a glimpse of His radiance

We are just back from a truly awesome experience...wish you could have been there! One of my English students has been asking us for months to come to his church. For one reason or another, we have never been able to do so, but this morning we finally got our chance.

Every Haitian church we have been to thus far has been some kind of a block building, usually with a poured floor, wooden benches, and a tin roof. This church, however, is located crammed between houses in in a very poor part of downtown, and is nothing more than a shaky structure made of metal siding. The metal siding was all painted pink, and bed sheets hung across gaping holes. Toilet paper covered a few wood posts, and fake flowers topped the shaky altar. The floor was packed mud, and was quite uneven and, well, muddy, and our bench, long since snapped in two, had been nailed back together.

It wasn't the churches building that made this experience so touching, however. It was this churches joy. A large group of people we never knew existed were made known as brothers and sisters today. Equal numbers of men and women and children filled the "room", and there was a personal feeling that we haven't felt anywhere else before. My student is one of the friendlies guys we have met, and that spirit exuded throughout the church and the service. Visitors were brought to the front, greeted everyone, shared a few prayer requests and were prayed for. Each member with an April birthday was brought down, prayed for, and was given a small gift. Many different people helped lead, and the obvious gap we often feel between the pastor and the people was completely absent.

It was obvious that this congregation was not at all used to having missionaries visit, and we were quite warmly greeted and then stared at :) Our pastor friend brought us to the front to introduce us, and then insisted that we share a little about ourselves. Most churches are content simply to have Matt share, but Pastor insisted that everyone would be greatly saddened if they couldn't be encouraged by us both. Before we could sit down, a procession of church elders and lay leaders joined the pastor in giving us a gift for worshiping with them: a framed diploma, written in English, thanking us for coming (pictured).



My student preached the main sermon, "the consolation we have in Jesus Christ," even giving a brief newly-learned science lesson about outer space, and the power of God :)

They were incredibly encouraged simply by our presence, something we would truly not understand at all, except that we were so equally encouraged by THEIR presence... Most importantly, God's presence was felt so nearly as Christian love and worship poured out of this little muddy shack. After the almost 3 hour service, Matt and I still found ourselves glowing...

It was church the way church is supposed to be: not necessarily air-conditioned or clean or comfortable or wealthy (communion consisted of crackers because they had been unable to purchase a loaf of bread) or modern, but it exuded the joy of Christ, people who obviously loved, prayed for, and cared for each other, earnest worship, Biblical preaching, and an obvious love for the Lord.

Every time we see our framed diploma, we will remember what a blessing today was, and of the way this church reminded us about what the Lord REALLY wants: US.