We ate breakfast at 9 a.m. then my
group headed out in the village for vacation bible school with the Haitian
children. Another group went to do construction on the clinic, and the
remaining group preached the gospel from hut to hut in the village. The
children were just as beautiful as the teal, deep blue water along the
coastline with the green palm trees. There is something so precious and
innocent about some of the kids' smiles that bring me great joy. I told the
children about the story of Noah and the Ark then we colored, blew
bubbles, and played games with them.
At 1 p.m. we had lunch then headed over to
a large tent with wooden benches where Josh and I spoke on the gospel to
the teen and twenty-year-old Haitians. It was my first time to preach the
gospel. It is so humbling to know I can never preach the gospel the way it
deserves to be preached; I am not just referring to my public speaking ability,
but that the gravity of the message of the gospel that is so incredibly important,
powerful, meaningful, and immaculate that no man could ever do it justice with the
way we share it. It is by God's grace that He even gave me the opportunity to
speak about His great news. About 20-30 people showed up to the youth
conference. It was a beautiful opportunity to be able to preach the gospel. He
gave me a great peace and joy about sharing His greatest message.
Afterward, we sang two worship songs in English,
which included "Here I Am to Worship" and "How Great is Our
God." It was the most jumbled mess of worship I have ever heard, but God
continually reminded me throughout the singing that this is a joyous noise to Him.
I began thinking of how God views our songs of praise. We can never worship God
the way He deserves, so even if our voices are in perfect unity, it's still
such a mess even though it doesn't appear to be that way to us little humans
down here. We do not praise God "better" by singing on key or having
loud bands or high-quality instruments, but rather it is a joyful noise to Him
when our only heart's desire is for the great and awesome God to be lifted on
high. It is all about Him. It is not about us - and I am not just speaking of worship
through song. Romans 12:1 says “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God –
this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Later that night, after I wrote this
journal, I and the five other girls sleeping in the same room as me heard a
voodoo ceremony going on outside. Ironically, I just wrote on worshiping God
and now I’m writing about people who we heard worshiping the devil. It was something
none of us had ever been exposed to and something most people in America are
never exposed to. It woke me up two times in the night because it was going on
all night (kind of irritating – like can you stop beating on your drums and
chanting to the devil…I’m trying to sleep here). The second time I woke up, all
the other girls were awake as well. We were all pretty freaked out, so we had a
one-hour prayer session, declaring our authority in Christ and the power of our
God and rebuking the devil. Through prayer and reassurance of His protection
and magnificent power, God gave me a peace about the situation. I will write
more about this in later journals, but basically all you need to know is that
yes, the devil is real and demons are actively working on this earth, BUT GOD
IS GREATER than our minds can fathom. His power is so much beyond our
understanding. It reigns over the whole earth and all the heavens, which He
created. “And God said ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis
1:3). He simply spoke it, and it was there. He makes Satan His footstool
(Hebrews 10:12-13).
“The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be
afraid?”-Psalm 27:1
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