When Worlds Collide

As you read in my last post, I had a special visitor this past week from Virginia!  I was blessed with a visit from my priest, Webster Gibson, the rector of my parish Christ Church in Winchester.  Unfortunately we had a little hiccup in his visit (flight cancellation delaying him a day), but once he finally got here we had a great time together!

After picking up Webster from the airport on Friday, we had an exciting ride back to the hotel.  Part of experiencing Port-au-Prince is going for a ride in the traffic...never a dull moment!  A particularly funny moment of the ride was after the two of us got caught up I started explaining some Haitian things to Webster.  One of which was the tap-taps, a mode of public transportation here (see picture above - we were in a car behind one).  I explained to him that you ride in the back and when you need to get off you tap twice on the ceiling to let the driver know to stop.  As I was telling him this, I banged twice on the roof of the car we were riding in as a demonstration, to which our driver slammed on the breaks....Whoops, guess I'll leave my "tap-tap's" to riding in the tap-taps only!

The rest of evening consisted of more catching up and Webster's delivery of all the love from home.  A big thank you to my family, friends and parish for all of the well wishes and birthday fun!  Your support while I am serving here is so very, very much appreciated!!!

The next morning, we got up early and headed downtown for Webster to fully experience a Saturday at Holy Trinity Music School.  This morning was a little different, since I was helping adjudicate auditions for the youngest orchestra at Holy Trinity.  I must say the children did a great job, especially since this was their first audition!  And Webster was a great sport to sit through every audition with me and Fritz, the conductor of this group.  

Afterwards Webster was given the grand tour of the facilities and observed me teach a flute lesson.  In the picture above my student jokingly told me he forgot his flute and that's me saying "What???"  I'm glad to know my students are feeling comfortable enough to joke around with me now!

In the afternoon I headed to choir rehearsal; normally i just sing but this time I helped the students with a song they were doing in English.  I was asked to aid with the pronunciation of the lyrics to which I said a silent prayer in my head to not mess them up too badly!

On Sunday morning Webster came and delivered the sermon for both the English and French services at St. Jacques.  I especially enjoyed listening to the translated version during the French service.  Favorite moment: No one knowing how to translate the word "faithful," leading to a brief pause and some laughter.  

Another beautiful moment was watching my priest stand side-by-side with Pére David to serve the communion.  We were one big family with no one excluded not even the smallest (as you can see above!).  It was fantastic to see the two parts of my worlds come together again! 

The rest of our Sunday was spent relaxing and reflecting; as always I appreciated the conversation and wisdom.  Taking a step back to reflect is a vital part of serving and I was grateful to have Webster here to chat with and to help me see my ministry from a different point of view.  Sadly on Monday afternoon, he headed back to Virginia, but I am so happy for the time were we able to spend together (he was also happy for a reprise from the winter cold!).