More than one hundred locals, wearing their Sunday best, sit on wooden pews in a dilapidated building, while gaping holes in the stone walls let in the morning light. The people reach their hands toward the red, white and blue tarps that make up the roof of the structure, their eyes closed, lost in prayer.
Maj. Brad Baumann, a native of Blue Earth, Minnesota, and 2nd Brigade Combat Team chaplain, was invited to preach at the Prophecy Church of God of Caradeux, in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 21. Baumann and his chaplain’s assistant, Spc. Midine Beauvais, who grew up in Haiti, have spoken with many pastors in the area since arriving in Haiti, gathering information about people in need of shelter, food and medical aid. But, he found that delivering his first sermon to the Haitian people was a surprising challenge. “The challenging thing for me was to articulate a message in another language,” he said, not wanting his message to be lost in the translation.
Planning ahead, he and Beauvais prepared two manuscripts, one in English, and one in Creole for her to translate during the service. “Beauvais put it in a way that they could understand,” he said.
