A Wedding in Haiti

Well, our most recent trip to Haiti was just amazing. Wow God! Maybe the greatest blessing was my new friend Roni. We met in the van on our way over the mountains. We sat together. He speaks only kreyol and I was studying some kreyol words, he was reading with me, trying to learn the English. We practiced for some time and bonded just from this simple attention. When we arrived I was to learn that he was living with a woman with whom he has a 4 month old baby (and she has 2 additional kids). Yet I saw he is a good man; we began to talk about this. You know, if you have read my previous posts, that I believe in Christian marriage as the proper relationship between man and woman. He does, too, but allowed circumstances to get out of control. As I counseled him on the need to make things right, it seemed his only hesitation was that he could not afford a ring, and that is expected in Haiti. He also could not afford the necessary party for the wedding. We talked about these things; they are not very important, certainly not in the eyes of God. If a couple wait to consummate their love, in marriage, they can also wait for these things. But, here the consummation had already occurred. Too late to worry about the details, just a need to honor God. We had a few conversations and quickly became good friends. With additional encouragement from the rest of the group, he decided, she agreed, and we had a wedding! Wow, indeed. Our whole group, and the whole community were so very happy. And we did party! (The group put together money for the party.) Oh, and he asked me to be his best man. There could have been no greater honor.