Why we are going

 

We woke up this morning to Piper with pink eye! I know things like that happen when people go on short-term missions, but please pray that our team stays healthy for our trip next week. We want to be as effective as we can while we are down there.  Nonetheless, we can't be more excited.

I thought I'd copy and paste part of an email we received a few months ago,  approriately titled "Why We Are Here" in the subject line. It's from an energetic retired couple, Bob and Sue, from our church who have been on staff at the mission for a few years now, (they live here but stay at the mission several months out of the year during the spring and summer.) I thought it gave such a sweet example of the things we will see and do while we are there. Of course we have no idea what the needs will be once we arrive!  Still, I love that Bob and Sue will be there waiting for our team to arrive Sunday night. (Sue is pictured, below, in the pink shirt.)

 

We'll try and keep you posted. I haven't even begun packing!

 

 

It's Saturday morning, and volunteers are rolling out 200 flour tortilla's.

And cooking a batch of potato, tuna, onions and chili peppers.

Then the team heads out to the Vicente Guerrero dump, where people eke out a living scouring

trash for anything that might be of value.

On the way to the Camalu dump, the team saw a family walking to the dump. They stopped to

give them a meal. The little girls had no shoes.

They asked for prayer for their daughter who was sick.

People live in the Camalu dump, and scavenge for materials to build the most pitiful shelters (see

center left) to make a shelter from the sun and wind. Fire smolders day and night.

Anything that can be recycled is collected, sorted and bagged. Sadly, the little bit of money this

provides often goes to buy drugs.

The dump is also populated by packs of diseased dogs, and local farmers set pigs loose to scavange

a meal from the rotting debris.

Juan (playing guitar) is a High School senior at the orphanage and has a real heart for reaching

this people for the Lord. At left is a grandmother and gr-daughter who were scavenging for

food at the dump. They were happy to have found an open package of dried tortillas and some

rotting strawberries.

The team also visited a nearby recycle center.

I want you to meet Paulino, second from the the right. He works on the mission construction crew,

and goes out each week to feed the people at the dump where he once lived.

Paulino (right) actually grew up in the Camalu garbage dump, collecting debris to sell to the recycle

business. Hopelessly hooked on drugs, and desperate to escape his predicament he walked many miles

to the missions' Rancho de Christo treatment facility. That's where he recovered his health, though he

still has serious respiratory problems from years of breathing toxic smoke. He became a Christian

and today he's a vibrant witness to people living at the dumps.

Bob and Sue