AVOIDING REGRETS

Built to shelter several hundred worshipers and sporting both a balcony in the rear and a wall-to-wall choir loft above the pulpit, this church building is atypical for Haiti. 

Although I drive past it quite often, this was my first time inside ... and it was a sad occasion: Pastor Joza's funeral. 

An entire battalion of young ushers (in blue shirts in the photo above) were deployed throughout the building to keep order. They kept the main aisle clear but the balcony and stairs and the rear of the sanctuary held a bustling crowd of mourners, shoulder-to-sweaty-shoulder, that spilled onto the sidewalks around the building. It was a three and a half hour service that witnessed, at best, perhaps 30 minutes total time unpunctuated by wails erupting from the anguished crowd. Now and then, four or five ushers would physically carry a thrashing, hysterical woman through the crowd to an exit.

Like all funerals, this was quite a sad affair, but I discovered the secret to making it even worse for myself: regret. 

Joza was a sweet man and one of several pastors on the church's staff. I first met him two years ago when he was a student in my adult English class. Now and then, after the conclusion of class, Pastor Joza would approach me and invite me to come to his church "some Sunday". I, of course, replied, "I would love to." The next year, when he moved on to Level 3 English, he still sometimes poked his head in the door to gently repeat his invitation. 

But there was never a "convenient time" for us to visit his church and "some Sunday" never came. Which is why the irony of my first visit being the funeral really got to me.

Nobody seems to know any specifics about how he died, only that he went to the hospital one evening and was dead two hours later. He was 46. 

James 4:14b: "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

Regrets can either fester and depress or they can propel us forward with new resolution. So a few hours after returning home from the funeral, when I got a phone call from Wesly, my response was quite different than what it otherwise might have been.

Wesly is another of my former English students. Over the last few months he has sought me out in person, online and over the phone to ask if I would be willing to visit an English program he has created with two friends, meeting on Saturdays a few miles from here where one would turn from Route 1 to head to Plaine du Nord. 

I confess ... I had told him each time that yes, I would be glad to come - "some Saturday". 

So when this latest phone call came, I was primed to give him a definite "Yes, I would be glad to come ... TOMORROW." I had no idea what to expect - if I was observing or teaching, how many people were involved or exactly where to go. Although short on specifics, I was able to talk Caleb into tagging along. He's usually up for a little adventure.

Wesly called me twice on Saturday morning, making sure I was serious! He met us at the Total gas station and guided us to the largely empty campus of a grade school where he and two friends conduct English classes for interested folks in the community each weekend. 

Classroom selfie. That's my little buddy Wesly in purple.

It was a hoot! Caleb and I were both ended up outside of our comfort zones. I was nudged out of that zone but Caleb was dragged out - and performed well under pressure. About fifteen minutes into my ad-lib of a very basic introductory English lesson with Caleb observing, one of Wesly's friends popped in and pulled Caleb upstairs to a more advanced class ... to teach! Caleb rose to the challenge and we didn't see each other again for the next two hours except in passing as we flip-flopped classes.

I was impressed by the drive of Wesly and his two friends. They have started these English classes for next-to-free, but they are counting on word of mouth to build to the point where they can start charging fees to "put a little money in our pockets". 

They call it "A Sunny World English School".

I like their school's slogan at the bottom of the sign ... but I don't quite understand it. ;-)

They wondered if both I and Caleb could come back every week. I told them I was certain that would not be possible, but we'd be more than happy to make a return trip in the near future. And I fully intend to keep my word.

Saturday turned out a much better day than Friday...