Under The Rock

I learned quite a bit this past week being in Abaco.  I saw everything from poverty to political unrest.  Kids that never quit, to ones receiving Christ.  The kids were incredible and a lot of fun to be around.  What was funny was how respectful they are despite their living conditions.  That amazed me.  They have so little but they are still so respectful but here in America kids are so rude and they have so much.  But one of the biggest things I learned was about the music in the Bahamas.  Particularly the worship music.  Not even the Bahamians themselves, but from the Haitians in the village of peas and mud.

Josh, Stacey, and Sasha with the Peas and Mud kids

The first night of our trip I was fortunate enough to be able to go and experience a service in Peas and Mud which is a Haitian refugee camp.  The church we were at was called Feed My Sheep and when I first got there I really didn't know what to expect.  Something I learned quickly was that the Haitians don't start the service or come to church at a designated time...they started coming in at different parts during the service and it all started when the band members got there.  Now this entire service was in three different languages.  It was in French, Creole, and English.  The English they spoke was very little so I couldn't understand most of the service but the worship songs were very interesting to hear in different languages.  Most of the songs they did were in French but there was one song they did, the last song before the speaker came up, that was in Creole.  During this song they really got in to it.  I was told after that it was because the song was in their heart language of Creole instead of English or French.  I have never heard anything more beautiful than all of those people coming together in that room and worshiping God.  It was incredible and it was completely different than the way we worshiped.  If you had taken all the sound out of the room it would look like a normal pentecostal worship setting...but once you put all those voices in, you get something truly incredible.  They worship with such a heart despite their poverty and hardship.  That is what amazed me so much.  I was humbled more than I'd ever been in my life.