The Gospel

Warning: The following is very sad story

Two Sunday’s ago I had the privilege of speaking at Amor y Vida, where many people who work and live in the garbage dump attend. I gave a simple message about the plot of all the stories in the Bible from Ephesians – “I was dead, but God gave me life.” I explained how God wants to bring that story into being in our lives, our families, and our futures. With all modest, it was a great message with a great response afterwards where many wanted to start following Jesus. In the crowd was a certain family going through tremendous difficulty in their lives. They heard my presentation of the gospel through words and shook my hands afterwards. I had so many people wanting to talk to me I just quickly went by them, not realizing they wanted to talk to me. I went home happy after sharing the gospel with a bunch of people. That family also went home but sad because the mother was out of options.

Let me explain. He husband had left 3 months ago to the states with another woman. She was alone with a year and half old daughter and Samir, an 8 year old boy who is in the 3rd grade at AFE. The mother has tried so hard to provide for her family. It is hard to find a job when there is no one to watch your little baby. She wakes up early and makes tortillas and other food to sell on the street with her son. She allows him to go to school in the morning and then afterwards he helps her sell. She does not want to go the garbage dump to work. That Sunday night was especially hard because her family had not eaten since their last meal at AFE (Friday at noon) and would not eat until the next day because they had no more food. That was what she would have told me if I had not simply shook her had, said ‘God Bless You’ and gone on to the next person.

I do not know what it feels like to have to respond to a son who tells me, “Daddy, I’m hungry” when I do not have any way to feed him. I don’t know what it feels like to be out of options. I don’t know what ‘desperate’ means. This mother does. And on Sunday night she reacted in a horrible way when her son asked for some food. She beat him. The boy you see on the right hand side had a black eye and dark contusions covering his back. The mother wept and wept afterwards. She apologized to him and us. I am not condoning her actions, simply saying that poverty creates such tragedies.

After hearing about these events, we decided to present the Gospel again the following Sunday, but with actions. Project Transformation bought some grocery supplies for the family to help them during this time. We found a donation of clothes for her which she can sell along with her food to make an income. We are also looking into finding her a job as a nanny. She has committed to never strike her children again and to contact us if she is in that situation again.

Almost all my studies have taught me the importance of sharing the good news with deeds and not just words, but this last week that truth became so much more clear in my life. It is very hard to hear the good news when your children are hungry and you don’t have any way to feed them. We want to commit ourselves to always present the whole Gospel with both word and deed. That is the gospel that produces transformation. Please keep this family in prayer.

1 John 3:17-18 If anyone has material possessions and sees someone in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Met Our Match

Elise and I are pretty confident individuals. There are not many things we feel we can not do. Well, we met our match with the pre-school students at AFE. There has not been a consistent pre-school teacher for over a year now which makes it difficult for the kids to learn. This year’s first graders (last years preschoolers) are still behind in learning to read because of the lack of consistency in their teachers. One of our priorities is finding a teacher who can make a long term commitment.

Until then, I thought maybe Elise and I could help the children. I was by myself the first day and that was the first mistake. I thought maybe we could learn the alphabet that our church had painted on the walls. I asked them to point out the letter their name started in. Another mistake because I could not get them to seat down the rest of school! They just went wild pointing at every letter, ripping down their previous work to show me, and just running a muck. After an hour of trying to get control, I finally was able to with the help of a God send – Tic Tacs. They wanted some of my tic tacs so I used it as collateral. I made them do the letter M and I in their notebooks. I gave up quickly and gave them extra recess. I came home totally exhausted from my endeavor. I was happy to bring Elise because I knew she would help. She laughed at my inexperience as I told her about my day. She said she would whip them in shape in no time.

The next day we came together and walked right into pre-school. The kids were unexpectedly quiet and calm. It was the calm before the storm. Elise made introduction and asked what their favorite animal was. Not only did they tell us their favorite animal, but the acted out the animal the rest of the day. Then they got in fights over their animals. Somehow we got control back. I had to step away to attend to some guest. Ten minutes later I saw all the kids running out of the classroom to the playground about 45 minutes early. I went to check on Elise. I couldn’t help but laugh because she was having just as much trouble as me. I asked why they had gone to recess so early and Elise told me they just left. After recess we tried again to teach them something but couldn’t keep their attention. Finally we used Doritos to bribe them to do work and miraculously it worked.

Elise and I have decided are gifting is not with pre-schoolers. The kids love us now and run to hug us when we arrive but we are hoping they get a full-time teacher really soon. The best part is that they can’t prounce the ‘r’ in Rey so they all call me “Ley.’ Please keep Milton, Josue, Carlos, Paola, and Joselin in your prayers. And also pray we find a good pre-school teacher.

Antonio Update

On our first trip to Honduras we met Antonio at AFE, the school in the garbage dump. Jeony introduced him to us and we developed a friendship. He was the oldest student in the school and had an amazing story. He had arrived at the school with a mask on, a baseball bat and a knife demanding to be taught how to read and write. Eventually he became a leader among the students, sometimes even using his intimidating nature to make them study. I met him during school hours. A few hours later, I went into the garbage dump for the first time and was shocked to see Antonio there working. He would go to school in the morning until noon when he would go back to the garbage dump to work to late evening. Unfortunately this is still the case with about half of the 160 students at AFE.

At the time of his graduation, AFE was not approved for a Junior High so Antonio went to a vocational school called El Sembrador. He was excelling there until his spring break. On his way back to school, he was robbed at the bus stop. The thieves beat him up and stole all his books, clothes, and tuition money. He came back home broken because he didn’t know how to get back. When we saw him, he was in tears over the situation.

This is where Project Transformation steps in! When Jeony told us the circumstances, we immediately called Washington Cathedral about covering the cost of his tuition. The church agreed and we were able to send Antonio back to school on scholarship. He continues to excel in the school and will finish up a welding program. Next year he plans on coming back to AFE while studying in a nearby school to finish his degree. He will teach some of the younger kids at AFE, now that we are going to have our own vocational school.

Antonio is an incredible example of the power of God to transform anyone. No one and no circumstance is outside of God’s grace. Pray that we would continue to see God transform more and more people. We want to see hundreds and thousands of Antonios break out of the garbage dump and pursue God’s will for their life.

Washington Cathedral: HQ of Project Transformation

When I met Elise at seminary, I knew that I had a found a great wife but I didn’t realize that God had also connected me with a fantastic base to see His dreams of transforming slum communities into reality. Washington Cathedral’s mission is to become the greatest caring network the world has ever seen and Project Transformation is one arm of that. Without Washington Cathedral (which for one thing, supports our salary!) the Tegucigalpa Dump would not have two people working to bridge the gap between Honduras and the states and funnel resources into such a desperate community.

Washington Cathedral is paving the road for Christians to engage in God’s mission in a more relevant, appropriate way. It does so with a nod to the legitimate Christian communities growing in developing countries, it does so through reconnecting social action with the local church (which in some cases has been reserved to secular humanitarian agencies). It does so through mobilizing the local church to fully engage in God’s mission as a body once more, instead of scattered congregants each involved in their individual missions. I am so excited about what God is doing through Washington Cathedral’s mission both now and in the future, and the possibilities that this new Recreation Center will create.

A building that can build building. A larger space for the auction, quadrupling our fundraising efforts for Honduras. A magnet to the community to learn about this new wave of God’s mission. Though so many miles away, Elise and I are relentlessly praying and fasting that a miracle would occur and God would break down the barriers to the Recreation Center becoming a reality.

Medical Team from Ohio State

Who would have though that 1000 miles away I would have to put up with slurs about the Florida Gators from an Ohio State Buckeye? Well it is true because a medical team from the Ohio State University just came for a one day clinic at the garbage dump. The day before they arrived, we went into the garbage dump to invite as many people as we could to the free clinic the following day. On the next day, we had a line out the door before we could even set up. By the end of the day, we had seen over 150 families and had to turn many away because of time. I worked as a translator for two separate rooms. I was shocked by how these families were suffering from common ailments because of lack of clean water or sanitation. Many of the children had suffered from colds or flus for months because they did not know how to treat them and did not have the proper medicine. Even worse, I saw minor sickness progress into major ones because there was no one to warn the people. I saw a six-month-old baby, the same age as my son Elijah, who looked sick and malnourished because of the conditions in which he lived. It was the first time in his life that he had seen a doctor in his life as he had been delivered by a grandmother figure. It broke my heart to know there were many more babies going through the same experience yet it also reaffirmed our goals here.
After seeing the need, I am further convinced that we are on the right track in wanting to build a clinic/pharmacy for the families living and working in the garbage dump. Following a model proposed by Project Global Village, we would construct a clinic in an area near the garbage dump. Then we would train a nurse practitioner from the garbage dump to manage the clinic. Through our various connections we could stock the clinic with all the supplies needed for proper treatment. This is one of our goals for 2008. The need is great but we serve a great God and HE will use us to accomplish great things. Please keep this idea in prayer as we look for the proper place to build it and the right time and connections.

Adult Work Team Blesses AFE

We just finished a week with our Adult Work Team from Washington Cathedral. It was an incredible week as these individuals poured out their hearts to the children at AFE. AFE is short for Amor, Fe, y Esperanza which is a school servicing the children who live and work at the garbage dump. The work team also poured out some sweat constructing a much-needed third school building. For the second year in a row, we worked alongside a work team from the Bethel Church in Georgia led by Ray and Jane Singleton. The school is growing and growing in the number of children. In fact, lack of facilities and teachers have forced AFE to turn some neighborhood children away. In addition, there are now eight kids at AFE who have moved up to the eighth grade but have nowhere to go. If there is no place for them to go to school, they will just go back to work in the garbage dump. We have decided to offer a junior high/high school for these children which will be in the third building.
The third building will actually be three floors and our team helped with the construction of the first two stories. It was such a beautiful scene to have out adults hanging out with the children and connecting with them in deep ways. The last day was a tear jerker as the children put on a special program for us to show their appreciation. They were especially thankful for Washington Cathedral providing two snacks and a full meal this last year. Many of the kids told us that was the extent of the diet. Then the children bid us farewell. Everyone on our team was moved by God in a special way.
The last day, the adults on the team came up with a great way to bless the school. They went to a hardware store and bought tools for the school that would help them with all future construction. All the workers were extremely grateful for the new tools and couldn’t believe the team’s generosity.
If you are interested in coming for a work trip or an exposure trip please contact Elise White Diaz at elisewhitediaz@gmail.com for more information. We believe a short term trip can be used by God in incredible ways. The team will be sharing at Washington Cathedral on Mission Week in April.

God is Already Moving

In less than a week, Project Transformation has made two incredible contacts that will help with the transformation of the garbage dump. First, we were able to go to a local university in Tegucigalpa and present the conditions of the dump to two classes. In response, these classes took a trip to the garbage dump to see for themselves the conditions in which these people live and work. This visit opened the ideas of the leaders of the university and now AFE is in the process of working out a partnership that will allow children from the dump to attend that university with scholarships!

We believe education is one of the key areas of impoverishment in the dump community. The lack of education means a lack of options in their lives. Most of the children at AFE could not imagine a life outside of the garbage dump until just recently. Now with the Metro University as a possibility, the options are radically different.

The next major contact is a non-profit called StreetKidsDirect, run by Duncan Dyason. Dyason travels to Guatemala and Honduras looking for projects making a difference in the lives of street kids or kids in extremely poor conditions. Then he returns to the UK to raise funds for these projects. He works hard so that 100% of the funds donated reach the specific project for which they were intended. Over dinner, we were able to explain some of our future dreams for the dump community and to hear his dream.

One of the projects Dyason works with is a potato farm in Guatemala where 10% of the profits go directly to support the operational cost of local projects. This is a way to make projects in poor areas self-sustainable. We will be working out the details with him so that AFE can apply to be one of the projects receiving the funds for operation. The possibility of this connection is awesome. Using a similar model, we could invest in some local farms that could eventually help fund this project.

Please keep both of these connections is prayer as we still have a long way to go.

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up – Gal 6:9