The Best of the Best and the Worst of the Worst

At least we got some pictures posted yesterday . . . I really wanted to send a new post last night after a very emotional day, but the internet connection is not good at night.  Hopefully I can put into words what we experienced yesterday, in the time and space provided.

Sunday, the Lord's Day, started out with great anticipation and joy!  We get to go to church with some of our new Haitian friends.  Rodney showed up at 8:30 to walk us to the missionary church in the neighborhood.  We especially wanted to go there because, Sherley, one of our sewing students, sings in the choir.  As we walked along the rocky, dusty road, we were joined by several young boys . . .we call them our "angel boys" as they led us in singing along the way.  "Peace Like a River" and Jesus Loves Me somehow sounded more beautiful with a Haitian accent, but it probably had more to do with the smiles on their faces and the fact that they wanted to hold our hands!

Church was all in English and Pastor Carl had a good message, revisiting the shepherds in the Christmas story.  Rodney was so proud to take us to his church and sit with four of the 8 young children who live with him in his tent.  He also wants to take us to see his "house" sometime this week.  That would be in a nearby tent city of 5000 people!!

When we returned from church, Shelley had arrived and let us know that the 17 year old young mom who lives downstairs just lost her mom to cholera.  It was very emotional for Shelley and I'm sure very hard for her to have to go on with "life as usual" with her visiting mission team from Ellensburg.  However, she did just that and we piled in the back of Emmanuel's tap-tap and headed for downtown Port au Prince.  SO HARD to describe here what we witnessed there, but sum it up to say that the devastation was mind-boggling!  There were lots of Haitian people downtown and they didn't look too thrilled about having all these white women in their city, and it didn't feel right to us either!  We felt safe because Shelley speaks Haitian and we had two Haitian men in the back of our tap-tap for safety reasons.  At one of our stops, we got out to look more closely at the rubble - this was probably not the best idea as we were approached by several Haitians looking for help.  A woman was showing us her broken arm, and the hardest was a young father holding up his baby and telling us that her mother had died in the earthquake and he needed help.  You may be able to imagine this scene, but to avoid their pleas, walk back to our tap-tap and just be able to say "I'm so sorry!" just didn't feel right.  I think the whole experience was even hard for our two Haitian friends!!  The ride home was a little emotionally overwhelming for some of us but we still didn't talk about it much.

When we returned, we enjoyed another wonderful meal cooked by our gracious host, Corrigan, and we shared some good fellowship time together.  They always brighten our day, as do their four precious children Kezia, Zebedee, Jackson and Ember.

After dinner we headed for our rooms and were each privately preparing for bed, some looking at their Bible Study journals.  One of our ladies was soon overcome with emotion over what we had experienced downtown.  As she cried and shared how her heart was broken, we all came to the realization that we hadn't been able to put into words how all our hearts had been broken by those things that break the heart of God!!!  We cried together, prayed together, and cried and prayed some more.  It was a good wake-up call for us to realize that we had sort of been going through the motions and not making our prayer time together a priority.

Needless to say, from today on, we are being intentional about our morning devotions and our evening Bible Study/sharing time!!!  We ask for you to pray specifically for us in that area, and that we don't get ahead of God and try to do this on our own!

As we meet our sewing students again today, and start our 2nd day of sewing school, we ask for God's guidance in our words and in our actions.  We ask for His PEACE in our hearts and His LOVE to shine through us.  Thank you God for this opportunity and for these amazing women you have picked at this time in this place to do your work.  We feel your presence and we want to do Your will!

P.S.  I really do need to add, that God blessed us with His sense of humor at the end of our crying/praying time last night . . . as we said, "and all God's people said, "AMEN" the bed we were sitting on, broke, and we were then sitting on the floor laughing hysterically. It was a great way to end the day!