for many reasons

Today was the end of another session at the seminary, a two week concentrated course for each class of students. Because the new classes don't start until tomorrow, we decided to help them do a "movie night." We picked "Evan Almighty", a comedy which tells the story of man who God chooses to be a modern-day Noah.

We set up the Seminary projector in the cafeteria, our i-pod speakers and a lap top, and every single student, and staff, came to watch "the biggest movie" they had ever seen.

No one enjoyed it more than Matt and I. All the parts we laughed at, no one laughed. Parts we didn't think were funny, the students almost fell off the benches laughing. Like, every single time there was a monkey. Even if the money wasn't doing anything :) It was SO FUN to hear their conversations...They commented on every single woman that was wearing pants, on the fact that "God" was black (Morgan Freeman), and called EVERY single animal either "dog, cat, goat, horse or sheep." Bears were "horses," llamas were "sheep," and monkey's were "goats."

The most interesting parts were when "God" appeared. The guys talked and talked and talked the whole movie, asking each other what things were, commenting, laughing...but when "God" appeared or spoke, EVERYONE went dead silent to hear what he would say. Frequently, "Noah" would say, "God, that doesn't make ANY SENSE," and each time "God" said, "Trust me, no matter what, everything I do is because I love you."

Each time "God" said that, everyone went, "OHHHHH!" It was so interesting!

We had planned on setting up the movie and leaving, but we ended up staying for the whole thing because they were having SUCH a good time! As the guys filed out at the end, one student stayed around as we cleaned up. He seemed clearly touched that we had spent our evening with them, and that we had brought the "movie machine."

"I think," he said carefully, "that God has brought you to Haiti for many reasons."

We think so, too!

side note...if anyone has any G or PG rated movies that have positive messages that you think fifty-five 20-40 year-old Haitian men would like, we'd love some suggestions for next month!