Three weeks ago my husband Denny and I were in Haiti with an incredible team of people from Iowa and we experienced a sense of joy that is sometimes hard to experience in the midst of the prosperity in which we live. We have been reading about “joy ” in the book of Philippians these past few Sundays at my church.
How could Paul experience such joy while shackled in prison. How can we experience joy in suffering, in sacrifice, or in the everyday things of life.
We arrived in Haiti on Saturday. The drive through Port au Prince and its poverty, darkness, tents cities, garbage, animals and utter chaos is overwhelming. But there in the middle of chaos is a little organization called CRECH (the Consortium to Reinforce Christian Education in Haiti). Teachers and writers from Haiti have put together an absolutely amazing curriculum for schools that infuses Christian principals into every subject area.
HELP, the Haitian Education and Literacy Program, where I volunteer, had ordered 2,400 books for the Christian Schools run by Promise for Haiti in the Pignon area. There was joy in that place as we picked up and loaded the books into our little truck.
On Sunday we went to church in Guimby. This little mountain village is about 5 miles away from Pignon, but an hour+ by bumpy roads up the mountain, through the river, traveling by SUV until the road was impassible, then another mile or so by foot till we got to the little church start located in one of our remote schools.
The call to worship was “Jingle Bells” on the battery operated megaphone – alerting the people it was time to come to church. Here we were in church, under a tin-roof with tree branch posts, decorated with table cloths hung to form walls, triple digit heat and yet the power and presence of the Spirit of the Lord was stronger than we experience in most of our churches here in the US.
The little pile of money on the notebook, used for an offering plate, was given in joy. And the singing was pure joy! Joy in the midst of poverty, hunger, such a hard, hard life…but there was joy!
One of the first things this new little church did was to make “stretchers”, two of them, for the surrounding community to use when they have to carry sick people to the hospital. They were serving in love, meeting a need, and it brought much joy.
After the service we stopped at the High Priestess of Witch Doctors house who had accepted Jesus on our trip a year ago……she wasn’t there but about 20 minutes later she came running down the path to find us – full of joy – bringing us greetings and asking if we could pray for her son, who was now in prison. What joy to pray with our new sister in Christ.
The next morning was the reason for our trip – providing the first ever teacher training workshop for 70+ teachers and the 9 principals of the schools established by Comiti Bienfaisance and supported by Promise for Haiti. The devil was hard at work trying to dissuade us – the air conditioner and electricity were not on, the generator wasn’t going to be on until 10:00 because there was no money for extra fuel, (August in Haiti is HOT – and with 70 people in the room it was HOTTER than HOT), the meals that were supposed to be arranged for the teachers were not arranged, the translator was tied up in emergency meetings to figure out how to feed the 70+ people.
But God was faithful and the teachers and principals eagerly entered the conference room at 8:30am, a bit apprehensive as to what to expect, but there was joy as they picked up the gifts we brought them, there was joy as prayer and praise were lifted up in the name of Jesus and there was joy as we dedicated this workshop and the school year to the glory of God.
Doug Grunder(Mt. Vernon, Ia) and Denny Brand (Pella, Ia – Exec Director for PFH) presented the gospel, the Gospel of John was given as a gift to each person. One of the goals of the four day workshop was to value each teacher, to let them know how important they are, to equip them, empower them, love and bless them in the name of Jesus. As the first day went on, we could see the changes in expression, the hope in their eyes, and the smiles on their faces.
It was pure delight to see Katie Peterson (Pella, Ia)working with them on new ways to learn, on higher order thinking skills and teaching them to use the inflatable globes and maps we brought down. They have virtually nothing in their classrooms except one chalkboard….the maps and globes brought joy!
It was exciting to see Sherry Grunder (Mt. Vernon, Ia) and Joanne Schafer (Pella, Ia – HELP founder) work with the early childhood teachers – helping them understand new ways to develop problem solving – teaching them how to use the 106 puzzles we gave them, how to make patterns with beads and pipe cleaners, how to use counting chips to develop math skills. Most of them had never experienced any of these methods we take so for granted!
As I worked with developing leadership skills, procedures and routines with the principals, they openly shared the problems and issues that face them and offered ways we together could help them.
There was joy as we explained the $15 a month pay raise all of them would be getting this fall……you see, currently teachers and principals in our schools make $57 a month.
We presented each of them with large duffle bags of supplies for their school that the Auditorium service had collected – notebooks for the teachers, a pencil sharpener for each school, pencils, pens, sticky notes, stickers and of course the globes, puzzles and manipulatives.
And then we introduced the new textbooks that had been purchased for the students. Joy turned to sheer excitement and amazement at the colors and pictures in the books. The team from CRECH did an amazing job teaching them how to use the Christian Education books and the new social studies books and science books. The schools we work with have never had textbooks for the children – so the chatter and excitement in the room was electric and almost deafening!
As we sang Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art and prayed with them– the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit`` was overwhelming. I know there were tears in our eyes and in most of their eyes, as well, as we praised God together for this amazing experience we had all shared.
We had to leave a day early because Hurricane Isaac was to hit Port au Prince on Friday, the day we were to leave from Port. But God provided amazing grace and protection to us as we piled 10 people in the small truck and headed out the next morning to the opposite side of the island to take a missionary charter to Florida.
I know from experience the joy that your prayers, financial support and willingness to help have provided for all the teams who serve here and across the globe. We are one body in Christ, and when a mission team goes out and individuals go out to serve in the name of Jesus, the body of Christ goes with them. God has called us to be of one mind, body and spirit for the purpose of bringing glory to his son. And if we will go into this world, as one body for one purpose, then we will truly experience JOY.
How could Paul experience such joy while shackled in prison. How can we experience joy in suffering, in sacrifice, or in the everyday things of life.
We arrived in Haiti on Saturday. The drive through Port au Prince and its poverty, darkness, tents cities, garbage, animals and utter chaos is overwhelming. But there in the middle of chaos is a little organization called CRECH (the Consortium to Reinforce Christian Education in Haiti). Teachers and writers from Haiti have put together an absolutely amazing curriculum for schools that infuses Christian principals into every subject area.
HELP, the Haitian Education and Literacy Program, where I volunteer, had ordered 2,400 books for the Christian Schools run by Promise for Haiti in the Pignon area. There was joy in that place as we picked up and loaded the books into our little truck.
On Sunday we went to church in Guimby. This little mountain village is about 5 miles away from Pignon, but an hour+ by bumpy roads up the mountain, through the river, traveling by SUV until the road was impassible, then another mile or so by foot till we got to the little church start located in one of our remote schools.
The call to worship was “Jingle Bells” on the battery operated megaphone – alerting the people it was time to come to church. Here we were in church, under a tin-roof with tree branch posts, decorated with table cloths hung to form walls, triple digit heat and yet the power and presence of the Spirit of the Lord was stronger than we experience in most of our churches here in the US.
The little pile of money on the notebook, used for an offering plate, was given in joy. And the singing was pure joy! Joy in the midst of poverty, hunger, such a hard, hard life…but there was joy!
One of the first things this new little church did was to make “stretchers”, two of them, for the surrounding community to use when they have to carry sick people to the hospital. They were serving in love, meeting a need, and it brought much joy.
After the service we stopped at the High Priestess of Witch Doctors house who had accepted Jesus on our trip a year ago……she wasn’t there but about 20 minutes later she came running down the path to find us – full of joy – bringing us greetings and asking if we could pray for her son, who was now in prison. What joy to pray with our new sister in Christ.
The next morning was the reason for our trip – providing the first ever teacher training workshop for 70+ teachers and the 9 principals of the schools established by Comiti Bienfaisance and supported by Promise for Haiti. The devil was hard at work trying to dissuade us – the air conditioner and electricity were not on, the generator wasn’t going to be on until 10:00 because there was no money for extra fuel, (August in Haiti is HOT – and with 70 people in the room it was HOTTER than HOT), the meals that were supposed to be arranged for the teachers were not arranged, the translator was tied up in emergency meetings to figure out how to feed the 70+ people.
But God was faithful and the teachers and principals eagerly entered the conference room at 8:30am, a bit apprehensive as to what to expect, but there was joy as they picked up the gifts we brought them, there was joy as prayer and praise were lifted up in the name of Jesus and there was joy as we dedicated this workshop and the school year to the glory of God.
Doug Grunder(Mt. Vernon, Ia) and Denny Brand (Pella, Ia – Exec Director for PFH) presented the gospel, the Gospel of John was given as a gift to each person. One of the goals of the four day workshop was to value each teacher, to let them know how important they are, to equip them, empower them, love and bless them in the name of Jesus. As the first day went on, we could see the changes in expression, the hope in their eyes, and the smiles on their faces.
It was pure delight to see Katie Peterson (Pella, Ia)working with them on new ways to learn, on higher order thinking skills and teaching them to use the inflatable globes and maps we brought down. They have virtually nothing in their classrooms except one chalkboard….the maps and globes brought joy!
It was exciting to see Sherry Grunder (Mt. Vernon, Ia) and Joanne Schafer (Pella, Ia – HELP founder) work with the early childhood teachers – helping them understand new ways to develop problem solving – teaching them how to use the 106 puzzles we gave them, how to make patterns with beads and pipe cleaners, how to use counting chips to develop math skills. Most of them had never experienced any of these methods we take so for granted!
As I worked with developing leadership skills, procedures and routines with the principals, they openly shared the problems and issues that face them and offered ways we together could help them.
There was joy as we explained the $15 a month pay raise all of them would be getting this fall……you see, currently teachers and principals in our schools make $57 a month.
We presented each of them with large duffle bags of supplies for their school that the Auditorium service had collected – notebooks for the teachers, a pencil sharpener for each school, pencils, pens, sticky notes, stickers and of course the globes, puzzles and manipulatives.
And then we introduced the new textbooks that had been purchased for the students. Joy turned to sheer excitement and amazement at the colors and pictures in the books. The team from CRECH did an amazing job teaching them how to use the Christian Education books and the new social studies books and science books. The schools we work with have never had textbooks for the children – so the chatter and excitement in the room was electric and almost deafening!
As we sang Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art and prayed with them– the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit`` was overwhelming. I know there were tears in our eyes and in most of their eyes, as well, as we praised God together for this amazing experience we had all shared.
We had to leave a day early because Hurricane Isaac was to hit Port au Prince on Friday, the day we were to leave from Port. But God provided amazing grace and protection to us as we piled 10 people in the small truck and headed out the next morning to the opposite side of the island to take a missionary charter to Florida.
I know from experience the joy that your prayers, financial support and willingness to help have provided for all the teams who serve here and across the globe. We are one body in Christ, and when a mission team goes out and individuals go out to serve in the name of Jesus, the body of Christ goes with them. God has called us to be of one mind, body and spirit for the purpose of bringing glory to his son. And if we will go into this world, as one body for one purpose, then we will truly experience JOY.
