Earlier this month, Pastor in Pajamas traveled with a group of six to assist with a Vacation Bible School (VBS) at the Village of Hope, a school in Haiti our congregation supports. Each night our group gathered for a meal, shared in a short devotion, and spent some time reflecting on the day. I led three of the devotions, drawing from the themes of Creation, the Promised Land and Jubilee. For more on our experiences in Haiti, rewind to Part 1 – Haiti – Jesus is Alive!

For the second devotion we started with a brief history of the country. By chance some of the early history is covered in an unrelated book I brought along for casual reading, Brian McLaren’s Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? In it, McLaren summarizes Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the island of Hispaniola in 1492, which is now shared by two countries, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.   Once Columbus arrived, the exploitation of the indigenous people there, called the Taino, began. The book notes that many of the Taino:

“were murdered or raped, or chose suicide instead of being maimed, attacked by dogs, skewered on poles from anus to mouth, or shot…of the estimated 300,000 Taino alive when Columbus ‘discovered’ them in 1492, about 12,000 remained in 1516, fewer than 200 in 1546, and zero in 1555.”

As the Taino genocide continued, there was a need for cheap labor to develop the land, so Europeans from Spain and France brought slaves captured in Africa.  Slavery was so prevalent that by the end of the 18^th century over 90% of the population traced their roots to Africa. This led to an uprising against France in 1791 that culminated in the only successful slave revolt in modern history, giving Haitians of African descent their own democracy in 1804. European powers at the time had essentially killed off one indigenous people in Haiti, the Taino, and enslaved and relocated another group of people from West Africa to replace them.

From this short history the devotion moved back to current times. Taxicabs in Haiti, called Tap Taps, are individually owned brightly painted buses and pickup trucks.  From the ~15 hours of travel on the roads I experienced this week no two Tap Taps were the same. The designs on the Tap Taps varied greatly, with many including Christian phrases, Bible verses, Vodou symbols, and other hand-painted logos of well-known brands like Nike, Coca Cola, and the NBA.  Vodou is a tribal religion common in Africa and is practiced by ~50% of Haitians, often right alongside Christianity.

Many Tap Taps reference a Bible verse prominently above the front window of the vehicle. My takeaway from these verses, which are also commonly found on business signs and vendor stalls that line the roads, is that they represent a personal theology of the owner. In a way it could be considered a public expression of how people understand themselves and their culture, through the eyes of their faith. These aren’t small bumper stickers like we see in the US, they are large, bright, permanent expressions of belief that function more like moving billboards.

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After reading the verse the group was asked to consider why this scripture could be so important to Haiti. We then read the passage that follows Exodus 14:14, continuing on from verse 15-25. Before reading I encouraged people to consider replacing the word “Israelite” with “Haitian” and replacing “Egyptian” with “European” while listening to the text.  Verses 15-24 details Israelites fleeing from the Egyptians hot in pursuit. Moses then parts the Red Sea and the waters collapsing on the Egyptians causing them to panic. Verse 25 ends with the Egyptians saying “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.”

The conversation after this reading was riveting. Several people felt that in Exodus 14:14 Haitians could see that God fights for them, both in the slave uprising 200 years earlier and continues to fight for them today. This theme resonates in a softer way when considering two other common phrases that reference the New Testament that appear on Tap Taps, commercial vehicles and business signs, in the native Creole, “Merci Jesus” and “Christ Capable.”

Another person mentioned that the Exodus verse could also reference the present Haiti, and may give comfort to a people that often find themselves in turmoil. With an average age of 22 this is a young country: this next generation may view this verse as a way to do great things with God on their side. Where is God here? As many understand it God is blessing a chosen people, the Haitians, in their new promised land. We then closed with a Haitian prayer:

“Lord, How glad we are That we don’t hold you, but that you hold us.”