Fellowship Memphis

During September of this year, I was blessed with the glorious opportunity of serving in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Our first Sunday in Haiti we visited a beautiful seaside church! It was a cement pavilion on a cliff off the glorious ocean side.

You see, before we arrived, they had already started to worship and pray, and during their beginning prayer time, no one could enter the church, not even the Pastor, until prayer was finished... so we waited! As we hopped off the van to enter the church, we were immediately stopped. They were all praying. I could hear many voices uttering Creole in a muffled tune; and although, I couldn’t make out the words I could feel the sweet spirit in which they were praying.

Once we were entered, it still wasn’t time for the presentation of the Word; it was time for more worship, which lasted an hour. In between worship sets, someone read scripture, a testimony or an announcement, but then came yet more worship. Beautiful worship! Some of the songs I could decipher from their familiar melody but others were completely foreign to me. About halfway through worship, one of our cooks, Joel (who was also an interpreter and chaplain in training), stopped worshiping to translate the songs to us. The words were just as beautiful as the sweet Holy Spirit they were singing in.

The way they worshiped to Christ made me embarrassed of my worship. They didn’t seem hindered by how they looked to their neighbor, and time wasn’t an issue. They just worshiped and it was obvious that they were worshipping to Jesus. Many times I heard, “Thank you, Lord,” in Creole. It was beautiful, it was heart piercing, It was convicting. I didn’t just want to come back to the States and do the “cute worship” anymore! I wanted Christ to be the obvious center and object of my worship. I wanted others to see my worship and wonder about the One whom I worshiped.

In Haiti, I relearned to draw closer to God, and right in the midst of serving, I would find myself praying the Word of God. So often, I allow myself to get caught in the race of life without allocating special time just for my Father. I realized I haven’t been living the command from Paul to “pray without ceasing.” I left Haiti with a renewed sense of prayer and worship. Entering back into life in the states has been challenging, but I am determined to let my life worship Christ.