We were awakened this morning by the men singing in the chapel at 6:00am. They make such a reverent and joyful sound as they sing praises to our God. The Haitians sing in the most simple and yet most beautiful ways. Sometimes they are accompanied by a piano and sometimes their hymns are sung acapella.
We had a delicious and bountiful breakfast, followed by a team meeting and devotions as we prepared for the day. Men gathered into the church in Pignon and were ready to start the men’s conference. Pastor Chris invited the men to open up to John 17 and discussed the importance of Jesus’ high priestly prayer. The focus was how we are to place our faith in the one - and that as Christians we are one.
During our time together we asked the men to walk outside the church, and they each drew a card as they walked into the courtyard. Each card had the name of one of seven animals printed in Creole on it. Outside the men began making the noise of the animal on their card. They walked around until they located other men making the same noise. I had the dog card so I was right at home making the barking sound often heard at Fresno State sporting events. The cheyn (dog in Creole) group consisted of men ranging in age from early 20s to mid 80s.
These were now our groups, and we would spend time answering questions based on each session by Chris. What a neat experience getting to watch men whose language I could not speak discuss the questions. And they tried very hard to include me in the discussion.
The two Johns, John Lynch and John Celum, then gave their personal testimonies. After lunch we had breakout sessions with topics that included money, work, sexual immorality and family relationships. After the afternoon session concluded, we had a chance to walk through a portion of town during a light rain.
Our host Stacey Munro prepared all the fixings for delicious chicken burritos for supper. The evening session was given by Pastor Emmanau, one of the Pignon church pastors. Even though we could not understand his words, as he opened up God’s Word and taught, we were able to follow up. The evening concluded with the distribution of The Well’s one t-shirts, which we encouraged them to wear the next day.
