Last week I saw a little boy drinking mouthwash from a dirty little plastic Scope bottle he found in the heaps of garbage at the city dump…
When we told the story of Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41) to a group of children by the road, my teammate Chris asked the kids what happens during a storm, expecting to hear the familiar terms of “trueno” (thunder), “lluvia” (rain), “rayo” (lightning). Instead, however, one dusty, shirtless little guy blurted out: “Your home washes away!”
All around fences were made of rusted, rutted metal sheets and blue plastic kiddie pools. Bottlecaps were the nuts and bolts that glued scraps together into “homes”. It was still all a bunch of trash–reconstructed, reused, reconfigured mounds of garbage. As humans we can only recycle what we have already been given. Only God can transform transform trash into treasure. He gives us beauty for our ashes (Isaiah 61).
Home Sweet Home in the Dump
At the dump, many women sell their bodies just for the privilege of having first dibs on the new deposit of trash.
Organized junk
We are broken people living in a shattered world. We long to be made new–to be whole again. So we try to fix ourselves, get our lives “back on track”, fighting to fit together the misshapen pieces of our own story. Yet only God can re-weave the twisted tatters of our lives, working them into the perfect tapestry of His story. His story is one of broken beauty and redemptive love.
You can make all things new; only your power can raise us.
You can make all things new; only your love can save us.
All hope is not lost because you make all things new.
You give beauty for our ashes, and a hope that’s everlasting.
The past has been redeemed; now forever we will sing!
(All Things New, Brett Younker)
God can remake our lives when we come to Him empty of our own resources. Manuela, the cleaning lady here at Casa Betesda, gave our group the best compliment the other day. “Your group is different from the other mission teams that come here. Other groups sing and dance and heal. But your group loves.”
We didn’t come with toys and gifts and grand plans. We came only with a deep, deep love for God and people. We had such fun today writing letters and drawing pictures for the specific kids that we had been praying for the past month here at Casa Betesda. They were beyond excited over our simple expressions of love for them. I’ve loved so much hanging out with the young women at the Farm–sharing stories, watching movies, painting nails, and laughing while we teach one another English and Spanish. The boys and younger children at Casa Betesda have truly stolen my heart with their tickles and giggles and boundless energy.
Las Hermanitas (Sisters) Angeles y Keren
My bro Jocson and I
Joseling and I
Praise:
- Praise God for sustaining me through this incredible journey to Nicaragua!
Prayer:
- Ask God for safe travels to Atlanta, Georgia Saturday morning, June 28th, and for my flight back to Detroit from Atlanta Sunday morning, June 29th.
- Ask God to continue to protect and provide for the children at Casa Betesda and the young women at the Farm; pray that they would understand in a very real way their Father’s perfect, unconditional love for them.
