School Initiative Team - Sunday

Happy Sunday from this beautiful island! It’s hard to remember that it is January and Ohio is covered in snow when I am writing this at the Mission Center, listening to the ocean waves lapping on the beach! Today we went to St. Marc for morning worship. Tracy was going to give the message while Herve translated. Before the service, Herve showed us the school that is on the first floor. He said that before he began the church in this area 17 years ago, there was a lot of voodoo influence and a witch doctor lived right next to their property. (He has since left!) Once a month the church gathers on a Sunday morning then goes into the city to clean and work and brings back buckets of fresh water for the people in the neighborhood. There is no safe well water in the area. The people need to go to the main road just to get water. The service was wonderful and the spirit of God was evident in the songs, beautiful faces, up-raised hands and their total worship, even though we don’t share the same language. They are our brothers and sisters and it is a joy to worship together with them. Tracy’s message was from 1 Corinthians 12 about being one in the body of Christ. Her message was about working together to encourage and build up the body through having a servant’s heart. After the service, we went to the hospital in St. Marc and Herve took us through the wards. It’s hard to even describe what it was like and seeing the medical needs they have there. He asked Herve to pray aloud over the patients before we left. After going to the adult wards, we went to the pediatric units. Wow… that was difficult to see the sick little ones in there. We saw a premie baby in an incubator and asked Herve if he could pray over the mother and baby before we left. It was an experience none of us will forget. In the afternoon we relaxed and took inventory in the kitchen. Late afternoon we headed back to St. Marc to be a part of their youth group. Tracy spoke to them about the importance of abstinence. Since it was a mature topic, Patti and Becky took some of the little children outside for bubble blowing. Tracy fielded some great questions and the teens were very engaged in the teaching. A majority came up front to commit to purity. We came back to the mission center and enjoyed the ice cream that Herve bought us. It has been another full day. Good night to all of our loved ones!