powerful mother's day message

This morning was a great time of worship.

While Sharon Mishler was here, she took Ryan and I out to eat with Prudence and Proddell – two people whom many of you may know! (They have been to NorthRidge on several occasions along with their daughter, Esther. Prudence even spoke during one service.) We have heard a lot about these two wonderful people, but Friday was the first time we got the chance to get to know them a little better and hear about their ministry here in Haiti.

This morning was our first time going to their church, and it was such a blessing to be there! It’s an early service – from 7:30-9:30 – so we (and the Heckman family next door) all got up early and left to worship the Lord at Eglise Evangelique d’Haiti.

From the time we got there and started singing, I could sense that this church is a church that is on fire for God! In my personal experience throughout the past couple of years, I’ve found no place quite like Haiti in which I can so strongly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit at every church service. Every single person standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a packed out, hot and sweaty, one-room building is singing his or her hearts out to God. Oh, it is refreshing and revitalizing to be in the midst of that kind of intense worship every Sunday!

There was a special service this morning to honor Mother’s Day, which is today in Haiti (May 25^th). After all of the singing, Prudence came to the front of the church and before she gave the message, she asked all of the children to stand and thank their mothers for all that they do.

Next, even better yet, she asked all of the husbands to get up and move so that they would be sitting next to their wives during the service. It was so funny because initially there were quite a few who got up right away, but then there were members of the church who were calling out certain men and making sure that they, too, got up to sit by their wives. I don’t think any spouse was left sitting alone!

But Prudence didn’t stop there – she even asked all of the husbands to give their wives a kiss to show how much they love and appreciate them. After a little bit of affection between all of the couples (which I hardly see at all in this culture), the whole church erupted with applause and giggles and happiness. I couldn’t help but notice that many of the married couples sat holding hands for the remainder of the service. It was all SO sweet!  :)

The message Prudence gave was out of Ephesians, chapters 5 and 6, and Titus. She spoke clearly about the biblical roles of husbands versus wives in a relationship, as well as the respect that needs to come from children. She spoke about the utter importance of teaching sound doctrine to our children, and noted that a family’s first mission field is raising their children to become strong men and women in Christ.  Can you feel the power of that statement? Our families are our first mission field. 

Wives hold onto your husbands, husbands hold onto the Bible, and be sure that your family is standing firm inside of the Word of God.

Prudence also spoke about the importance of realizing what the key influences in your children’s’ lives are, and how to utilize those influences positively. A child’s influence (religious or otherwise) is going to come from 1) family life, 2) church and 3) school --- so choose wisely!

Husbands and wives, fathers and mothers – your children will follow your lead, so make yourselves great examples of Christ followers.

Ephesians 5:1-2
            Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

We are to be imitators of God, walking in love at all times.

God’s word is so powerful!

I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to visit this cherished church body. I cannot wait to go back next month to worship among those believers of Christ and soak in the Word of God.

unexpected FUN at Emmaus!

So... I don't normally go into the chapel on Thursdays because I'm never really sure what's going on during those services/seminars. Today I randomly decided to join since it is the last week of school, and wow! I'm so glad that I did. :)

It turns out that the students and staff were doing some sort of commencement for the 4th year graduating students. They had a lineup of students (on the lefthand side of the above picture) to pray, sing special songs and preach an inspirational message to the graduates. 

Evens

After the message, Thelo and Emanie (students at EBS) took part in the ceremony by pinning flowers  and giving gifts to the graduates after each came up and spoke for a couple of minutes.

Peniel

There was a lot of thanking the students and staff for all of the encouragement that has been given to them throughout the past four years of school.

Excellant

There was also LOTS of praise to God for everything He's done in the lives of each person here at Emmaus.

Marie

It's easy to see that these 10 graduates are excited to see what God has in store for them after school, but it's also clear that they will be missing their Emmaus family!

[Sidenote] The service was excellent and since it was very formal and official, the entire program was in French. This made me realize that an entire year has passed since Ryan and I went to Canada for a whole summer! I was reminiscing all of the adventures we had in Quebec and smiling to myself when I decided that my experience here in Haiti has had some same aspects.

I remember feeling like we had prepared ourselves well for French before we left, yet when we arrived in QC we were dumbfounded and shocked at how little French we actually knew! That kind of sums up our kreyol experience here in Haiti, although I think that at almost our 3 month mark here (woo hoo!) we are doing much better at speaking the native language than we did in Canada. ;) Thankfully, getting those three months of French immersion sure helped me understand everything that was going on today! Because even if I did know as much kreyol as I know now, that wouldn't have helped at a formal ceremony like today. So... Yippee!

Moving on -- After the little ceremony, it was time to eat!

graduates

 Boy was I surprised at the festivities about to happen in the cafeteria! The 3rd year students put on a big celebratory meal for the graduates. It was quite fancy! They had a big table in the center of the room for the graduates and they even had a special table for the administration. I was hesitant to sit there, but after a little pushiness from some students we finally obliged. And it was fun. :)

They had a very special meal that they have been planning for weeks in advance (which included killing a couple of campus goats earlier this week --> killing goats = very special occasion). We ate spicy spicy salad, fried plantains, rice, goat innards, croissants, cake!, and they even served fruit smoothies and special sodas.

 

They went all out! It was delicious.

Walnique and Jorgia

Then, after all that, they had a few special "speakers" --- or um... improv stand up comedians and poets and singers? Whatever you call it, it was funny and entertaining!

Evens, Simèon and Matt

Lastly, or at least the last thing to happen before I left, they gave Matt the "honor" of handing out a gift to every single student, years 1-4. You could say he took the job very seriously... just kidding! He had fun and they had fun. :)

Gecel

Not sure what all was received, but I could definitely tell that each student felt appreciated and all were glad to be a part of this special day of recognition. Gotta love Gecel (above) and Rony (below)! These two students have been such a blessing to me since we arrived.

Rony

Seriously, though! If I am allowed to pick favorites, Gecel and Rony have to be them! These goofy guys pop in the office every morning to say say hello and ask me how I'm doing, and if I ever go in to the cafeteria to eat lunch by myself, I can be sure one of those guys will sit next to me and keep me company. They are such great testimonies of the kind of amazing, God-loving students we have here at Emmaus. (And I'll also add that I am thankful they aren't in the graduating class this year! I'm glad they get to stick around at EBS for a while longer. :)

Giselaine

And then the very final thing that happened while I was there was the honoring of the kitchen staff. This was such a special recognition to the women (and man!) who work their tails off every day to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at the seminary. These staff members are such a blessing to everyone, and it was so sweet that they were recognized and each given a gift, too!

Overall, today included a very unexpected, fun and downright funny afternoon! I'm so happy that I was able to join in on the festivities to celebrate the students who have worked hard throughout the past four years in order to graduate and be sent out to continue to do God's work.

Emmaus Family, 2014

Feeling very blessed and content with where we are at. Thank you, Lord Jesus!