Easter Sunday

We have had a good day, though I daresay our Easter Sunday worship (8:00) was different from what we Michiganders are used to. There was a relatively small turnout, as the children of the mission's school, who must attend church during the school year, are excused from it on holidays (we were told that attendance is similarly low on Christmas, unlike in the states). As the service began, Mary Jane distributed printed bulletins to us, which provided the song lyrics and the scripture readings (in Kreyol). She also translated the sermon Andris gave, sentence by sentence.

During church I was sitting beside Emily Gunderson, and drew a chuckle from her when I typed out, "Too bad you don't know Kreyol, or you could hop up there and jump in with their praise band!"

After the main service concluded, several of the portable pew benches were placed into a large U shape at the front of the sanctuary, and then roughly thirty of us participated in communion at 9:15 (as shown in this photo). Once again, Mary Jane translated into English both the words of institution, and the brief additional remarks Andris made. When communion was finished, we were told it is their tradition to greet others with a hug or a handshake, and a "God bless you!" In this we were happy to participate.

The predominant impression I came away with was joy over the universality of God, and the worship of His people everywhere, far beyond our little insular experience in the pews in Ann Arbor. This was a very great joy, as was the energetic singing of the young children, whose jubilation was abundantly clear.

After church some of us relaxed until lunch; however most of the men began a project. This week, as his Eagle Scout project, Jake Single is leading an effort to put a tin roof on a second grade classroom under construction. The Haitians had already erected a framework of sturdy metal pipes, roughly two inches in diameter, which were interconnected and braced, as well as had the construction materials pre-delivered. These pictures show, first, an initial survey of the site, and then Jake beginning to drill one of the attachment holes.

For Easter dinner today (and also Tom Single's 40th birthday dinner), we had a magnificent meal that the men returned to the roof building site, and others prepared for the children's Sunday School class at 3:00. I spent some time at the roof site and then returned to the guesthouse to blog about the day, since the generator had been turned on in order to provide power for the drill. But I wrote a lengthy and complex blog post, and was just ready to publish it to the blog, when the generator went out, eliminating the wifi, and wiping out my post. This was a great example of Mary Jane's frequent saying: "That's Haiti!"

More pictures from the afternoon roof session include Tom and Jake doing more attachment, and Mark doing some drilling.

After the 3:00 Sunday School class, there was a youth group meeting down at the church, which our team led in crafting pen toppers. Mary Jane offered me the opportunity to do one, but I told her, "I'll pass." I later added, though, "My wife Michelle would be all over this, as she loves crafting!" This picture shows Katie, Marissa, and Jake helping with the crafting. Although Mary Jane told me that the youth group continued students between 14 and 24 years old, clearly a couple of the observers in the picture are much younger than that.

 For dinner, we enjoyed leftovers from our grand midday feast, as well as a couple of pies (pumpkin and peach) that the girls/women had made in the cooking room after church. They also brought out a small sample of the peach, with birthday candles in it, while we sang to Tom.

As I write, it is 8:00 p.m., and we have enjoyed a most blessed Easter. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

POSTSCRIPT - We concluded with a devotional led by Mark, centered on the story of Jesus on the Emmaus road on Easter night (as told in Luke 24: 13-35).