Sunday Service

There was a memorial service today at church. It was for all 7 of the people lost this week in the earth quake, but mostly for the three young men, Romon, Jocelyn and Fabnot. It was hard. All of us from HAFF were asked to sit with the families of the boys – something that is quite unusual. That made the service harder. I think I cried more during this service than I had the whole rest of the time since the earthquake. Most of the time I sat with Mme Telius who was quiet. Fabnot's sisters and some other folks were having a harder time. And during some of the congregational singing there was a lot of wailing and several people were overcome.

Fr Lanyo spoke about Romon, since Romon lived often with him. Romon's mother was too weak to come to church. And Fr Lanyo offered his counsel to any young person who wanted to walk seriously with the Lord. Met Telius spoke about Jocelyn, and encouraged people to keep Jocelyn's vision of young people training for trades and contributing to the community alive.

Then Met Telius asked Lenes and Louine to get up to speak. They had all the young people in the church who are in University or further post secondary studies come up on the platform. There had to be a good 25 or 30 young men and women who went and stood with the 2 young men. And I said to Greg and Gabi who were sitting behind me, “Look at all the ones we didn't loose” And it really is a miracle. From Bohoc and LaJeune, only 7 lost. From Cercady, none lost. The other side of the Bohoc River, only 2 lost. Lamar, where a teacher and his brother, one of our students, live, no one lost. What a miracle. We could have lost so many more.

Barb spoke about all three boys and about their time in Port and how God's hand had been so apparent in everything. Fr Fabius spoke about Fabnot and asked Zach and Tonpi to speak as well. Tonpi told the story of how he got out and the others didn't. Fabius then assured everyone that though the boys are gone and the is sorrow in everyone's hearts, ministry must go on and that he would be in the street tomorrow morning at 3:30 with the accordion to wake everyone up for the manna service.

Two of our next steps will be to plan with the other missions in the area and with community leaders to see what is available, what is already being done and what the needs are now and will be long term. Please pray for wisdom, direction and a spirit of unity to be present during those meetings and that the Body of Christ can shine in this dark time.