respiraré para Dios
The little boy hanging on the bar that consists of the back of our truck looked strangely like the boy sitting next to him and across from me – just about 10 years younger. Yet as we neared the path leading out of the dump, the child jumped off and headed back towards home.
Each Tuesday a group from El Puente goes to la basurera where the smoke from piles of trash steals the color from the trees behind them. The children who live there have a two hour round trip to school by foot, although school is only for one hour each day. The workers dig through the junk daily looking for anything recyclable that could scrape together enough cordobas to eat. There seems to be no real schedule, because there really is no variation. Each day the task is the same.
Sitting under an old tree waiting for ministry to start, I couldn’t help but wonder about what might happen if I stayed longer; if I lived there; if I had grown up there.
Someone was telling me about a group of Americans who live and work in the Managua dump, not because they have to to survive, but to relate to those who have no other choice. To help them from the inside. I’m not sure whether I’d be willing to do that. Whether I could.
Yet throughout the entire time at the dump, especially when waiting for the workers to make their ways to the table we had set up, I couldn’t help but wonder what these people would do if placed in my body, given my resources, my gifts. After all- they’re not mine- God could take them away if He really wanted to and give them to someone else- right?
I don’t deserve to be sitting in a truck leaving a dump any more than a little girl running around in hand me down flip flops deserves to be living there. I could have been born into a different family, different environment, different life altogether. The resemblance between my Nicaraguan friend and the little boy we left behind really spoke to me about how nothing we did meant that we got to serve at the dump and leave instead of stay and work. Each moment is a gift, each breath and each step is a talent that not everybody can take as easily, if at all. We could have been plopped into a very different world.
Just remember, from whom much is given, much is required.
That’s right! We’ve got a task set before us and resources to carry it through. You’re doing an awesome job, Val. I’m proud of you!
This is profound stuff Val – keep asking these questions! The answers may not be pretty, but they’re answers none-the-less.