Compelled by Love

Tuesday was a building day for the team but homes were not the only result.  The heat was relentless and our sites had no spots for seeking even a minute of shade so, needless to say, we had some rough moments of heat exhaustion.  But when you're serving people who make their living by digging thru the garbage at the city dump, it hardly seems worth the energy it would take to draw a breath to complain about the heat compared to their plight.

But that was the part of the experience that built something within us...their incredible, amazing faith.

The government had given some land near the dump for building houses and it was so appropriate that on the day after we distributed food at the dump, we were building houses for two of the families that survive day-to-day living as a result of scavaging at the dump. 

Pictures 11-20 (Ord, you'll want to see these) are from Team One's site.  The lady of the house was Marcia.  Picture 19 is a picture of their current dwelling.  Marcia lived here with her 4 children and her 3 grandchildren.  Her husband passed away 8 years ago and ever since - for 8 entire YEARS - Marcia had been praying that God would provide a home for her with a roof so that her children and grandchildren (the boys on the mattress) would be able to sleep under a roof when it rains.

She and her grown daughter (with the shawl over her head) and her grown son spend every day at the dump.  Everything they own, including their furnishings, clothes and food, are from the dump.  Dinner consists of whatever they can find at the dump that the vultures haven't found first.  That is their life.  

Yet they are rich in joy, peace and faith.  Rich in ways that make US the ones who are impoverished.  I have never in my 55 years of living been so inspired as I was as I sat at the feet of a group of 8-10 women who one by one told us about their confidence in Almighty God.  I'm telling you, these people GET God.  They don't just talk about how much they trust Him, they live out their trust in HUGE ways every single day.  When they need food, they ask God for it and then wait for His provision.  Over and over I heard them say, first we praise Him, then we make our request of Him and then we wait.

And let me tell you, they don't weep while they wait.  They work and trust and pray  and work and trust and pray some more.  I saw tears in this group of ladies only once yesterday.  They were in the eyes of a young 20-something sweet girl who said she had buried 4 children and she was grateful that God had given her a fifth child and that he was healthy and still alive.  Can you believe it?  Can you even believe that kind of grateful heart?  

There was not one single "poor me" story.  We asked, "How has God blessed you," and they talked for over an hour.  

And you'd think, with all they lack (although I have to say, right now, I truly feel like I lack far more than they do) they would be asking for mattresses to sleep on or new roofs. But their prayer now is that some land will be provided so they can build a church for their community by the dump.  How about that for a church name - the church by the dump.  I tell you the truth, if it happens (and I have no doubt that with their faith it will) and I lived here, I'd be making tracks to that church on some Sundays.  I have no idea if they use instruments or sing acappella, if they let women preach or remain silent, but I tell you this, those folks already do church in ways that smack dead on of the church we read about it Acts.  And these folks can't even read! 

The stories are endless but our time and space isn't.  More to come.

Poverty breeds faith.  That's truth.  And it's being lived out loud on a mountainside in Honduras near the dump with a view of the waiting vultures (picture 28).  Glory!