An Earth That Is Scorched

Monday morning, we took a trip to the see where people who live in the village Amigos has built were before they moved there. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua and wiped out a lot of people and houses. The government set up the refugees in tents in the dump of Chinandega, the city we're now in. They said they would move the people out again, but just never did. Amigos came along and built some houses elsewhere for the people to live in, which has now grown into a village, Villa Catalina.

So we went to that dump. The thing is, there are still a lot of people living there. There are rows and rows of dwellings put together out of old cardboard and cloth. They showed us the lake and river where all the Chinandega sewage and waste goes. We could see needles sticking up out of the water from the hospital's garbage. The people who live in the dump survive by spending their days searching through the heaps for useful things, and then sell them to a middle man who sells it back in town. Because this is how they get money and food, they even scuba dive in these same waters to find things to sell.

When they finish searching a pile in the dump and there's nothing else they can use, they burn it so they don't have to search through it again. So, as we walked across the trash, which covers the whole section of land, it was often either burnt or still burning. When God told us in the song for our trip that the earth was scorched, I didn't expect it to be literal. I didn't expect that walking where these people do would require walking on burning trash. It struck me that this is truly part of the "ends of the earth." Even this dump village needs to know the message of Jesus. I would venture to say that it especially needs to know. And for that to happen, someone must go. Someone must be willing to breath the dust and smoke, stand in the heat, and engage with people who's hearts are more obviously slain than any I have ever seen.

While we were walking, a young man came up to us and one of the staff people talked to him. He was sniffing a spray can he had found and was pretty clearly high. She asked him how old he was, and he said he was 18. She asked him if he went to school or had a job, and he said that his job was to find and sell stuff from the dump. He went on to say that today he found this can, so today, that was his pay. She asked him if he wanted something different, and he replied, "Sure I want something different, but I don't know how to get it."

So many other people we saw there seemed so hopeless. The children didn't laugh or run much, like they do in the Villa. The people would not really make eye contact or acknowledge us. It was so sad to see such waste and despair. At one point while we were walking, a flock of pure white birds took off from the ground in a quite startling way. Their presence was such a stark contrast to the landscape of brown and gray trash. You may know that birds remind me of the presence of God, and I realized that this place was not hopeless, not for God. Though he is truly the only one who would be able to redeem it.

I don't have any pictures of the dump because Amigos is working very hard to build good relationship and trust with the people. So, we went in with nothing - no water bottles, cameras, or anything. Their relationship with the people is so important because the people who are still there are there because they do not want to leave - they are too afraid. Where they live, they have something they know will feed their children for the day. As one of the staff people was saying though, it's not exactly a healthy place to live. People were not made to live in dumps. We were made for life, growth, adventure, beauty. There is none of that there. So Amigos staff are working on building trust so that they can help.

So that's something you all can definitely be praying for. Amigos is in the process of building 50 more houses in the Villa (of which stories and pictures are coming). I would love to see more people  able to fill those houses, get involved in the community, and come alive.