Chante Pou Mwen

Psalm 96: 1-3, 7-9

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
² Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
³ Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.

⁴ 

⁷ Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Give to the Lord glory and strength.
⁸ Give to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come into His courts.
⁹ Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

This week in Haiti has been such a sweet time of worshipping God with the children.  They praise the Lord with such gratitude and sincerity.  These children have been through so much hurt, abuse, turmoil, neglect, and emotional hardship, and to see them sing to God with such a thankful heart, I am so humbled.

Last Saturday we had a time of worship and teaching at the Ben's, the play area for the kids.  The people from the neighborhood are also invited so many of the songs are in Creole.  During worship time I was holding Jefflina, our newest girl to our homes, who is about 7 years old, but is about the size of a four year old.

Jefflina

Jefflina was facing me with her head laying on my chest and had her arms wrapped around my neck, as if she was about to fall asleep.  Then I heard her start to sing along, at the top of her lungs, to a Creole song as she raised one of her hands and waved it around in worship.  The next song they played was an English one, so I joined in singing, raised one hand and held her with the other.  She started singing along too, raising both her hands in worship.  My heart just melted as I could literally feel our hearts beating together as we worshipped God together.  "Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Give to the Lord glory and strength."  It truly felt like we were from the same family, glorifying the Lord together.  The worship set went on, the musical instruments kept playing, and someone on the microphone began praying in Creole.  Jefflina laid her head down on my chest again, but then started shouting out in intercession as loud as she could.  (In Haiti, they often pray all at the same time rather than one by one).  I couldn't understand what she was saying, but man was she passionate in her prayer.  Worship ended, I sat her on my lap but she was so tiny, she couldn't see over anyone in front of her to see the person teaching.  So she just swayed in my lap, continuing to hum worship songs, and raise her hands.

This past Sunday I was at church and I heard the sweetest voice behind me; a child singing along to the worship songs so loudly.  The band continued to play a worship song as everyone was exiting the building, concluding the service, and I glanced behind me to see this beautiful little boy who had been singing so loudly earlier still dancing with such joy to the worship music.  He was swaying side to side with arms wide open looking upward and then closed his eyes, just feeling the music and basking in the presence of God.

Then yesterday morning I went to Child Hope's school to pray for the 6th graders and 9th graders as they are preparing to take some major government exams.  The other missionaries and I walked in as they were doing worship and all I could see was Ti-Junior, the newest boy to our boy's home, with his eyes closed, singing to God with his whole heart.  You can just see how much he loves and appreciates God by the way he worships.

Ti-Junior worshipping at school

Just to give you a little bit of background on Ti-Junior...his dad killed his baby sister years ago.  He was living on the streets on his own for Lord knows how long before we took him into our home.  He could easily blame God for his misfortune, but yet he chooses to thank God for the life he has now. He chooses to believe that God is still good and God can help him forgive his father.  This child, who I knew a year ago before he came to our orphanage, had such major anger problems and was such a troublemaker on the streets.  And now he's softened, he's such a sweetheart, and he loves Jesus with everything he has.  To know everything he's been through, I get choked up just thinking of how unappreciative for how much God has blessed me with and I still complain and still doubt.

And lastly, yesterday I enjoyed worshipping with one of the students at our school, Angelo, who is one of our laundresses' sons.  We danced and worshipped God to a Creole song.  I love the Haitian culture and the jubilance of their songs.  Later Angelo volunteered to sing with his friend, Nahum, "Jesus Loves Me" in front of the whole school and then he sat on my lap and said, "Chante pou mwen."  Which translates to, sing for me.

Dancing during worship time at the school with Angelo

Honestly, Angelo's words were as if it were God Himself talking to me.  "Sing to me!"  As Psalm 96:9 says and I pray, that I'd worship God in the beauty of holiness.  I want to praise God, not only with words and song or just in Haiti, but with a life that reflects gratitude and a desire to give God the glory due His name!  I think in doing missions work, we often focus on the call of the first part of James 1: 27, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble."  I feel like I've obeyed this, but I feel like God is constantly remind me about the last part of the verse,  "and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."  I pray that my song, my worship to the Lord, would be a path of sanctification, bringing glory to a God who is worthy, who I'm ever thankful to.  That I would "present myself to God as being alive from the dead and my members as instruments of righteousness for holiness to God." (Romans 6: 13, 19)  May I remember his faithfulness and mercies every morning.  May my life bring honor to Him.  I pray I'd remember to sing and dance with such gratitude and joy in the presence of my good Lord.  I am so thankful that He has used these sweet kids to remind me of how beautiful He is and how I should praise him with all my heart, mind, soul and strength.  Feeling very blessed today.