Ennis Christmas 2007 Newsletter

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . . - NOT! We’ve had several people write and ask what Christmas in Haiti is like. Today is Christmas Eve day, so we will try to give you a little taste of what Christmas is like for us in Dessalines.

2:00 am – public transportation bus rides around the village honking its horn to awaken people so they can catch the bus to Port-au-Prince. The bus leaves around 4 am every morning.

2:30 am – the sound of voodoo drums pulsating in the house across the street.

4:30 am – the roosters and our hillside neighbors start their day - crowing, yelling and kids crying.

5:30 am – the loud disco music starts somewhere in town - you'd think they'd play Christmas carols seeing that it is Christmas!

8:30 am – the sound of a shovel scraping across the top of our roof. Our yard guard decides to shovel off the leaves and water that have collected on the apartment roof.

11:00 am – we drive to the hospital to take supplies to the storeroom - one road is blocked with rice drying in the street, the other road blocked with a big transport truck. The street's blocked off for a big soccer match!

11:30 am – a walk through the hospital to see the many patients who have come to us for healing and a maternity ward full of delivering mothers and babies!

12:30 pm – leave hospital to return home – case after case of empty pop bottles line the street waiting for the coke delivery truck – getting ready to party again tonight!

3:00 pm – things seem to be quiet for now (except for the puttering rice mill)– no one yelling, no pigs screeching, no roosters crowing - everyone is resting up for the night’s activities.

Are there any signs in this pagan town that the birth of our Lord and Savior is being honored on the eve of His birth? One would think not. But many of our Haitian pastors and friends who love Jesus have greeted us, called or written to wish us a “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays.” The churches will be having special agape services and many people will be in prayer for God’s blessings to unfold on the coming year. For the Haitian people, they end the year rejoicing in all God has brought them through while they face the new year not knowing what catastrophe might befall them. But they continue to put their faith and trust in their Heavenly Father to provide, protect and precede them as they enter another year.

The Christmas season is a time to remember those people who are special to us and so we remember each of you with thanksgiving and gladness of heart. Gail and I want to wish each and every one of you a Christmas filled with joy and blessing as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and King. And for the New Year (as the Haitians say), may you be blessed with prosperity, length of life and good health.


“JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD IS COME!”