Pastor Jeremy Stephens

This trip has been a bit different than the last. Many of the things that always happen (like a big greeting at the entrance to town, food from the airport to Las Cayes, some of the food we were able to eat) have changed. I can sense a level of frustration in the team.

Today we had our Sunday services—and they were long! The morning service started at 9:30 and went well past noon. We ate lunch right after and I was so hot that I needed to leave the dinner table. I felt better before too long though.

After lunch we began the prep of the water filters. Ashley and Bill were especially helpful with that, and soon the team was organized into an assembly line. We had the first set prepped and ready to go into homes rather quickly. Later in the afternoon there was a lot of down time—more than I remembered from last year. We made the most of it by playing with the kids from the neighborhood.

This evening we had another service. It was lightly attended at first—so much so that we wondered if they were having trouble at the church. However, Haitian time is different than US time, and by the time the service had been going for a half hour, the street was packed with hundreds of people. Emmanuel Paul, one of our team, preached. He grew up in Haiti but lives in Pemberton, NJ now. He preached in Creole and he did a great job. After he was finished, the pastor of the church got up and challenged the people. 5 people received Christ! This is a big deal in Haiti. Most often people will not make a decision while they are at a large gathering for fear of having to stand in front of others in clothing that isn’t as nice as others. Pastor Guy has said in the past that he has only seen a few people receive Christ in the years he has come here. God is doing great things here.

We returned for a late dinner and sat around the table talking until 11pm. We noticed some changes at the church, like they don’t play the music as loud as they had in the past (likely for our benefit). However, God is acting here and it is exciting. Heading to sleep now, tomorrow is a big day!