We had some trouble finding the church but we called Beth and she came out to the main road and led us in to the correct spot. The church is English speaking, it is called Port-au-Prince Fellowship. It is about 40% American Missionaries and 60% English speaking Haitians. It takes place in a house in Delmas, a suburb (sort of) of Port-au-Prince. About 100 to 125 people attend there, by our count.
None of us even realized how much we missed singing and worshiping in our own language. The songs were familiar, the music team was great and we felt like we could have been in church in Minnesota. We kept smiling at each other because it was so good to be there. The sermon was great, (on Deuteronomy Chapter 6 & Psalms Chapter 1) all of it was exactly what we needed today. Troy may get to play guitar & sing once in awhile on their music team. That got him excited.
I got to see someone I met way back in our adoption days. (Summer and David) I got to put a face with a name of a family that we cooresponded with while we researched moving here (Lisa and Don)and we got to see John and Beth McHoul. It was so fun to feel like I have friends here. I wish we would have gone in two weeks ago!
John and Beth run Maranatha Childrens home and do adoptions. They have been in Haiti almost 17 years. They are such cool people --- they keep it real and Troy and I click with them so well. They are so interesting and are such an encouragement ... their experience here is very helpful to us newbies. John is also the pastor of the church. Beth is my running friend and we are toying with the idea of a "Haiti Marathon Team" -- running a marathon next fall to raise money for some ministry in Haiti that we both care about.
Don & Lisa have seven kids, four here and three grown and living in the States. One of their four boys here is Britt's age and they had fun chatting a bit. They work with Global Mission about 20 minutes outside of Port and do well-drilling work, operate a burn clinic and a few other programs. They got to Haiti last July. We agreed we need monthly game night with our two families.
After church our family, and Lisa and Don's family all went to John and Beth's for lunch. We had fun comparing crazy Haiti stories and I found out where I could find chocolate chips, ricotta cheese and diet coke. All the missionaries compete for these hard to find items and now I am joining the competition since I finally know where to look. :) The diet coke is priority one. They don't even know how big the mistake was of sharing this information with me. Their diet pop days are over. ;-)
Our Mastiff puppy, Peanut, is related to the McHoul's dog; shown with Noah and I in the photo below. This is Peanut's dad. They estimate the dog weighs 215 to 225 lbs. John, Beth, Troy, & their other Mastiff, in the background.
Noah cut his head there for the third time in three weeks. He came running to me with blood running down both sides of his face and all over in his hairline. After a brief moment of panic we determined the cut was not very deep. A blood covered child creates a fast heart-rate in a hurry! He fell down the cement steps. He seems no worse for the wear at this point.
Paige brought home two friends to stay over night. Troy will bring them back into town when he goes to Port on Tuesday. Nikki is 13 and is being adopted and will live in Ohio. Salou is 11 and will be going to Texas. Paige lobbied hard for them to come --- there is no school in Haiti until Thurday because of Mardi Gras, Paige thinks she is Haitian now and should also be off of school. Since she did some work on Saturday and promisies to double up on Tuesday we decided a sleep over was okay. This photo was taken in the truck, along the path home, when we stopped to get drinking water for the week. The girls sang worship songs (the same ones from church today) the whole way home, we could hear them inside the cab and people in the streets that we passed by, kept turning to see where the singing was coming from. It was cute.
We had always planned that maybe once a month we would go in for English church, but after going there and realizing how much we miss it we think every other week is a better idea. It is necessary for us to support the Lifeline church too, so we need to be here 1/2 of the time so they see that we care by our attendance.
Our mission teams arrive in three small groups, starting tomorrow. The menus are planned, the food is purchased, the beds are made and we are as ready as we are ever going to be. Since this is all new to us we don't know how our time will be used. We might be quieter than usual on the blog.
Much Love from LaDigue. Have a great Monday. ~Tara
