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