No work today...Sunday. Late breakfast and then Fan-Fan led us in a worship service in the courtyard of the Guest House. Fan-Fan will be the minister for Grace Village and he is studying at a local university. His sermon is on following God. He spoke of the prodigal son and Ruth and Naomi. He is passionate and will make an awesome minister. We have all followed God's call to come to Haiti.
It will be exciting to see where the ripples of this trip will go...a body which is in motion stays in motion...we make our plans and then don't hold onto them too tightly in case God wants to tweak them. It hurts to have them ripped out of our hands if we hold too tightly. It's like dancing (which is on my mind since we Salsa'd last night in the kitchen). If you are too stiff, your partner cannot lead you in the dancing...you step on each other's toes and run into each other and it is rather jerky and awkward. But if we stay loose, and "feel" the pressure of a hand here and the push of palm there, it becomes something beautiful. If we listen to God's push here and pull there, it becomes something useful and beautiful in his hands.
Today we shop. We are on our way to the top of the mountain. We stop at three stands on our way up where we can purchase our souvenirs. Beautiful metal work, wood work or jewelry.
We drive downtown Port-au-Prince. You can see some of the downtown buildings still canted precariously over the sidewalks. This was once a beautiful downtown and now it is all street vendors. 99% of the buildings left are uninhabitable. Even the president's palace is still in shambles. The president himself lives in a tent out back of the white-house-like structure.
We drive towards the top of the mountain. Jennifer points out that there are no longer tents in this particular area which is now a city park....grassless and littered with concrete but there are people there doing what people all over the world do in parks....strolling, talking, sitting, playing games. Three areas along this road have now had their tent dwellers moved to livable housing by the government.
I feel that there is hope for Haiti. If you would have asked me on Day Two - water truck day to Cite Soleil, I would have said...no way, it is hopeless...how in the world... but there is the key word, "world"...there is now way in the world that they can recover...this will take a miracle.
My word of the day was Metamorphosis. In it's current state, Haiti looks like the cocoon which the caterpillar has built to dwell in while makes its changes. on the outside, it looks dirty and rough and unlovely. But slowly, it begins to change. I have hope that some day, Haiti will show us what it is they really are. Beautiful people with a rock solid faith in God and their Saviour, Jesus.
I think Healing Haiti team's must be like that...those that come down to Haiti....Some faith-filled, some not so much, some out to change the world their way, some searching for...."something"...not even knowing what. Not so great to look at.
What joy the leaders must experience to take 10 raw recruits and watch the transformation....the Metamorphosis. What joy must our Heavenly Father feel when he sees that we came to make a difference to Haiti ...and in reality, Haiti has made a difference in us.
Funny how it works that way....sort of like a dance.
Lynne
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