Adventures at Our Church

Family and Friends,

Day 111 of our Haiti Adventure!

Every Sunday around 9:45 we head down to the main street of the village (okay, it's the only street) and spend an hour or so at our little yellow and pink church called, “Ebenezer Church of God.” It is always an adventure to see what new things will happen. One person who always makes worship interesting is a cute little old lady whom I call “Grandma Hallelujah.” When the Pastor says something that gets her fired us, she stands up and starts shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Once in awhile she gets going so fast and loud that she can't stop. It can go on for several minutes. We love Grandma Hallelujah.

There there are the farm animals. I'm not talking about how back home people occasionally bring in farm animals for a Christmas pageant or something like that. I'm talking about farm animals wandering in to church of their own accord during the service...chickens, sheep, goats, dogs, and any number of birds or insects. The fact that they come in is one thing...the fact that none of the Haitians seem to notice is another. Of course we have to mention the traffic. The front door of the church is a few feet from the road where large trucks go speeding by. They often feel the need to honk, knowing that church is going on, and then a nice wave of heat and dust comes shooting through the door after they pass.

We usually stay from about 10-11AM and then head home. Church actually starts anywhere between 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock, and it finishes somewhere between 11 o'clock and 12 o'clock, but we put in our hour of worship and then call it good. At first glance you might be tempted to call us typical, consumeristic, American Christians who can only sit in church for one hour before going home to spend the bulk of the day lounging around, but we are doing the best we can to be a part of a local congregation without going nuts.

We really do love the people down at church, especially our Pastor, Jocelyn Delva, a very intelligent and gentle 30ish man from Les Cayes. The locals at church are very warm and welcoming people, and they worship God passionately, but there is a limit to how much Creole-yelling-through-nasty-sound-system we can take on any given Sunday. It can be brutal at times. One nice thing is that they sing a lot of the same hymns as back home, or at least the same melodies. That is interesting for us to listen to and gradually be able to sing along with. Also, as I mentioned the people are very expressive in worship, and that has a way of drawing you in, especially during the times of prayer.

The main reason we go to the church that we do is the fact that it is reachable with the wheelchair. There are a couple of healthier churches in either direction, but they are a little out of range distance-wise and the buildings are perched up on big hills. Our church is right along the road and only up one step. I say that the other churches are healthier, because right now our church is in the middle of a full-blown internal meltdown. We are witnessing a church split in the works, and it is quite the learning experience.

The way church normally works in Haiti is that the founder of the church is also the owner of the church. In other words he owns the building, the church name, and the rights to a certain percentage of the offerings and other income. Church really is a business here. The owner of our church is causing some major problems for the Pastor and the congregation, and it turns out he has been doing this for many years. He is actually the grandson of the original founder who was also the pastor back in the early years. Whatever goodwill for the people the founder might have had long ago has dried up over time as the ownership of the church has been passed down through the generations. The current owner has managed to keep an iron grip on the local people and drive away pastors who try to change the situation. But now a Pastor has finally come who wants to stand up to the situation and change things.

In the US people do and say nasty things when a church is dividing, but the difference here is that the people aren't as sophisticated at hiding the ugliness and pretending like things are normal. The last several weeks at church the owner and the pastor have alternated Sundays trying to sway the people to their side. So Sunday mornings kick off with a Sunday school hour marked by a lot of finger pointing and arguing, followed by a worship service featuring cold stares and half-hearted singing, and rounded out with a business meeting filled with more of the same as the grand finale. We never stick around for that last part. Oh yeah, then there is the whispering and alliance-building out in the community during Sunday afternoons.

Some unstoppable forces will carry on no matter what happens in the next few months at Ebenezer. The gospel message will go forth and Christ's kingdom will continue to expand, God will receive His glory and remain on his throne, and Grandma Hallelujah will jump up and yell whenever the Holy Spirit moves. We are here, and it is our church, and we are sticking around to see what happens.

Have a great Adventure this week!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers