Procession & XLT


"Ave Maria!" Marc-Arther shouted into a microphone attached to a sound system inside of a truck, while the truck was driving down the street. A line of people walking two by two stretched out next to, in front of, and behind the truck. We were walking late in the afternoon, getting sprinkled with rain.

"Pa gen anye Bondye pa ka fe!" Everyone shouted back. It means, "There is nothing God can't do!"

 I was amazed that Haitians would come out in the rain, even to walk in a procession for God. The day before I had been walking with a few missionaries and a few Haitians, and when it started to sprinkle, the girls we were with all started running. When I told them I wasn't afraid of the rain, they told me that I would catch a fever.

Anyway, about fifty Haitian teenagers had met us at our mission base on that Friday afternoon to begin a procession to one of the local churches, St. Anthony of Padua. We walked for two hours, singing songs in Creole, praying the divine mercy chaplet, hail marys, walking and dancing down the street.

"Mache vit!" Occasionally, someone would say from behind, which means, "Walk fast!" This part aggravated me because we were already walking on the ankles of the people in front of us.

The end of the procession was in a city as it began to get dark. This part was a little more chaotic as the road was being fixed and the truck could barely get through. People were jumping over ditches and joining us from the side of the road until finally we landed in St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church with about 200 Haitian teenagers excited for God. Whew, time to catch our breath and hope that our shoulders would dry off.

XLT is an event that I've seen Life Teen parishes do in America. Usually there is praise & worship, a talk, some adoration, and then a wrap-up. We followed this same formula, but in Creole. Paul spoke about Advent, then one of the missionaries gave a witness about waiting for the Lord in a time of suffering. Adoration was beautiful and peaceful. I was happy to experience peaceful adoration in Haiti because many times communal prayer here can be chaotic. I am hoping that this is something we can bring to the community here - an experience of God that is peaceful, something where you can believe that God is God and worship Him. People knelt in adoration, which is also something that I haven't seen happen here much. And while I'm not sure that they fully grasped what was going on yet, I hope that they will begin to understand more and more as we keep doing events like this.

While it is often difficult, it is also exciting to be at the beginning of a mission like this. There are literally young people everywhere, and many of them are excited and curious as to what we are doing here. Please keep praying for us in this mission.

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