Day 4- The Dump

Today was the most challenging day for me by far. We were told when we got here on Saturday that we would be going to the dump Wednesday morning. People live near there and spend their days and lives digging through the garbage for things like plastic bottles and aluminum. The AIM staff and Ivan warned us that this would be difficult and it was. Our worship time this morning consisted of corporate prayer in our ministry groups. Our Eastminster team is divided into three groups of 6-8 people each. We were asked to pray for God’s compassion to be real in our lives and for us to know intimately the love He has for us. I thought I was prepared for what I would see there. But I wasn’t. Before we could even see the dump the smell was awful. Worse yet there were small tin roofed shacks just before the entrance where these people lived. As the busses wound their way into the middle of the landfill all I could think of was what hell must be like. Ivan told us that when Jesus described hell he talked about the burning dump outside of Jerusalem. This garbage was burning also. The picture of piles and piles of garbage, some of it on fire and people crawling on it and digging through it is one I cannot get out of my mind. Dogs were everywhere, foraging also. For me the worst part was the clouds of flies that were everywhere. After unloading we began to dig through the garbage with the Mexicans looking for treasures like plastic bottles and aluminum cans. We dug with them, offered them cold water, talked with them and played with their children We prayed with many of them for needs just like many of us have: broken families, health issues and financial problems. Many of the people we talked with knew the Lord and we were blessed by them. During testimony time back at camp several of our team talked about how blessed they were by the people and how pleasant many of them seemed. They smiled when you talked with them. They didn’t seem bitter by their situation. Eric and Ed were blessed by a lady that thanked them and praised God for His provision. Two hours later we loaded up the busses and headed back to camp. Exhausted, sweaty and deeply impacted!

I have to say that I was pretty much out of it the rest of the day. Physically and spiritually. During the debrief and testimony time back at camp, our AIM speaker James had some powerful words for us. He shared some statistics on world poverty which just break your heart. How many adults and children die every year due to poverty – 6 million. And how little money it would take to solve the problem. What a huge percentage of the world’s resources the top countries consume.

Even more impacting for me were the questions he asked of a spiritual nature. Why were those people content to live there at the dump? Surely they could find somewhere else to work. What does our spiritual life look like? Are we living in a spiritual dump? Are we content with our relationship with God as it is? Have all of our material blessings ended up pulling us away from God? Do we know that God desires so much more of Him for us than we can ever imagine? Are we going to let Him into more of our lives? Are we going to live for Him and let Him pour more of Himself into us? Then we were given quiet time to pray and meditate on our response to everything we saw and heard.

After an early dinner we headed downtown to do sports evangelism at a sports complex with lots of basketball and volleyball courts and soccer fields. There must have been a couple hundred people there all spread out. After playing games with many of them we gathered together for music and testimonies. Kelly played the guitar and sang and Joy Enoch shared her testimony from our group. Several others shared testimonies and then Ivan preached and asked for commitments. I believe some responded. We then fanned out and talked with the people. I prayed for a man and his wife who had not been attending church but wanted to. He said his life was messed up since he stopped attending. The pastor there talked with him and gave him directions to his church.

I think we’re all exhausted and having mixed emotions about leaving tomorrow night. We’ll sleep in Texas tomorrow after one more full day of ministry in the Colonia. This trip has been physically draining but awesome spiritually. Most if not all of us have shared our testimonies and been stretched way beyond our comfort zone. I pray you’ll see a new boldness in us when we return. Dios de bendiga! God Bless You.

David Beckwith

Blessing and Being Blessed

Today was our second day doing the different ministries within our specific colonia. My group was privileged to be able to work with the kids and set up VBS for them. Although different from any VBS at Eastminister, by the fact that we cannot efficiently communicate with them, it was an enlightening experience. First, we took the kids outside and did a little recreation- soccer for some, the rest played "duck, duck, goose". It was neat to be able to step back and just see God moving as our kids fellowshipped with these kids who have so little.
After the recreation, we headed inside to color. I have been fortunate enough to have my dad on this trip. It was nice to sit on the floor with him and color with the kids. This one girl in particular connected with my dad, and they were reading the coloring sheet and just talking. For me, it was more than that. It was wonderful to see this little girl fill my dad with such joy. This joy overflowed into me. Her smile just lit up the entire room.
The second ministry my group participated in today was the living water. During a living water session, we go to a populous place, and hand out cups of water. We went to a plaza/bus stop area and passed out cups of water to anyone who wanted some. I really enjoyed this because we were just able to interact with so many people at once. Although, without a translator, it was difficult to hold many long conversations. But we were able to hand out several Bibles and just pray that these people would take some time to actually read them.
The one thing though that truly made my day was when I was approached by a young boy in one of the local stores. With the little Spanish that I know, we were able to talk for a bit and he told me his name was Simon. He was absolutely precious and I instantly fell in love with him. His willingness to come up to a stranger is just so appreciated because he certainly made my day.
I'm very thankful to be a part of this trip and to be able to experience all these new things. I thank God for what He is doing in my life and how He is preparing me to go back home. The people of Mexico have such simple needs, but are so hungry for the word of God. We as a group are just so thankful for the opportunity to share it with them.

Sincerely,
Paisley Edgerton

Jesus in the spotlight

When I woke up this morning I wasn’t that excited for what I was doing today. My group and I was assigned to do “door to door” greetings, which is when you walk around and talk to people who are on their porches. Our translator was Eliazar, who is an amazing person and has truly been a inspiration to me. On the way to the Church where we would begin our little expedition, Eliazar told us to prepare our selves for what we were going to say to the people we encounter. As soon as he said that John 3:15 popped into my head, and when I looked it up in my Bible it says, “ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” That verse hit me hard, and came very useful throughout the day. My group and I finally began our prayer walking, and we came across the two kids that were outside just talking. The introduced themselves and the boys name was Christian. He told us that he had just accepted Christ yesterday, and seemed interested what we had to say to him. However, his mom and brother sat in their little shack that they call home and were laughing and making loud noises at Christian for talking to us, and trying to make him feel uncomfortable, it was a sad site to see. We told Christian about the soccer game that we were having later that day and said that we hope to see him there. The last house that we went to had a little old woman in it, and she welcomed us in with more that open arms. When we entered her house the first thing I noticed was that she actually had a pretty nice house compared to most of the people that lived around her, the second thing I noticed was a little chuawawa that looked like the little dog from the Taco Bell commercials which I found very amusing for some reason. When we started talking to the lady, she told us that she couldn’t sleep at night and that she was so alone. She said she couldn’t even go to church at times because she was too tired to go and didn’t feel like it. We talked for her for a while longer and told her that she can always pray to god about it and that he has the power to heal anything and everything. Before we left her house we asked her if she wanted to rededicate her life to Christ and she said yes. She then prayed the prayer with Eliazar, while we walked around her house praying for her.
My favorite part of the whole day and my whole trip so far was playing soccer with the children after we did door to door. The kids that we played with were just amazing! They were always smiling and having a great time. The kids in Mexico have a lot of time on their hands, so needless to say they are very good at Futbol aka “Soccer”. But, we held our own very well if I say so myself, I think the oldest one was maybe 14 and all of us who were playing were 16 or older. My team lost, but not without a good fight. The ending score was 4-3.
After playing soccer we all sat down on the stands on the side of the field, and Mr. Beckwith started to speak and gave an intro to who Jesus is. Once he finished speaking I walked down and was in the spotlight. I had planned on sharing my testimony to everyone, but I had no clue what I was going to say. When I started to speak in front of 20 or so children, words just started pouring out of my mouth. I wasn’t the one who was saying the words though, God just kept feeding me words to say. It was such an AWESOME feeling to share how the Lord has altered your life, it was by far the highlight of my day. If you were to ask me what I said when I was talking in front of all those children, I would not be able to tell you. Once I was finished talking I had such an amazing feeling inside of me, as if nothing in the world mattered, except that Jesus Christ used me to share how great he is to a bunch of children who some have never even heard who Jesus Christ is! I use to think that my testimony was lame and didn’t matter because it was about me and not that exciting. But I realized after that speech that every testimony is amazing! I mean you accepted Christ into your life and Born Again and new person. God works through us in ways we will never really understand, but the fact is that we MUST trust in him no matter what the issue may be. God works miracles on people when they least expect it and least deserve it.
Once we had finished everything at the soccer fields and we about to leave Ross came up to me and said hey lets go talk to this kid Antonio who was 13. I had a feeling that I should go talk to him before Ross came up to me and asked if I would go with him, but I hesitated. Thankfully because of Ross we walked up to Antonio right as he was about to leave on his bike and told him to wait up. When we got to him, Chris who is a translator for us and is only 17, came up right behind us to translate. We asked Antionio if he knew who Jesus Christ is and he said, “ Ya he’s the one that everyone loves”. Then we asked him if he knew what he did for us and he replied, “No I don’t.” Ross and I then basically gave him Jesus in a nutshell, telling him who he really is and what he did for us and why. After talking with Antonio for a while, we asked him if he owned a Bible and he said no. We told him to come back to the church with us so we could give him one, and he did. Ross and I hurried back to the Church and got a bible for him. We are going to see him again Thursday and I can’t wait till I do.
Today has been an amazing day and one that I will never forget, and always tell stories of. I pray that you all will trust in the Lord with everything you have. He has ways of showing up when you least expect it. I also want to thank everyone who contributed to all of us being here and getting to experience how God is working around the world. I ask that you all continue to keep us in your prayers. I hope to see you all soon. Mom I love you and tell everyone at the house the same ;)

Max Poling