Church Haitian Style

This morning I went to church at a Baptist Cathedral! There were about two thousand people at the service - which was three hours long. One of our team members José was the preacher for the service. All the women and girls were dressed very fancy and many of the women were wearing fancy hats or doilies on their heads. It was very traditional and very long! Children sat through the whole three hour service without fussing... something I have never seen in my church experience. The choir in this church was bigger than all the people in our church in Montreal. There were even hundreds of people out in the streets listening to the service on huge speakers.

This afternoon we had a tour of an area called Cité du people - a slum like I have never seen before. There was garbage everywhere and pigs and children picking through the garbage. It was beyond even my worst thought. There is so much garbage and no system to dispose of it. This could be a beautiful country - the coast is lovely - yet the garbage and the filth of the streets completely destroys the beauty of the nature.

I also visited a small community project that the church has started for women and children. It is called Bethany. It has about 18 small aparments where primarily older women live - some with their grandchildren who have been abandoned by their parents. It is very small and crowded but it gives these ladies a safe place to live.

We are hoping to visit a couple orphanages and schools in the next couple days. I am hoping to be able to distribute the supplies and the money that I brought with people in those locations.