach. He brought out 2 beach chairs for Lori and me and we proceeded to lay on a beautiful beach with a constant breeze. The owner also asked us what kind of fresh squeezed juice we wanted and we all ordered cherry juice. After about an hour he brought it out in a pitcher on a tray and gave us each a glass to pour it into. It was fresh, sweet, and delicious. At one point the owner asked Matt if I was his wife and when Matt told him yes he high fived Matt (this made my day). As we sat there an old Haitian man set up items to sell on the beach (wood work, paintings, cards) and waited for us most of the day. When we told him we would not be buying anything he packed it all up and left. This kind of thing can be very hard to see. Just seeing us there brought him hope that maybe today he could make a few dollars. Here in Haiti, literally just the color of our skin brings that false hope to some people. We left and headed back toward Christianville.
All week we have been promising our kids we would watch a movie with popcorn and coke and tonight was the night for this. We headed up to the orphanage with our laptop (there is no electricity there so we watch on a laptop), popcorn to be popped, and lots of cokes. You could feel the excitement in the kids as we pulled up. We got everything set up and started the movie. The kids loved it and as they watched, popcorn was popped in a big pot over charcoal outside. A good friend gave us a small speaker to attach to the laptop to make it louder and as soon as the movie ended some of the kids started saying “Bless The Lord!”. This is because right now our kids are absolutely obsessed with the Matt Redman song 10 Thousand Reasons (if you don’t know it stop and listen to it right now…it’s great). They can sing every word and will listen to it over and over again. We ended the night by worshipping at the top of our lungs with our kids to this amazing song. We will be posting a clip of it on Facebook so you can hear it.
Today was a day God knew I needed some rest. He knew I needed some encouragement. He used some people here at Christianville as well as our amazing kids to give me both of those things and I couldn’t feel more happy to be here.