Sounds

I've just returned from Bohoc, a rural community in the Central Plateau.  I have so much to share about this adventure.  Honestly it was a completely different sensory experience compared to the past seven summers spent in the middle of the city.  I think one of the first things that struck me about being in the Haitian countryside were the sounds.  We arrived later in the evening two weeks ago and bedtime came shortly after arriving.  As there's usually no electricity, the sunset is synonymous with bedtime.  I lay under the mosquito net on that first night (not so much to keep away mosquitoes, but more to ease my mind about other creepy-crawlies that might be tempted to visit me in the night...).  

Honestly, I was a bundle of nerves with all of the unknowns of the time spent in Bohoc on top of all of the unexpected ups and downs of this summer.  And there in the dark, I heard sounds.  In my sleepy state, I imagined these sounds meat I was at home... It really did sound like home.  I hear wind in the trees and the chirps and familiar sing-song melody of the countryside at nighttime.   Since I've been here, this is the list of sounds that have settled my sometimes fearful or anxious hear...

donkeys braying

cicada hum

hens clucking

bossy roosters crowing

chirps and whistles of lizards

goats bleeting

birds singing

In these small and simple sounds, it is just like Jesus speaking into the storms of my heart, "Peace, be still."  I'm thankful for sounds that are comforting and reminders of God's careful design of creation where all things sing His praises!  I'm praying that you too would hear the sounds that speak His comfort to your heart in moments of fear and anxiety and that your voice may in turn be lifted to praise Him!  Love in Christ, Jessie