Sabbath - Day 3 in Haiti

After a grueling day of 8 1/2 hours on the worksite, our Sabbath couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for our team. We were able to sleep in a bit before breakfast, then we clean up for Chapel at 9. We worshiped in song, word and table...in Kreyól and in English. One of the boys, Patrick, was the preacher whose homily flowed out of the parable of the good Samaritan. It wasn’t planned to be this way, but yesterday’s question of “Where are you?”, was now piggybacked by Jesus asking us “Who is your neighbor?”. And one of the beauties of worship in Haiti is that it’s kind of like a multiplex theatre...you attend one service, but hear three others going on simultaneously. The cacophony of songs of praise being offered up is stirring.

After worship we boarded a bus that would take us for lunch, driving tour of downtown Port-au-Prince, for metal art shopping in the artisan village of Croix des Bouquet. Lunch at the Epi D’or (translates as “golden sword” and their logo is swinging baguette) was good old greasy American pepperoni pizza. And the ever-gregarious Jeff happened upon another mission team from the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City (this is largest United Methodist congregation with weekly worship attendance at about 7,500). It was a great contact to make as it turned out that we know a lot of the same people.

British ex-pat, Jaqui Labrom, provided running commentary as we toured earthquake damage, important landmarks (some still standing, and others not), and tent city after tent city...trash heap after trash heap. It was hard to take it all in. Hard to process. Impossible to see a way out. In fact, after a while you just glaze over, being numbed by it all. Then it takes see something even more horrible to one up the status quo.

We made our way out of PAP and arrived in the more rural village of Croix des Bouquet. As you enter, you are more attune to aural conditions, before the visual. The sound of hammer and chisel to metal, over and over...coming from every third house, or so. These artisans are hard at work, even on a Sunday afternoon creating more of “Treasure from Trash”. You see all of these metal pieces are made used oil drums. So, something

that we have a hard time getting rid of in the States, is something the Haitians now resurrect into beauty. We loaded up on a great variety of beautiful pieces that we will have for sale upon our return for continued support of our mission teams.

At the end of the day in our circle of reflection, we all agreed that the God we serve is ever-present in the trash, in the treasure and in the between.