Today was the second day of a women’s conference that some of our ladies on our team have been hosting. About 100 women from our tiny village came. Just think about this: these women all probably have somewhere between 4-8 kids, live in shanties made of thatch, and have no income. They only meal they can feed their children are beans and rice, and even so, only about three meals a week.

 

 

But these women are strong, physically and emotionally. You get a sense of their strength in the way they clap when they worship. Not only are their hands strong, but their hearts are strong to worship their Savior even when their lives are hard. Their lives are so hard.

 

 

I was asked by our team to come perform a “concert” during the women’s conference. And let me tell you, it was like no other concert before! Imagine an extremely tall, skinny, and sweaty white dude walking into a room filled with 100 Haitian women, guitar in hand, ready to perform a concert! Add to that a huge language barrier, and you’ve got yourself quite the concert!

 

 

So, I sang a few songs I’ve written, sang a few worship songs, and then sang Amazing Grace. And wouldn’t you know it, they clapped the entire time! And, they were exactly on beat, I might add. It was pretty crazy. If you think about it, these women never get anything for themselves. They never do things that normal American women do: go shopping, get manicures and pedicures, get their hair done, etc.

 

And I can almost guarantee they’ve never had a private concert from a tall, skinny, American dude! Now, I realize I’m nothing special when it comes to music, but, deep down inside me, I really loved getting the chance to do that for them. It meant a lot to me.

 

 

On a completely different note, most of the men in the village always have a machete in their hands. The men work in the banana groves, harvesting thousands of bananas each week to sell at market. But whenever we walk through the village, they seem to always be holding their machetes.

 

 

And even when I walk up to them, they will be holding their 2-foot-long sword-like tool at their sides. It usually sets my heart racing when I’m trying to talk to them, knowing what they could do to me with their machetes. So far so good…ha.