Christmas Day in Haiti

I just have to laugh sometimes when I think of how well God knows my needs, even before I realize it. No, I'm not talking about what I got for Christmas. I got mostly yummy things I love to eat like nuts, dried fruit,Doritos and candy. These are definitely not things I need, but are things I like a lot!

What I'm talking about is how God knows that even on Christmas it is more blessed to give than to receive.

The day started out with Carol and I doing our Christmas tradition of making "pancake sculptures" for Joy and Ricky. She made a manger scene, and I made angels.

I also worked on the final touches to prepare for leading worship at church. Our theme was "Jesus is coming again" and we read scripture and sang Christmas Carols that look forward to His second coming. (Like "Joy to the World"). It was so nice to worship our Lord with Joy singing and Ricky playing the drums. Joy sang a beautiful duet with a Rebecca Boyer, a friend from Quisqueya Christian School who was also in Haiti visiting her family. They sang Nicole C. Mullins "Come unto me, all who are weary and I will give you rest." A great message for the busy holiday season!

We also read lots of verses from Revelation. In preparation for Worship, I found out that the Greek word "Maranatha" can have two meanings, depending on how it is pronounced. It can mean either "The Lord has come" or "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20) So even that Greek word looks forward and back at this first advent and his second coming.

Just before we left for Church we opened a few presents, but ran out of time since we had get to church early to rehearse the music.

The service went well, except that just as our Pastor was starting the sermon the electricity provided by the city went off and they had to start the generator. Actually, we can't complain as we are getting up to 20 hours of electricity a day which is the most we've ever had since we started to live here. (Before we would only get about 8 hours, and that was usually at night).

After church we opened the rest of our presents and snacked on the goodies while Carol and Joy prepared a great dinner for us.

Then, as is often the case in Haiti, unexpected visitors showed up! It was Francoise and her three children between the ages of 3 and 7. After lots of hugs and kisses we invited them into the living room where we had some presents already wrapped for them. (You many remember that this is the family that stayed with us for a year, and then, thanks to the generosity of people after the earthquake, we were able to build them a one-room house.)

Joy had purchase most of the toys at a dollar store in the US, but you would have thought they were made of gold from the smiles on the children's faces!

Then I got the idea of using the left-over pancake batter we had made that morning and make them pancakes in the shape of angels. They had sprinkles on them and the kids really like them!

God knew that we would really enjoy having little children around on Christmas day!

Then I drove them back to their house with their precious presents and hugged them all goodbye. As I was just about to start up a very steep hill that I always need four-wheel drive to get up, I noticed a bunch of kids starting to climb the hill with only one adult with them. They were all dressed nicely and so I stopped and asked the woman chaperon if they needed a ride. My intention was to just drive them up the hill, but then I found out why they were all dressed up.

It turned out the lady was taking 16 children between 7 and 12 years old to a Christmas party put on by Munchees, a pizza restaurant about 30 minutes away. There they would be treated to food and get presents. As the president of a community organization, she had arranged for the children to go to the party, but was running about an hour late. I asked why she was alone and what plan she had to get to the party, and she said there would be people to help her with the children when she got to the party, but that they would have to take public transportation to get there.

Knowing that she could not possibly take all of the children in one little Tap Tap (a small pickup truck used for public transportation in Haiti), I called up Carol and asked her is she would mind if I drove them to the restaurant and she said Ok.

As I drove, I talked with this woman who was brave enough to chaperon 16 kids single-handedly on Christmas. She told me she was the mother of 8 children and that one had died. The others were between 15 and 30 years old, but none were married. Four years ago her husband left her for a younger woman, and she had sold things on the street to support her family ever since the government had confiscated her business downtown before the earthquake. When I asked her why she was doing such a good deed on Christmas she said she believes God blesses those who help others less fortunate than themselves. She said she had helped to start the community association after her neighborhood was hit hard by the earthquake and cholera. So I tried to encourage her in the good work she was doing.

When we arrived, the street outside the restaurant was blocked off and was full of people. I wondered how she would get the 16 children through the crowd, but she just got them out of the back of the truck and plowed into the crowd!

I guess God knew I needed to do a “good work which He had prepared for me to do” on Christmas!