City Dump Ministry

The last two days – we got to truly see what the Bible means by the “least of these”.

We will never be the same again. 

We went to minister to those who live in the city dump in Tegucigalpa.  We have been looking forward to this ministry the entire time that we have prepared for our trip to Honduras!  We could have never prepared ourselves or imagined what it would actually be like.

Yesterday we began by purchasing 250 bags of water (they sell it in plastic bags that people bite the corner off of and drink from the bag) and 200 bananas.  We met at the church where the team from Minnesota is working and headed on our way to the city dump.  We arrived at the ministry location that is down the hill from the dump first.  We had orientation/briefing before entering the dump … they warned us about things being stolen and about what we might see.  I can’t really remember everything that was shared because I was praying for the Lord to prepare me for what I was about to encounter.  The only fact that I know that caught my attention was when Pastor Johnny shared that approximately 1800 people (men, women, and children) live in the dump. 

Daniel and I piled into the back of the truck with the water and bananas along with five others.  As we rounded the turn and approached the hill to the dump, I just knew that this would be something that would leave its mark on my heart forever.  When we got to the top of the hill, I lost my breath.  It was a mixture between the torturous smell and what I saw.  There were literally hundreds of people rummaging through the trash, hundreds of cows and dogs grazing on the trash, and thousands of buzzards swarming everywhere.

I looked over at Daniel and he said, “Wow” … he squeezed my hand and I told him just to pray for strength.  My words could never paint a picture of what it truly was like.  It felt like an out of body experience … like I had to really stop and remind myself that this is their daily living.  This is what their life consists of – survival.

As we approached the top of the hill, young men and children were running and chasing the truck because they knew we were delivering food and water.  We parked the truck and van – and the team unloaded.  The crowd immediately swarmed around us.  We had them get into three lines – men, children, and women.  I grabbed a bag of water bags and began to hand out the water to the lines of women and children … and then back up through the line of men.  People were grabbing at the bag that was in my arms – so Daniel grabbed the bag from my arms and began handing the water bags to me individually. 

Brea and I passing out water bags

As we handed them the water bags we said, “En el nombre de Jesus” (In the name of Jesus).  Some of them were too concerned with getting their water to pay attention to what we were saying.  Others were truly thankful and truly listened to every word that was spoken to them.  People were reaching out and rubbing my arms – almost as if they just wanted to feel what my skin felt like.  After we finished handing out the water, we got back into the back of the truck until the rest of the food was finished being distributed.  I looked over at Daniel and he looked at me and said, “This is where I want to be to minister to people.” 

Passnig out the rest of the water

After the all of the food was distributed, the youth group performed a drama skit and the gospel was shared/ translated.  After the skit, we gave out balloons and made balloon animals with the kids.  We spent another 15 minutes greeting the people – and then loaded back up to head back to the school ministry site down the hill.  The ministry there is called AFE – which stands for Amor, Fe, y Esperanza (love, faith and hope). 

Sign at the school

School Building

Another building for classrooms

The school ministry there is the most hopeful environment that I have ever experienced.  The educational ministry began in 2001.  Pastor Johnny is the one that established the ministry which consists of educating the children that are found in the city dump.  He began hosting those classes in the dump – after a while the government told them that they could not hold classes in the city dump.  So they had to move down to a field below the dump, which the ministry eventually outgrew.  In 2006, they built their first building.  Since then, they have built several other buildings there for the school/nursery.  This ministry rescues children from the dump and surrounding areas and provides for them food, clean clothes, and a holistic educational experience.  The school has grades 1^st -11^th (Honduran public schools only go through 11^th grade) and is in session year round.  We had a tour from one of the full time staff members.  He walked us throughout the buildings and showed us what the ministry entails.

When they pull children from the dump, they put them in their appropriate grade level for the school.  First – fourth grades are in the first building.  That building is more run down than the others … I wondered why there was a difference.  As we continued the tour, Adam showed us the other grade levels, along with a library, computer lab, nurse’s office, and their newest building project.  After the tour, he asked us if we noticed a difference in the quality of the buildings.  He explained that when they pull children out of the dump that have lived in filth and with nothing, they do not want to put them into a nice and fresh building where they will feel out of place.  As they progress through their schooling, the buildings get cleaner and nicer.  They teach them how to take care of belongings and themselves along the way so they learn how to maintain a clean environment.  By the time they start high school, they are provided uniforms.  He said that in the states, children consider uniforms to be “stupid”.  Here at the AFE School, the children look forward to wearing them because they have earned it and feel distinguished.

Kids playing in the field

After our tour, we loaded up and headed back to the church.  The entire way back to the church, I sat and tried my best to process what I had seen.  It was so much to consider – and when I tried to imagine how I would put it into words for our blog or for friends/family, I ended up with NOTHING to say that was adequate.  I feel like there is no way for us to share the depths of despair that we witnessed there.  Daniel and I tried our best to think of ways to describe the environment there but we couldn’t.  He was consumed with a desire to provide shoes for the people of the dump.  The Lord has really laid the need for a show ministry for this community on Daniel’s heart.  He shared his idea with Rick Barbas, the friends of the Beck’s from Memphis that has been here with us the last week or so.  Rick donated a pair of shoes from his luggage and told Daniel to consider them the first pair of shoes for our ministry.  We were so anxious to provide shoes for a man there … it kept us from sleeping and we could not wait to get back to serve them again on Thursday.

Worker walking down the hill with sweet Angie

Thursday morning, we had the same routine.  We headed to get 250 bags of water and headed to the dump with 250 sandwiches and chips.  When we arrived there, Pastor Johnny allowed us to interact with the children while they were in their classrooms.  I had the best time observing the kids while they learned!  It was amazing!  I took pictures of the first graders and a picture with the first grade teacher there.  The fourth graders wanted to know a lot of information about us – and they are learning English so they practiced asking us in English what our names were, how old we were, and what we do at home.  It was so fun interacting with them!  After that, we all headed to the nursery for an extended visit with the little ones.  My heart felt like it was going to explode – both from a deep longing to call one of them my own and praise for the hope and rescue that the Lord has provided for these children.  The children in the nursery will never know life in the dump – praise the Lord!

Me with the 1st grade teacher at AFE

First grader doing her math

First grade classroom

Math work on white board :)

While in the nursery, we heard the most incredible story.  A month or so ago, Pastor Johnny said that they found a newborn baby under a cardboard box in the dump.  When they found her, the only person around was a 2 year old little girl.  After investigating with the people there, they realized that the parents had abandoned the infant and left the 2 year old sister to be responsible for feeding/taking care of her.  Immediately Pastor Johnny took the two children down to the nursery.  The baby, who is around 5 months old, suffers from extreme asthma.  She had not been in any clothes so she had been exposed to rain, etc. without any protection.  Pastor Johnny and his wife had to rush her to emergency care and took her to their home to spend two weeks nursing her back to health.  They have since returned sweet Genesis to the nursery to be with her sister Angie.  Here are a few pictures of these precious little angels!

Pastor Johnny with sweet baby Genesis

2 year old Angie

After the nursery, the youth group went on another tour with Pastor Johnny so that he could share more information with them.  As we walked out of the nursery, I realized that Daniel had slipped out (I told you – EVERYTHING literally disappears in my eyes when I am with these kids … even my sweet hubby! J)  I walked outside to the field to find this J

The boys here love him :)

So, I decided I would join in on the fun!  We started throwing and kicking a football with this little fella … and ended up in a full blown Honduran style soccer match with the kids of the school.  It was great!  Afterwards, a team that is serving there this week from Dallas came out to join in the fun!  They had water balloons … so we joined in on the water balloon tosses and fights.  It was a blast!

Our football friend - Ibis :)

Me with sweet Charlie

Water balloon toss - of course Daniel won!

We continued to play one on one and in groups with the sweet kids – I think my love for them is rubbing off on Daniel … he can’t get enough either!  A little while later, we loaded up and headed up the hill to pass out lunch to the residents of the dump.

One of the youth sharing her testimony before we passed out out the food

This trip was different in a few ways.  I stood back and observed more during this trip than I did the day before.  I handed out some water but I really wanted to just watch and see the reactions of the people as we were serving them food.   Pastor Johnny had our camera (so that no one would try to take it from us) and he was taking pictures of feet for us for the shoe ministry.  He told Daniel, “There is a man here and I have promised him that I would bring him a pair of shoes” … so the Lord used Rick Barbas to provide those shoes!  Daniel was able to give him the shoes .. in the name of Jesus!  Here’s a picture of Daniel handing him the shoes there.  The light in Daniel’s eyes was amazing – the Lord is really doing a work in him!

Daniel giving the shoes to his new friend

We had handed out all of the lunch – and then I saw him.  The same little fella that caught my attention the day before when we were handing out water and bananas.  He was probably about 5 years old … and he was standing off away from the crowd with a bag of water in his hand.  When I said hello, he told me that he did not get any food.  As I turned to the truck, I saw the empty containers and realized that there was nothing for me to offer to him.  A sweet new friend of ours, David, was there to help translate for us so he helped me to find another young man to split his sandwich with this little fella.  Not only did he agree to split the sandwich, he gave his entire sandwich to him.  It was the most selfless thing that I have ever witnessed in my life – this young man was probably around 10 years old – and he gave up his sandwich to give to the younger boy, knowing that it could be days before he would eat again.  I asked the little fella if he was happy – he said yes- and then I told him to eat it!  He kept shaking his head no … I asked him to take a picture with me and he wouldn’t.  Instead, he started his journey up the hill back to his home made out of cardboard boxes, and that was the last that I saw of my sweet friend.  As I watched him journey up the hill of trash, I prayed that he was able to eat that sandwich … and didn’t get bullied in to giving it away.

Sweet little fella - talking to Daniel
Please pray for him!

The team began loading up when I heard Pastor Johnny call us over to pray with him.  We circled around a lady – probably in her 40s –named Lus.  She shared with Johnny that she has terrible boils and breast cancer.  We all held hands as we circled around her- in the middle of the dump- and prayed for a miraculous healing and for her to have peace and comfort during this time.  The translation of the prayer was beautiful – the Holy Spirit was completely intertwined in our circle of prayer … it was the most amazing feeling in the world.  Lus was very grateful for our prayer … as we told her goodbye … I turned back and hugged her.  At that moment, it didn’t matter that she was covered in black soot from the trash or that she was in clothes that we covered in dirt … at that moment she was my sister in Christ and that was all that mattered.  I told her that I loved her – and called her my sister in Christ .. and she looked so deeply into my eyes that it felt like she was looking into my soul.  I believe in my heart that I will see Lus again someday – with a completely restored body with no hurt or pain!  I am so thankful that the Lord has given me these moments … my heart is forever changed.

After praying for Lus, we loaded up and headed back down the hill.  I could not stop thinking about what we had experienced there over the last two days of ministry.  It is overwhelming but at the same time, so amazing.  It is such a contrast between the lowest pit of despair on the top of of the hill at the dump and the hopeful hearts of those at the school ministry.  The Lord has done great things at AFE – I can’t wait to go back!

The Lord is really working on hearts in regards to Honduras and full time mission work … we both have grown to love this culture and find ourselves wanting to make this our “normal”.  Please pray that the Lord will continue to mold us and make us clean and useful vessels for His work.  We are hopeful that the remainder of our trip will be full of moments just like these – where we have a chance to be the hands and feet of Christ to the least of these.

Today ... we are taking our first day of rest in the last (almost) 3 weeks.  We have been taking it easy ... and it's raining so we picked a great day to do that!  We have Language Acquisition training this afternoon ... so we are preparing for that now.

Here is a final picture ... after our day at the dump, we were coming up the hill that Rick & Kim live on.  The city is BREATHTAKING at night.  So we went up to the top to take some pictures. 

Tegucigalpa