Haitian Wisdom

Feb 5

Today I greeted Patrick Villier while he was busy getting some paperwork done for the upcoming CONASPEH congress. He and the entire CONASPEH board have been busy for months preparing for this huge event which will host thousands of Haitian pastors and congregational members from around the country, as well as 4 different visiting group partners arriving from the States who travel here to be in solidarity with CONASPEH during their convention. The congress occurs every 2 years, and serves to unite the member churches, discuss the vision, the outreach of CONASPEH, and engage in discussions of theological and political matters. It is also a time where pastors of the CONASPEH school are ordained and graduates of the CONASPEH nursing school are honored. This year, CONASPEH also endeavors to organize a march for equality under the banner, “separation of church and state.”

CONASPEH, as a representative organization for the protestant church in Haiti, has been working to attract the attention of the Haitian government to the lack of equality in the relationships the government maintains with Haitian churches. The Catholic church has long been woven into the activities of the Haitian government, and benefits from being a regular part of the national budget. With such a relationship, Catholic schools are better funded, and their outreach better supported. Now that an estimated 50% of the population is either Protestant or “other,” CONASPEH hopes to force attention to the work and outreach of the Protestant church, and to demand equality in the relationship the government has with Haitian organizations, religious or otherwise. Although a true separation of church and state likely won’t happen overnight, equality of relationships and funding is certainly something that can be worked for and accomplished.

In light of such huge goals, CONASPEH has been incredibly busy over the last few weeks planning for such an event, preparing to host a large and diverse group of people. The process would grey the most organized of American event planners, but our Haitian partners seem to take it all in stride.

Today, I asked Patrick Villier how plans for Congress were coming along. He informed me he still was unsure if the money that was promised to fund all the activities during congress would arrive in time. Yikes. My stomach automatically twisted with worry for him. Congress is less than a week away, and still the FUNDS for the huge event were uncertain. “Are you stressed?” I asked, sure that he must be a mess on the inside and hiding it well. Patrick laughed and said, “No Kim, because then I’d have TWO problems.”

Wow. Choosing not to stress in order to simply life. That’s a lesson every American needs to work on, eh? But such is the lessons on living our partners give us everyday. Their life is full of such challenges that make our own heads spin, yet they muster through with their humor, their smiles and their love of life intact. And despite choosing to not worry, to not add "stress" to their list of problems, they manage to accomplish incredible things. I imagine they are able to do so even better with their remarkable outlook, their remarkable perspective. And we attempt to learn from them, glean a little of such perspective as we navigate our days here.

May you all find such momentary perspective in the rush-and-hustle, worry-ridden American life. May you find time to slow down and recognize that fretting never gets the job solved faster, rarely affects the ultimate outcome. May you recognize life has enough problems, without adding "stres." Everything all sorts it self out in the end, regardless of worry. The truth that we all secretly know, but have a hard time accepting is that the only control we have in life is on our reaction TO it. We have only ourselves to control. We can choose to be stressed and worried or to be accepting; we control whether we are unhappy or happy; we chose to feel helpless or empowered. We have control ONLY of our response to the situations of life. Haitians have long learned to adapt to their environment, to not try control it. It is a lesson we all can stand to learn. It is a lesson I'm working on, that will take a long time to perfect, and maybe will require a couple of lifetimes. I'm just happy for good teachers.