Three churches in one Sunday…

It was an interesting Sunday morning.  Miquette and I drove to Quisqueya Chapel at 9:30 to make it to the church service that begins at 9:45.  On the way we (together with five other cars) were included in a routine police check.  The police were checking that our car was registered and that the owner of the car was the driver.  Miquette showed her registration papers (as the registration sticker on the windscreen is not sufficient).  The officer advised that her papers had expired; we continued searching the glove box for the current papers (*Yes, Miquette’s car is registered we just couldn’t find the evidence).  The police officer asked us to park to the side while they checked other cars and said he’d be back with a ticket.  Meanwhile we frantically kept searching and I found the current registration papers!  Yay!  Miquette explained to the officer that we were now late for church.  So we continued on our way.

We arrived in church and everyone was already seated, then they rose to sing “O happy day”.  We joined in.  After five minutes the minister closed the meeting.  Miquette and I were puzzled? She spoke with a friend who sat next to her and was informed that the church now begins at 8:30am over the summer!! We had just caught the end of the service.  Miquette has been the United States for her summer break, hence she didn’t know the new starting time.  We drove  home laughing at the experience; first being stopped by the police officer and then being more than an hour late for church.

Take two…

So we returned back to school (where our apartments are) and decided to attend the English church service on campus.  It was now close to 10:30 and this church had begun at 9:30.  So once again we were very late, but the church members were still singing.  The chapel was full and approximately 40 other members were sitting outside on wooden tables (we joined the outsiders).  We made it in time for the preacher’s message but it was a little difficult to hear him.

Across the road was another church with a very loud, speaker system.  This was a Haitian church. During the entire English message (heard from outdoors) I could simultaneously hear another church message booming loudly in Haitian Creole.  I’m fortunate that I couldn’t understand what was being understood as it would’ve been hard for me to concentrate.  To my surprise the majority of church members in the English speaking service were Haitian.  I’m not sure how they tune out the loud church service across the road?

So there you have it!  I visited three church services in one day.  Next week, I’ll just try one :-)