(The photo above is of Jean Martel from one of our previous trips – I’m not even sure which one – it was one of the many times that we’ve seen him baptizing people in the river outside of Hinche)
Journal Entry – Saturday January 9, 2016
After the shocking news of Jean Martel’s death, I’m bracing myself for what I’m expecting to be a very strange and difficult day tomorrow. After we worship at Delmas in the morning, we’re going to drive up to Hinche for the Sunday evening service and to spend some time with the church there following the loss of Jean Martel. From there we’ll go on up to St. Michel on Monday, following the same route we took on the last two summer trips.
Journal Entry – Sunday January 10, 2016
I always feel like all of you are here with me whenever I’m on one of these trips, but never have I felt that more strongly than tonight.Morning service at Delmas was great – Tommy preached, two baptisms, got to see Abel, it was all awesome…but I’ve been anxious to get up here to Hinche all day long.
So we get to Jean Martel’s church about 6pm this evening, and by the time service really gets cranked up there’s probably a couple hundred people here, including Jean Martel’s sister and his only surviving brother, Jeriel (preacher from Chambellan), and Jeriel’s wife and son, Apollos.
The service is exceptionally moving; the singing totally rocks, as usual (and maybe even a bit more than usual); and then JT gets up to speak. As best I can tell from the bits and pieces of Creole I can understand, JT’s mostly making personal comments about Jean Martel, and making a personal commendation of Jean Martel’s 22 year old son, who has been working with his father for several years and is going to be taking over the ministry in this area.
The plan is for Jim to preach here tonight, but I know that JT’s going to ask me to do or say something first – I’m just not quite sure what it is I’m going to do or say yet. So when JT turns to me and says, “Greg! You got some-ting for us? You got some songs you can do?” I hesitate for a moment, and then I ask him if it would be ok for me to say a couple things about Jean Martel first. JT smiles, leans toward me a little, and quietly says, “You can take all the time you want for dat.”
All day long I’ve had this overwhelming feeling that if I have a chance to say anything tonight, I somehow need to speak for all of us collectively who have ever been to Haiti and known Jean Martel. And now, as I’m standing up next to JT and I begin speaking, I have this incredibly strong sense that each of you are standing right here with me:
“We did not know that Jean Martel had passed away until we arrived in Haiti three days ago. As many of you know, over the last four years there have been close to fifty people from the Holland Park Church that have been here to Hinche, and spent time with this congregation, and who knew Jean Martel. So as soon as we found out what had happened we got word back to the United States. Ever since then, over the last three days we have received dozens of emails from people asking us to please tell Jean Martel’s family, and to please tell the church family at Hinche, that your friends in the United States are praying for you.”
At this point there are a lot of “amens” and other audible responses from the congregation. JT says, “Dat good.” And then he adds, “But you still got to sing, ‘cuz dey know you sing in Creole.”
I’ve had this one memory of Jean Martel on my mind all day – it’s my last memory of him, and if you were on the 2015 Summer Team it may be your last memory of him also; and so I say:
“Jean Martel was the person who made me want to learn how to sing songs in Creole. The last time that I was here with you I led a few songs, and on the last song that I led Jean Martel got up here with me…and on that very last time I was here, on that very last song that I sang, Jean Martel and I stood up here together right where I’m standing now, and we led this song together – and I would like for all of us to sing it together tonight…”
Even those of you that were here that night probably don’t remember this: The song that Jean Martel and I had sung together was “Mwen Pap Tounen” (which means “I refuse to turn back”) – and that was a song, and a Haitian saying, that had taken on huge significance for our 2015 Summer Team (and at least two team members even have that saying tattooed on their body now).
So tonight in Hinche as I start into that song, Jean Martel’s brother Jeriel comes up and starts singing it with me – just as Jean Martel had done last July. And then as we finish that song, Jeriel breaks into “Mwen Te Deside,” which was always kind of Jean Martel’s “signature” song, and the first song that I learned in Haiti, because of his influence.
It has been…a very emotional night.
Monday Morning Postscript:
About 7am this morning we got together with all of Jean Martel’s family to spend a little time with them before we head out to Carissade and then on to St. Michel. As we’re getting ready to leave, I tell JT that Jim and Tommy and I would like to pray over Jean Martel’s son before we go. So the three of us surround Jean Martel’s son, each of us with a hand on his shoulder, and we spend some time praying over him and praying for the future of this ministry that he’s taking on in Hinche and the surrounding area.
When we get in the truck JT says to us, “Dat was a really good thing, last night and this morning. I think it was a great blessing to these people that you could be here at this very hard time, and this time of transition.”
Looking back on our travels to Haiti, God’s timing for things has been truly incredible on many, many occasions. Over the course of these various trips we’ve been blessed with the opportunity to share in some profoundly personal and intimate moments in the lives of the Christians here, experiences that have often left me with the feeling that we have been drawn into special and sacred territory, and are standing on holy and hallowed ground.
