Noise

On this day in Haiti…the trailer is still in customs. There, that is now out in the open. On a positive note, it will be tomorrow. We called after the men’s meeting at 5:02 p.m. and our customs agent said to Robinson, “I’m sorry, you’re too late.” Really, we’ve only called 50 times since we have been here, and you couldn’t call with authorization? We called at noon and she had said no word. Well, word came sometime this afternoon, and everything was authorized to move as I suspected because the dock has to be emptied for the next ship arriving Saturday. There is a never ending list of things to do while we are here though, and as there has been a year since our last visit, everywhere I turn there is something to fix or add or get done. We are picking them off one by one, and it’s making people very happy. One unique thing happened yesterday that I thought should receive mention in my posting was a meeting that happened at the courthouse. Robinson was advised by the government that they requested an appointment with him on the day we were arriving, and he had to respond with a letter stating he could not do that date, so it was changed to yesterday at 11:00 a.m. I asked him what the meeting was about, and he told me it was about the church in town, no big deal. This peaked my curiosity and upon further investigation it seems news of the long night service has reached Port Au Prince. He informed the League of Pastor’s in St. Marc of the meeting, and they told him to go but if there was a problem they would come with support. As it would turn out there was word on the street that the government might shut the church down. Robinson came out of his room yesterday dressed to the hilt, and I knew in that moment this was a serious meeting. As it would turn out, it was a noise issue. The man from the government turned out to be a Christian pastor, and the meeting was a cordial one. A small agreement was made, as Robinson made the case in point that there was no effort to restrict the disco’s in town which was met with chuckles. They had been called on their own game. The surprise came when I found out there was a demonstration put on in front of the courthouse by other area churches before he arrived and while the meeting was in session and that people had gone through the courthouse trying to find him to protect and defend him! But the meeting was in a special, private, air conditioned room. It would seem the city is not going to surrender our long-night service for a long time to come. At our new location, they are already asking Robinson if he will start a long night service when we open there. One thing it seems our Haitian Christian family and community are seeing is true answers to pray! ‘Praying without ceasing’ takes on a physical commitment here, not just a mental one going on in one’s head. I don’t want to minimize anyone’s prayer life in this blog, but the commitment of the church community in this city in to be commended. And most certainly Pastor Robinson and his commitment to making sure it prevails. Without fail across the years that our teams have come, after bedding the team, the one night Robinson does not stay with us at the mission house is Friday night because he still goes and prays with his people all night long. And then without any rest, he serves the team all day long on Saturday. Sean spoke for the men’s meeting this afternoon and did a great job. It’s always a challenge when one speaks with a translator for the first time, but he did well, and the young men appreciated his talk and message. I saw my post was long last night, so I will wrap up for now lest I labor you with too many words! One small issue that has come to light is the failure of the comment section. Google has apparently disabled ‘open’ comments in order to protect from scam, which my post has apparently suffered from. You have to sign up for a google account, sign in, and then post your comment. If it’s too much trouble, no worries. I usually share the comments with the team and they have missed that feature this trip. I have linked the blog to FB, but it is too daunting here with the internet issues to try to sort through the news feed to follow the comments there, and I know some are doing that. We will catch up with that trail when we get home. Blessing as always!

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