Easter Sunday Service - Pastor Octave's Church

On Easter Sunday we attended Pastor Octave's church. It was a great service. Manu is listening to one of the choirs who sang that day.

This is Pastor Octave. He is one of the first people who settled in  our area of the Delmas 31 neighborhood.

This is his wife who is seen here greeting the church.

These are the "bouncers". They handled anyone who misbehaved during the service :)

They meant business :)

There were special guests invited to provide music accompaniment to the songs that the church and choirs sang. This man plays the trumpet well. With his white suit there was not a speck of dirt on it. I don't know how he can keep so clean.

There was a keyboard musician providing music as well.

And the accordion player was my favorite. He played at the end of the service. Here he is walking up to the front of the church. A choir follows behind him.

The man on the left that is full of enthusiasm is the worship leader. A couple of times through the service he would wake people up and get them to stand up and sing. This is how to get through a 3 1/2 hour service :)

He loves to sing.

This is the church committee. They are a serious bunch :)  Marie is pictured to the right of the photo. She is the treasurer for the church.

Every member of the congregation gave a short greeting to the congregation.

Marie sings in a choir as well. They wore green t-shirts with the words "le sang de jesus " (the blood of Jesus) written on it. Through Christ's blood we have forgiveness and the gift of eternal life.

After the choirs finished their songs they filed out of the church while another group took the stage.

The youth group is walking up to the front of the church.

The girls wore head coverings at the front of the church.

The youth group didn't sing but they recited Bible passages that they had memorized and spoke for about 10 minutes with no notes!

It was an amazing thing to watch. They kept their eyes closed while they spoke.

Pastors from different churches attended this special service. Pastor Octave wanted me to sit up front too with the other delegates but I told him I wanted to sit in the "bleachers" with the congregation :)

After the service there was a congregational meal. I have never been a part of this before. Everyone who was there received a plate of food. Women from the church cooked up big pots of food. The different pastors who spoke brought with them gifts of money from their congregation to Pastor Octave's congregation. These funds helped to buy the food. People also donated food to be prepared.

Each of the pastors had some words of wisdom from the Bible to give to the congregation.

This woman sang a song.

This pastor spoke well.

Each of these pastors/evangelists represented a different congregation at the service.

It was neat to hear the encouraging words that they gave.

The lady on the left side of the group of 4 in the photo is a food/used clothes/articles vendor in front of our house. Every day she stays there hoping to sell something to support herself.

This choir sang a few songs. You can see on their faces how they put everything into their music.

The ladies dressed in blue were part of a church group from the Belle Anse district of Haiti. When the pastor asked the members of the congregation from Belle Anse to stand up, about 40 people stood up.  The church provided a place for them to sleep and also provided food and water during their stay.

Each person had a unique expression as they sang songs. In Haiti singing is a necessary and important part of every service.

This man sang a solo. I took a bunch of videos of the singing but with the slow internet connection and download/upload limits I wasn't able to upload them. One of these days when I visit Canada I will set them up on You Tube or something.