Grannies on a Mission: Day 4 Mission: worship and commune with God's people

Sunday, February 19

Sunday morning started with us waking up to Eddy's mom calling "Eddy, Eddy" as she walked up the stairs. She was delivering Ruth. It is not safe for us to walk by ourselves on the street, so even though Eddy's parents' house is visible from Carrie's house, someone always walks Ruth over. Ruth enjoyed sitting on Carrie's porch while writing posts on facebook with her phone. As she did this a political rally was forming on the corner between Eddy's parents house and Eddy and Carrie's house. Elections for a new president will be in May. They have "politicos" in which they parade down the street with horns honking and sirens blaring and music playing to promote their candidate. There are many parties. Each one has a color. The white party, red party, and purple party are the most prevalent. Many homes have fences or walls around their homes. Often, they are paid to paint them the party's color with and names of the men up for office.

The church has changed the time of their church service to an 5:30 pm service, with Sunday school beginning at 4:00. This is common in the DR and attendance has improved because of the change. So we did not go to church in the morning.

We were invited to the home of Blance and Fifa, friends of Carrie and Eddy, for the noon meal. Blanco and Fifa are Haitian. The word blanco in Spanish means white. Blanco was given his nickname many years ago because, for a Haitian, Blanco is very light skinned. Now everyone calls him Blanco. They have 4 children Jenifer 11, Israel 10, Eliseo 7, and Alejandro, 6. All of their children attend Pathway to Jesus School. Personally Blanco and Fifa are some of the kindest people I have ever met. They have gone through hard times, but have never lost their faith. They are hard working, God fearing people.

As Ruth said in Saturday's blog, guests are served and the host don't ususally sit at the table. But we asked Blanco and Fifa to sit and eat with us. Blanco did but Fifa was too busy serving us and the children that by the time she sat down we were all done eating.

Blanco opened our meal with prayer. We all joined hands and with a soft voice, Blanco prayed a beautiful prayer. Now remember, I can not understand a word that Blanco says. But with the passion and love in his voice, it brought me to tears! Well I could understand gracias, Father and a few words like that. I hoped that no one noticed the tear streaming down my cheeks as he finished.

After dinner we talked and I showed the kids pictures of them that I took last year. They enjoyed seeing their pictures almost as much as I liked showing them. Even though we have seen Blanco and Fifa during both of my previous visits, I was too busy to really get to know them. They did attend Carrie and Eddy's wedding and I have a favorite picture of Blanco under a yellow umbrella.

When it was time for church, we drove the children because Blanco only has a motorcycle and it would take him 2 trips to get his family to church. We took the time at church for a photo opportunity. I have been able to be present for church on two previous visits as well. This time the service was completely in Spanish with no translation and because it did not end until 8:00 and it was dark around 7 the bugs started biting! Eddy had to walk out because a bee got under his shirt and stung him.

It was the first time I remember them taking a collection. It was interesting that the baskets were covered with a cloth so that you could not see what was in the basket unless you lifted it to put in your money.
Church started later than it was supposed to so at 5:30 when Carrie said we would still be a church until 8:00 I did not believe her, but she was right.- Karen

Day 4 Mission: accomplished!