But I got so much more out of it. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, though physically I was wasting away, inwardly the day renewed me.
Our destination was a young church on a mountain top 1800 feet above the small town of Grison Garde. The WV team had been there before. In fact, they had helped their friend, Pastor Job, establish the church two years ago. Job pastors a church in Grison Garde, but he obviously sees the entire area as his parish. When he discovered a handful of people who were making a two and a half hour trip down the mountain each Sunday morning to attend worship services in town, he felt prompted to do what he could to give the mountain its own church.
The WV team had helped him inaugurate that new congregation and had later aided in the buying of property for a church building. Yesterday, they were going to get to see the new property and how the church had progressed since their last visit.
And our sweet friend Hannah had been tasked with delivering the morning's message - a duty she took with the utmost seriousness. On our hour long drive to Grison Garde, and then whenever we paused along our subsequent walk, Hannah had her notes out, not wanting to miss anything that the Lord would have her speak to His gathered people.
The morning was absolutely stunning. Brett parked the truck as far down the river as we could possibly drive, then it was a 3.5 mile walk from there.
Nice and flat and easy at the beginning of the morning.
This was definitely the remotest part of Haiti I have set foot in and I couldn't get over the beauty of this region. I kept thinking in the States, this would be a national park.
The river is spring fed and in places where it narrows it gets difficult to hop across without risking a slip off a slick rock. I love this moment of Pastor Job, deep in the water himself, helping Brett to stay dry. Job has such a humble servant's heart.
Before too long, the path got quite a bit steeper and we were all panting and sweating a bit more and taking frequent rest and water breaks.
And the views got better and better. In this picture, behind Nathan, you can see the riverbed down below where we started.
After several hours of hiking, our final ascent to the church.
Sunday school was still in progress, so Pastor Job took a few moments to show us around the property.
Just above the temporary structure is a plot of land where Pastor Job envisions a more permanent concrete structure. (That's going to be quite a bit of work! We were trying to imagine the effort involved in hauling even a single bag of concrete up that path.)
He says this flattened mountain top had been cleared centuries ago for a building project of some kind and that the property had even been considered a possible location for the construction of the Citadel in the early 1800s. Now it officially belongs to God. ;-)
For now, most of the seating in the church "building" is a type of bamboo bench I hadn't seen before. (You think the pews are uncomfortable at your church??)
Hannah's sermon, translated into Creole by Brett, was jam-packed with Scripture. She spoke of the believer's freedom in Christ and how to recognize and avoid the traps laid by Satan's lies. When Hannah finished preaching, a young man who was apparently a first time visitor to the church gave his life to Christ! Hallelujah!
After the service concluded, someone from the congregation provided fresh coconuts to our group to ready us for the journey back down the mountain.
We took a few last pictures from the top and then headed down. Here's Richard and Kat - such the cute couple.
The trip down was much easier and quicker, only lasting an hour and a half. We made only two stops. The first was because Job wanted to make a pastoral visit to the home of a family who had lost a loved one to death the day before. Job shared his condolences and prayed for them and they joined him in singing a couple of hymns before we departed.
Here's the last picture I have to share. It's from our second stop - our lunch break. And I know it's kind of a "you had to be there" moment. But these three young ladies were traveling down the mountain with us after church and when we stopped, they were cutting up and taking pictures with their cell phones the whole time. They kept taking pictures of me on one side, then turning to try to catch Pastor Job in mid-bite on the other side. Finally, I pulled out my phone to take a selfie with them and - this is so Haitian - they look all serious for the photo for half a second then start laughing again and passing my phone around to see what the shot looked like.
You would never know it from the picture though!
It's gotten late and I'm on Nyquil at this point, so I better wrap this post up. I'll just conclude with a few things the day gave me to think about - when I was able to think clearly:
- I'm amazed at the dedication of Pastor Job and his love for the people beyond the walls of his Grison Garde church.
- Although I teased Hannah a bit, I was thoroughly impressed with her sermon and the seriousness with which she approached the privilege and duty of bringing God's Word to God's People.
- This team from The Refuge in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, has made a lasting impact on this mountain with their faithfulness and generosity. Only God knows what great things are still to sprout from the seeds they have planted there.
- It is humbling to worship with folks who are obviously unfazed by discomfort or "inconvenience" in their single-minded focus on the Lord.
- I don't know that I've ever praised the Lord in a more beautiful location.
