My first ticket in Haiti.

Today I was stopped at a routine police check point. The police man said my taillights a didn't work. He told me to pull over to the side of the road so he could write me a ticket. 

A little side information. Police in Haiti are notorious for; saying they are going to give you a ticket, but then take a bribe and for picking on white people (who might have money). In this police man's defense, I was the only white person of the 5 other cars pulled over for the same type of thing. Yet, I was convinced that the accusation that my taillights didn't work was not true. Shane takes very good care of our car. So I followed the policeman and told him my lights worked and I was not going to accept the ticket. 

The policeman was a big man, similar to Shane, and he came over to double check my lights. He proceeded to tell me that my lights weren't working. I said I think they are but you can't see them with the sun. He told me that was American logic which made me kind of mad. I pushed, not offensively, but intensely. But then I started to think he may actually be right. Plus, he wasn't asking for a bribe, he was doing his job! So I called it a day and left with the ticket and without my license. 

If you get a ticket in Haiti, they take your license until you come back with a receipt to prove that you paid for the ticket. The reason they do this is that without regular employment or good government tracking, it is impossible to enforce tickets. 

I told Shane about it and when he went out to check the break lights, they weren't working. He had driven through water last night and it must have created a short. He fixed them in the next 20 minutes and all was well. 

Except it wasn't. I knew we were going to drive by that police stop in the next two hours. I knew I was supposed to tell the policeman I was sorry for giving him a hard time. But then I would start to rationalize it all; no harm was done, he doesn't really need an apology, I would just pay it and we could forget it.  

When we passed the police stop I told Shane to pull to the side of the road. I could rationalize all I wanted but I felt convicted to apologize. 

 

Shane stayed in the car and I went over to talk to Mike, the policeman who gave me the ticket. As soon as he saw me he started to tell me that the ticket was staying, my lights didn't work. I told him yes, he was right. My husband checked the lights and they didn't work. I then asked the man for forgiveness. I told him I was sorry that my mouth had made his job harder. He looked pretty surprised. He was gracious and said it was no big deal, it was normal. Culturally what I did WAS completely normal, but I know God has called me to live differently. 

As I was leaving I realized that I still didn't know where to go pay this silly ticket so I went back to ask one of the other policemen. He explained it (I still didn't have any clue where to pay it) and I said thank you and went to get in the car. 

Immediately, he flagged me back and asked me to bring my receipt into the office. I followed where he, Eric, and Mike proceeded to arrange for another man to drive my ticket into the office to pay. I heard the two of them talking about my apology in an astonished tone. Then, the best thing, they gave me my license back! He said something to the effect of me being respectful to them and they wanted to help me out.

To be clear, this isn't about me. I was wrong. I would rather have ignored the whole thing, but the Holy Spirit would not let me be. And if I'm following Jesus, then I want to follow him all the way. It's only in Jesus that I can humble myself because my value isn't wrapped up in what I do. It is all about who Jesus says I am.

It was also a nice bonus that God let me also see that when we live different than the culture, others notice. 

Just a funny pic I borrowed from another missionary. The words in the bottom of the tap-tap say "Diarrhea doesn't know beautiful underwear" hehe.