Christmas in the Caribbean

If you know Bud and have ever spent much time working with him, you've probably heard him singing at some point. He loves to walk through the day singing hymns or praise choruses and being in Haiti is no different. Just this past week as he worked in the office on inverters, computer and Internet connections, and electrical "fixes" - up ladders, under tables, and in the attic crawlspace, he was singing and had several singing along. It's quite a mixture of English, Creole, and our favorite, Creolish (which we're getting pretty good at!)

He was pretty honored when Patrick (the chocolate lover!) invited him to sing at the Christmas Eve service at their church. It was more of a concert with various groups and Bud would be one of the guest singers. Bud, of course, said, "Sure." He practiced a few times with a group of about 20 young people singing harmony behind him. I didn't attend the practices, but he did say, "It's Silent Night like you've never heard it before!"

The day before the concert Patrick asked Bud for a few tools to help with their staging. That's when we learned it could be an outside event! Then, Saturday morning, Bud was asked to help with the staging - which he did. The tickets said that start time was 4 p.m. Patrick told Bud to arrive at 4:30 p.m. for prayer. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. to find three other missionaries and a hand-full of Haitians working on set up. It was a pretty laid back scene! We sat down and laughed with the others about our "North American" time-table versus the laid back style of the Haitians. After a time we started making bets as to when the service would start. Almost an hour into it, the Pastor arrived who was scheduled to "open" the service. He chatted with us for a while, then asked someone "in charge" when things would get started and was told, "About 15 minutes..."

Forty-five minutes later the Pastor stood and started...the first song was sung at 6:00 p.m. Bud sang at 7:30 p.m. and it was great! Beautiful harmonies. I was sorry I didn't have a video recorder!  We headed home right after Bud sang - trying to "sneak out" (which is hard to do here!) But hey - we can be laid back too leaving in the middle and we had promised to call our kids on Christmas Eve! We laughed all the way home about having "bought a ticket" when we could hear the entire program from our living room. In fact, while chatting with Shelly at one point I said, "Listen..." and held the phone out. Sure enough, she could hear the music too!

It was a fun night and definitely a good lesson in cultural differences! However, one of the best parts was arriving to the stage! Bud is still certain this is the same tent SEC used during the sanctuary construction - if only he'd put an identifying mark on it somewhere to confirm it!
Doesn't seem possible it was only a week ago!

Today we have Doug Ries and his daughter, Kayley, with us from Portland (Doug is the HVAC guy who worked with Bud on the churches' system). Doug's been down several times, but it's Kayley's first time. It's Saturday - so that means BEACH DAY! It was 90 degrees yesterday, so it should be a great day for the beach. Who would have ever thought us Oregonians would be spending a new year's eve day at the beach!

Wishing you God's greatest blessings for a wonderful and very Happy New Year!

Bud and Cindy