(Diana here)
One thing is for sure: Haitian women have SOUL.
Yesterday, I was about to start studying Creole from my book after teaching, when I heard the most amazing singing coming from the church across the way. I decided to go in instead of studying, and man, good decision, me J
It turned out to be a women’s prayer time… when Haitians get together to pray, it is amazing to watch God to compel them all to bust out in song, mid-prayer. It was wildly beautiful. As most beautiful things are.
[as I write, I just found a giant bug crawling under my shirt. Oookay, so some things aren’t so glorious here.]
Here’s the general gist of it: one woman stands up to pray, and pours out her heart. And they keep taking turns. Until all of a sudden, one woman decides it’s time to sing, and she leads this incredible worship song, and somehow, everyone else joins in to make a perfectly harmonized song. With SOUL. And then they may continue to sing or someone will just pray right after… with no cues or anything. Anything and everything goes. Then, at the end, all the kids (the orphans were there too) and women went up to the front of the church, held hands, and sang songs together in a circle, and prayed some more. One woman was like 80 years old, which is about 110 years for an American, and she was just belting her heart out to Jesus for the last ten minutes. Wow. It’s amazing what a needy heart does for prayer.
Of course, I had no idea what was said the whole time, but I was so glad I went.
On a different note, the orphans in the orphanage have pretty much all come to life in the past two weeks. There are now 11 boys, and the one girl, Mindylove, has moved out to live with the pastor’s family. I was really sad when she moved out, selfishly, bc I knew I would see her much less. But God blessed me last night with a little gift. About 10 minutes after I told Jay how much I missed Mindylove already, and how my heart breaks for her b/c she’s never had any stability in her life whatsoever (she’s 3 ½), guess who walks in our bedroom door. Mindylove. The pastor’s wife and family was staying here for the night. Anyway, in walked Mindylove. And my heart lit up. She had the saddest look on her face, and she crept right into my arms and honestly I’m not sure who loved it more. <3
After about 20 minutes of holding her, I asked her if she wanted to do my hair. I was so surprised when she nodded, b/c that meant my creole was right! Woohoo! Small victories J anyways, I took some pictures to capture it, b/c it was the first time I’d ever had a 3 year old orphan do my hair with black girl twists. Haha. She tried to make it look just like hers. so cute :) She got a little carried away when she started parting my hair with a pen, and then putting Vaseline in it to give it a nice, slick, greasy texture, but it was putting smiles on her face, and making her giggle lots, so I went with it. And it was so fun. Here’s some pix:
One thing is for sure: Haitian women have SOUL.
Yesterday, I was about to start studying Creole from my book after teaching, when I heard the most amazing singing coming from the church across the way. I decided to go in instead of studying, and man, good decision, me J
It turned out to be a women’s prayer time… when Haitians get together to pray, it is amazing to watch God to compel them all to bust out in song, mid-prayer. It was wildly beautiful. As most beautiful things are.
[as I write, I just found a giant bug crawling under my shirt. Oookay, so some things aren’t so glorious here.]
Here’s the general gist of it: one woman stands up to pray, and pours out her heart. And they keep taking turns. Until all of a sudden, one woman decides it’s time to sing, and she leads this incredible worship song, and somehow, everyone else joins in to make a perfectly harmonized song. With SOUL. And then they may continue to sing or someone will just pray right after… with no cues or anything. Anything and everything goes. Then, at the end, all the kids (the orphans were there too) and women went up to the front of the church, held hands, and sang songs together in a circle, and prayed some more. One woman was like 80 years old, which is about 110 years for an American, and she was just belting her heart out to Jesus for the last ten minutes. Wow. It’s amazing what a needy heart does for prayer.
Of course, I had no idea what was said the whole time, but I was so glad I went.
On a different note, the orphans in the orphanage have pretty much all come to life in the past two weeks. There are now 11 boys, and the one girl, Mindylove, has moved out to live with the pastor’s family. I was really sad when she moved out, selfishly, bc I knew I would see her much less. But God blessed me last night with a little gift. About 10 minutes after I told Jay how much I missed Mindylove already, and how my heart breaks for her b/c she’s never had any stability in her life whatsoever (she’s 3 ½), guess who walks in our bedroom door. Mindylove. The pastor’s wife and family was staying here for the night. Anyway, in walked Mindylove. And my heart lit up. She had the saddest look on her face, and she crept right into my arms and honestly I’m not sure who loved it more. <3
After about 20 minutes of holding her, I asked her if she wanted to do my hair. I was so surprised when she nodded, b/c that meant my creole was right! Woohoo! Small victories J anyways, I took some pictures to capture it, b/c it was the first time I’d ever had a 3 year old orphan do my hair with black girl twists. Haha. She tried to make it look just like hers. so cute :) She got a little carried away when she started parting my hair with a pen, and then putting Vaseline in it to give it a nice, slick, greasy texture, but it was putting smiles on her face, and making her giggle lots, so I went with it. And it was so fun. Here’s some pix:
On a different note, I’ve successfully mastered two Haitian dishes with the help of my friend Woosna. She is incredible, and for some reason looks out for us so much. She loves us a lot, and she is truly a gift from God himself! And I’ve never seen her laugh harder than when jay and I told her we could wash her family’s clothes… (she had just told us she would wash ours.. bc “blancs”, white ppl, don’t hand wash clothes).. she said she just could not imagine white ppl washing Haitian ppl’s clothes! Hopefully we get to break some stereotypes while we’re down here!!!
Well, that’s all for now… we love you all! Thanks for praying for us!!!
Ps. we went to the market again today, and took this pic so you could get a taste of what the Meat tables look like...mmm!!!
Well, that’s all for now… we love you all! Thanks for praying for us!!!
Ps. we went to the market again today, and took this pic so you could get a taste of what the Meat tables look like...mmm!!!
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