The tan I thought I had is washing off!

Today’s blog title comes from Hannah, and it’s one that has been repeated over and over.

With all of the work that we are doing in the village, things are a little dusty and dirty. Let me rephrase that. Things ARE really dusty and dirty! So every day we return to the hotel and get cleaned up and ready for dinner. On one occasion a day or so ago, the girls in Hannah’s room were able to capture this quote. Obviously, the dirt that accumulates on the skin during the day resembles a nice tan. Upon taking a shower, one is merely dirty. After serving today, my tan washed off too.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a great day. We were able to attend 2 different services. The first service was a Haitian service. Although we could not understand what was being sung or said, it was a tremendous blessing. There was so much dancing…what? Dancing?!?! Yes dancing! As King David said, “I will become even more undignified than this!” I was in that boat. I let my inner-Haitian come out. My dancing was for the Lord and no one else! One of our translators, Jonas, said, “I worship God with all of my heart, soul, mind, strength, and especially my body!” There is quite a release when doing so. It reminded me of our time in Malawi last summer. God did allow one of the musicians to sing a song in English for us. It was, “This is the Air I Breathe.” It was great to sing with him and our team.

We had to leave service early in order to get to the missionary church. We were in the Haitian church for over an hour and a half and they hadn’t even got to the message. And nobody was worried about time. They were blessed to be in the house of the Lord. Such an amazing testimony and a lesson we all could learn.

At the missionary church, the music was led by Stephen and Autumn. They did some very familiar worship music. They included some of our team members to read Scripture and pray. The sermon was led by a missionary here. He focused on our hearts and how we handle circumstances in our lives.

We returned to Stephen and Autumn’s home to eat lunch. This was the first time the team had been there. God has provided them a great space. All of us were able to spread out and relax a bit. We return to the hotel for some free time. Sunday was our free day. Some went fishing in the Caribbean, other snorkeled, some swam in the pool, and others just rested and grabbed a nap…I was in that group.

We had dinner and spent a small amount of time debriefing about our day.

Today (Monday) was a long, but awesome day! Today we began doing VBS in the fishing village. We left the hotel about 7:30AM and arrived at the village shortly after. We set up our areas and started to receive the children into the school yard. The rec team headed to the open space next to the school and began to play with some of the kids. It was cool to watch those who made a connection on Friday pick up where they left off. At about 9:15AM we had most of the kids in their first station. We had a total of around 180 kids (5yrs-12yrs). We broke them up by ages. We had four different stations…Bible story, music, crafts, and recreation. Each group had no less than 40 kids. VBS lasted until around 12:45PM. Once we ended we served all of the kids, translators, and mission team rice and beans.

Once lunch was over we released the kids out of the school yard. The afternoon looked different than the morning. We are doing a four day session of walking teens and young adults through God’s standard of purity. Sexual immorality runs rampant in Haiti…much like many places in the world. So we are having the opportunity to pour into these students. While many of us teach and share, the remaining team members were playing with kids and prayer walking. This lasted for about 3 hours. There were so many questions about God, Jesus, Heaven and Hell, and even the tribulation following our time with them. Tomorrow we do this all again! Praise God!

Tomorrow we also have the first of our 2 revival/worship services. We are expecting hundreds of people. One of the locals will be having a Christian concert and worship music. Some from our team will share their testimonies. And I have the opportunity of preaching. Please pray that the Holy Spirit falls on the village and that many will come to know Him!

Well, I’m off to dinner. After dinner we will spend some time talking about our day. I’m sure many will be ready to sleep. Pray for rest. Pray for those not feeling the best, that God would give them strength (nothing major, so don’t worry). Pray that there would be continued unity among our team (it has been awesome thus far), and pray for a great day tomorrow. God is so good and we are so grateful to be serving here in Haiti.

Pressing On,

Dale