Come and See

'Come and see what the God has done, he is awesome in his deeds the children of man.'
                                                        Psalm 66 v5

Driving down through the mountains

                                                                                                                

We got back from a wonderful weekend in Diquini, Port-au-Prince. This is where we had run the medical clinics in January after the earthquake, where nearly 600 people gave their lives to the Lord and where one of our seminary students Junior is living right now, in a tent on the top of the mountain to plant a church and disciple these new believers.

Sunrise over Port au Prince

The purpose of the trip was for two things, to encourage Junior, to give him rest and also to run a evangelism crusade up in Diquni. On Thursday morning 21 of us were all ready to go for the weekend, 8 missionaries and 13 of the students from the seminary and it was pouring. It had been raining all night, stopped for a little bit in the morning then at about 6.45 it poured and did for the next 3 or 4 hours. Remember Haitian people Hate the rain (as do I!!) but it didn't matter everyone was excited to be going, so we loaded up in the back of the truck in the rain and headed off for the 8/9 hour journey. I cannot say the truck journey was fun, apart from a very special time.......... here we were, 21 of us from 4 different countries (Haiti, America, Northern Ireland and England) in the back of a truck, in the bucketing rain getting soaked driving through the mountains of Haiti singing together and worshipping God in Kreole and in English, it was lovely.

 From left to right front row Frantz, Nicole, Hannah, Julie, Kate, Josephine, Jacob, Devicoeur, Belony, Civil, Jean-Baptiste, Yolene, Denny

Back row- Pam, Jean-Marie, Simeon, Waldeck, Rachelle, John and  Bonamy

After what felt like a very long time we arrived in Port, I didn't see alot of difference to the last time I was there. The buildings which had collapsed are still there and have not been cleared up. There is still tents everywhere, in fact I would maybe say even more on the way into Port, the difference is the tents are now not just sheets but they have tarp and plastic over them which is much better for the rain. Then we drove up the mountain to Diquini. Right at the top of the hill there is a building which used to be a guest house for a weslian seminary (I think). The building is basically empty, no electricity, no running water so we stayed in tents in the land around the building.Actually for a few hours each evening we had some electricity from the generator we brought with us. It was great, the view is unbelievable you can see all of Port-au-Prince, you see the sunset and the sunrise over the mountains and the beauty of God's creation.

Tent city about an hour outside of port

Sunset over Port

Thursday night the youth group which Junior had started wanted to do something for our team, so they explained to us what they had been studying, then served us dinner which was lovely. Only later did Junior tell me that the whole thing was their idea, that they all put money together so they could do that. These people are so poor, they literally don't have anything. To find money to put together to get us food would have been a great sacrifice for them.

The church

Tent city right bedside the church

Then they had a showing of the Jesus film on Thursday night just outside where we were staying. And friday began the programme of evangelism and kids club. Seven of us ran the Kids club from 8 to 10 in the morning, well that was the scheduled time but we are in Haiti so it was about half 8 before we got started. we had around 60 to 80 kids each time. Started off with some singing, praying, then a story, a memory verse and some songs in English. On friday morning we looked at Abraham and how he obeyed God with the verse from Genesis 15 v 6 'And He believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness'. Creole being so simple translated word for word says....Abraham put his trust in the Lord and He gave him Grace.
Friday afternoon was about Jonah and his disobedience and the result of that. The verse was Psalm 30 v3 (From creole) You brought me out of a big pit, You gave me life and You did not leave me to die. Yolane (who was teaching the verse) did a great job and she compared it to what had happened in Port, that alot of people died in the earthquake and its only by God's grace that we were there, it was very powerful especially seeing all these kids are living in tents and literally have nothing. Saturday morning was the story of Jesus death and resurrection and his obedience to his father in Heaven. The Verse was John 11 v 25 'I am the resurrection and the life. Then on sunday afternoon we had a special programme, a revision of the stories, of the songs we had learnt, the memory verses, a quiz and each child got a wee bag of a colouring book, crayons, a copy of Johns gospel and some biscuits and sweets.  You should have heard them answering the questions, they listened so well and knew all the answers and same with their verses. At home we write out the verse, repeat it loads of time etc...In Haiti they repeat it about 5 times and that is it, they know it. About 6 of them got up and said all 3 verses and a couple of them were only 5 or 6 years old.

Kids club

While we were doing the kids club the rest of the seminary studnets were out in the area doing evangelism, encouraging those new believers who had given their lives to God in January. Then each evening at 5 (well 6 by the time we got started) we had a service. The Students led all the services, praying, singing and preaching and they were brilliant. In the 'church' we had about 200 people packed in and Im sure there were around 100 or more standing outside. The presence of God and his Holy Spirit was so clearly felt. Throughout the weekend through the evangelism and the services there were nearly 100 people who decided to become christians.

Church each evening

The studnets we were with were brilliant, 4 of them were in Port during the earthquake the rest from Cap Haitian. Each night we sat and listened to their stories of how they got to be where the are today, they are amazing. Its amazing how God works things out. I'll write about some of their stories when I get a chance.

One more thing, a while ago I told you about Junior, the student who stepped up to God's call to leave seminary for now and go live in diquini to plant a church and disciple the new believers. He has been living by faith!He went to Diquini, lives in a tent and some ladies from the community cook for him. He is working very hard with bible studies for the young people every morning from 5 to 6, he visits people in the comunity aswell as church on sundays. He is very weary and lonely at times. Please continue to pray for him, God is using him and we praise him for that. We are praying God will call 2 more people to Diquini to go and help Junior.

Me, Junior and Hannah

I could probably write more but that was just a wee taster of the weekend and how God was working. Praise the Lord!!