Julie - Let the Praises Ring

Back in February, a team of volunteers from Bay Pointe Community Church,  in partnership with Bright Hope, went to Haiti to demonstrate the love of Christ by serving the children of the Gaspard School  and the people of the Pignon Micro-Loan Program.
Julie Greene, Bay Pointe's Director of Compassion Ministries, shares some of her own personal experiences, life lessons and observations of God moving throughout one of poorest regions of the world while she faithfully and obediently serves Him.  Thank you Julie for allowing us to share your story on The Harvest Fields and for all of your service to our God and His Kingdom.

Haiti...the dry, dusty land of rubble and devastation. Witch doctors, abject poverty and cholera abound. What could be appealing about a place like that? Hard to describe why, but it draws me in an inexplicable way. I have experienced overwhelming sadness and irrepressible joy on that soil. I have held babies with bellies full of worms and experienced worship - in it's purest form. The Haitian people love Jesus. They love Him so much they can't keep quiet about Him. They paint His name in bright colors across TapTaps - public transportation buses. They sing His praises, quite literally, at the top of their lungs. The precious voices drift in on the dark, predawn air of the 4am prayer gathering. They resound from stick and mud churches dotting the hill side. But it's more than this...


It's how they live in complete trust of His ways. It is the 40 girls who lost everything in the devastating earthquake of 2010. The girls who walked up and down the street of Port au Prince, past hundreds of dead bodies, hoping to find their mothers... sisters... fathers...The same girls now living in an orphan camp in the countryside. Girls who speak of their dreams for the future. Dreams of becoming doctors or nurses so that they can care for others in need. These girls seem shocked when we ask if they feel angry at God. They respond with passion, "Oh! No! We KNOW He has a plan for our lives - otherwise we would not have survived!"


The Haitian people have taught me life lessons I hope I will never forget: Life is hard. They know it. They expect it. When something good happens, they see it as a complete and utter blessing. Something to sing about, something to dance about, something to praise God about! We, on the other hand, expect life should be easy. We become frustrated and angry when it is not. We respond with, "It's not fair!" and "Why me, God?"


It's the joy and gratitude, the praise and passion that brings me back, again and again, to that dry, dusty land. A land of poverty, so rich in praise.

If you would like more information about Bright Hope's school feeding and micro loan programs, or other Bright Hope projects, please click Here.