Thursday Update

I don’t know who reads this because a lot of it is redundant from other people’s posts. But, this is my (Terry) perspective of today.

Today was a pretty incredible day. It wasn't extremely physically demanding like other days but it was eye opening to see the stark reality of the Hondurans. We started by going to the grocery store to buy sandwich ingredients for 300 sandwiches that we would take to the Tegucigalpa city dump. Mark sent us into the grocery store by ourselves, which was quite a learning experience. After we made the sandwiches we bought 300 tangerines and 300 bags of water and with a loaded van we made our trek to the dump. The dump is where about 300 Hondurans live among the garbage waiting for new trucks to arrive to find anything of value. The majority of them sniff glue to alleviate their hunger and because glue is cheaper than food. The pictures truly don't do justice because pictures don't have a taste, smell, or filth. As we arrived I really couldn't believe that people like this existed in our world. Most of them were high on glue and covered their face with a ski mask just to protect themselves from the filth and bacteria. The crazy thing was the see the dogs, vultures, cows, flies, and humans all scrounging through the trash searching for the same things. We stayed for about 30 minutes handing out sandwiches to the mob of “untouchables.” As we left, I was filthier from the 30 minutes we were there than from the work we had done during all the previous days. I can truly say that my eyes have seen the depths of poverty.

After we left we went to Mona Loa (a local slum village) and handed out school uniforms to the kids and then played footbol with the boys. Soccer was matched up gringos vs. Hondurans. We were hanging with the 10 year olds but when the guys closer to our age came we didn’t score another goal.

Today was great just seeing the faces that we came down here for. For me (since I don’t speak Spanish) I can’t love them with my words only with my actions. And while this has been a humble blessing, I haven’t seen the reality of the Honduran life. Today was an opportunity to see that, and it was a real blessing.

Most people wouldn’t consider this a vacation but it has been the perfect retreat from the student life. And while I love being a student, I have learned a lot about the world by getting away from the American dream life. The great lesson that God has been teaching me is that each day is a gift (Psalm 118:24) and we haven’t been given tomorrow or next week. In light of this, God’s grace has a new value and new motivation.

Tomorrow we will be building a retaining wall for our new friend and brother Melvin. Please pray for sustained joy in Christ.

-Terry