We went to Church Sunday Morning to a Church located on the edge of Port Au Prince. The building was like all in Haiti - unfinished, but overall designed to hold about 700 people with a balcony that extended around three sides. The windows were all open with no glass and a nice breeze was blowing which made for a pleasant morning out of the sun. As we exited the Tap Taps there were a dozen or more pigs rooting around in the yard, squealing and running around and just generally being pigs.

We entered and sat on the left hand side of the sanctuary and I noticed a large dog lying at my feet. He looked like a greyhound and was about the same size which is unusual for Haiti. Most are much smaller. The dog slept quietly throughout the song service, then when the singing was finished, he got up and lay on the platform at the Pastor's feet. Noone paid him any notice. After the two offerings - one for the Church and the other for the relief of the poor, the pastor rose to speak. The sermon was on the woman at the well.

About 15 minutes into the sermon the dog sat up and started scratching himself - again noone except "us tourists" seemed to notice. About that time the pigs outside took to squealing even more and the dog took a bounding leap over the communion table, down the center aisle and out the center door. We heard a "woof", squeals, oinks, and scurrying much like the disciples must have heard when Jesus cast out the demons and the pigs all went running into the sea - then quiet, too quiet.

The dog never came back into the service, but as we sat quietly and fanned ourselves for the remaining two plus hours I mused that we could all join in the "all dogs go to Heaven" debate, but we could probably all agree that the pigs aren't welcome.

One of the girls commented as we left that if every Church in America would just adopt a dog we could do away with the SPCA shelters, but wouldn't it mean so much more if every Church would sponsor just one (1) of the 4 million children at risk in Haiti.

NOTE: We spend 4 times the annual salary of EVERY person in Haiti on pet food each year.