What I hear you say? Two blogs in two days? He is exceeding himself! I know some of you will be wondering how I got on with my message at church yesterday so thought I should fill you in. But there are no pictures.
I have been teaching the residents with translation which is very limiting. I did a session on biliary surgery that took almost 2 hours and then one on gastric surgery for 1 and a half hours. They say they do a lot of these operations but in over 3 weeks I have not seen anything more major than a hernia and frankly, I do not see how they could cope with a gastrectomy in the theatre conditions. I think it is similar to what was happening 30 years ago in the west where surgeons overestimated the number of cases they were doing and grossly underestimated their complications. This week they want me to talk about colorectal surgery. My teaching is very limited without French or Creole. Some of the residents are very capable, but have little or no future. They would love to travel for further study. Those that have good English have a little more potential. The main job for the senior resident is to find any place where there could be an exchange of of residents for training. I have been asked about possibilities for an NZ exchange but it would be the cost that would prevent it. They earn about $200US a month in Haiti!
So what about preaching. I must admit I was rather apprehensive about the task of preaching to about 3000 Haitians with Robyn as my interpreter. We went over my notes which I had written onto my computer and she was very supportive in the tenor of the message.
On Sunday I left about 5.40 to walk to church in my jacket and tie. The service was led by a male choir which I would have loved to film but I was ushered on stage to sit near a fan which kept me very cool. It was very much appreciated in my attire and the heat. Two readings - Isa 53 and John 10 were my choices. There was a heartfelt community singing of "Bringing in the sheaves" in which they went round shaking hands and moving to the rhythm. Then I was on with Robyn translating. I called it "A message from NZ" or "Icons of NZ". I had planned to speak about 3 icons - the sheep, the kiwi and the paua. There was some consternation at the start when I spoke of icons of Haiti being the earthquake and then voodoo - almost a gasp but I quickly spoke of my delight in seeing a thriving Christian community here and turned to verses in 1 John 4:4 (Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world) and Romans 5 (Where sin abounded, grace did more abound) and the amens started resounding. They do not listen in silence as we do in the West but where they join in the scripture readings and respond positively to any encouragement. I spoke of the icons of sheep (Isa 53 - we all go astray, John 10 - we all need a shepherd and John 1:29 - Jesus was God's lamb, slain for us) telling of the story of Shrek who avoided the shepherd's care for 6 years, becoming so heavy with wool he could hardly move. I then spoke of the kiwi, unable to fly even though it has wings. I told the story of the eagle chick raised in a hencoop, scratching around in the ground when it should be flying. The application was that Ephesians tells us that Christians are born to soar but in reality we spend our time earthbound, not realizing that we were born to fly. I encouraged them to lift their eyes to see their destiny in Jesus and there were lots of approving "Amens". At this stage, I could see were almost out of time so I dropped the last icon (the paua) and concluded with our need to recognize that whether in Haiti or in NZ, this world is not our ultimate home. We are citizens of heaven and when we gather round the lamb (Rev 5), then we will be home. Plenty of amens followed. They sang a song and the service was over, about 2 hours and 10 mins long. It was a great sense of relief. Robyn did have a coughing fit just near the end but I got a bottle of water from Kim that revived her and she was able to finish. She felt it went very well, despite missing the paua icon.
Then it was time for our weekly Sunday treat - a trip to the hotel "Roi Christophe" for our Sunday breakfast (omlette with cheese and ham for me) and then a swim in the pool. Robyn did not come this time as she felt obliged to look after Steve. I managed to honeypot Dale (caught on video). It was very relaxing as I wrote a postcard and during the breakfast saw the NZ Italy World Cup soccer match on TV 1-1 against the World champions! Wow! Here they mainly support Argentina or Brazil but there is a growing admiration for our little country doing great things among the giants
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