The Haitian Nation (The faith of the Haitian believers)

Kristi and I had the opportunity to travel to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, last week with the Adventures In Missions organization.  We were able to spend a week with 10 other members from our church family, as well as 23 other people from all across the United States.  As we process our time in Haiti, we will be blogging about specific aspects of our trip to share our experience with all of you.  We hope it will give you a glimpse into another part of the world where God is actively at work.

The faith of the Haitian believers

Throughout the week, we partnered with a local church to put on a Vacation Bible School for the children, attend their revival services, and invite the church's neighbors to attend the revival as well.  A benefit of partnering with the local church was our ability to observe and interact with how the church functions, as well as observe the faith of the Haitian believers.  From our observation, the Haitian believers were much more visibly passionate and excited about their faith.  I think they are much more desperate for God, something we are lacking in the states.  As Americans, we have so many other things to find our comfort in, whether it be our busy schedules or all our 'stuff' that fills our homes.  Since we have so much, we often forget that we NEED God.  We have much to learn from our Haitian brothers and sisters.

Above you can see the outside of the church building where we put on the VBS and attended revival services.  Believe me, it is nothing fancy.  Concrete walls and tarps for a roof.  There were minimal decorations, no uniform seating, and even electricity was spotty.  But none of that mattered.  When the Haitians came to church, they were both emotionally excited and physically reverent.  With as little as they have, they put on their "Sunday best" and their focus was the worship of God.  Services would last for hours, and they would sing with passion and gusto.

One Haitian believer that had an impact on me was the man pictured in the photo above on the far right.  This man was at the church 45 minutes before the service began, on his knees, literally crying out to God in prayer.  He sang songs all on his own.  He begged and pleaded with God.  He yelled his prayers.  He visibly shook so much during his prayers that he was dripping sweat off of his face.  He thanked God over and over and over.  Even though I had no idea what he was saying, it was very clear that he had a deep, intimate relationship with his God.  He was desperate for Him.  He knew the power of prayer.

 

 (Vacation Bible School)

The last story Ill tell about the faith of the Haitians is about a man in our neighborhood.  As we were drifting in and out of sleep in the muggy 80 degree weather during our first night, we were awoken before the sun rose at 5:00 a.m. by a man walking the streets and shouting at the top of his lungs.  "Welcome to Haiti," we thought.  The next night, we slept much better, but were awoken before the sun rose by the same man, yelling at the top of his lungs.  This was getting aggravating.  We noticed that the man was saying the same thing each morning, so we asked our translator what he was saying.  Our translator explained that he was shouting, "Wake up!  It's time to get up and go to church to pray!  Wake up!  It's time to go to church and pray!"  

This man did this every day of the week.  As aggravating as it was, he was fulfilling a conviction he felt to call everyone in his neighborhood to start their day in prayer.  Could you imagine someone doing this in the states?!?!  What would you and your neighbors do if someone knocked on every door on your street at 5:00 telling everyone to wake up and pray!  I'm thinking a strangling is a strong possible outcome of that situation.

I want to be bold in how I live out my faith in my neighborhood.  I want to worship deeper.  I want to pray with passion.  I want to be more desperate for God.

We are grateful for our interaction with some of the Haitian believers, and come away encouraged and challenged in how we live out our faith as believers in America.