A Work of Art

My family has a tradition that has taught me the importance of a meal. Elise asked that Elijah and I would always have dinner together as a family. I used to bring everything from books to my laptop to the dinner table trying to multitask. Although it was a struggle at first to simply eat and spend time with the family, I have loved the tradition. Now I look forward to dinner when Elise and I catch up after hectic days and watch Elijah play with his food and babble incoherently.

Most of the students at AFE do not have the dinner time ritual because of broken families. Many eat with their brothers and sister while parents work. Yet, we wanted to offer the students a sense of family at AFE. This was the rationale behind the dining center. We wanted a place where the children and staff could sit and eat together as a family. Around the table they could pray, joke, laugh, and eat. Now we can do this as our dining facility is finished and looks beautiful. We still have to buy some tables but everything is ready.

We have an indoor kitchen that is also an outdoor kitchen. Meaning that our cooks love cooking over fire, so Melanie Miller’s dad built an outdoor stove (inside) with a chute so that the smoke would go outside. Now the cooks use both the fire stove and the electric stove. We have a large storage area for our perishables along with the refrigerator and freezer. We have plates and bowls for all of our kids and continue to feed them at least one full meal a day. Thanks to everyone that made this dream a reality especially Dr.Opp, Street Kids Direct, and Washington Cathedral.

Bringing Peace to the Paz Family

A year ago Washington Cathedral raised money to “finish” the nursery – the structure was up, but we still needed interior elements such as flooring, windows, etc. For a year the room was used miscellaneously, as we had no money to staff the nursery. Finally, our dream of caring for babies in soft, comfortable beds instead of cardboard boxes in the dump came into fruition thanks to some help from Orphan Outreach and Street Kids Direct.

Last week we checked in our first two babies: a brother and sister of a family involved with AFE. The “Paz” family is deeply entrenched in garbage dump life. Both parents work in the garbage; so does each of their children when they leave AFE’s doors: except for these two new inductees to the nursery.

Lilobeth is two years old and though she hasn’t “worked” in the dump, she has spent all of her life there, beside her mother, learning the trade by observation. She bears the ramifications of this life. Her toddler skin is already leathery from overexpose to the sun, and her hair looks like dirty straw pulled into a pony tail. But now is in AFE’s nursery during the day, lovingly cared for by Johanna, who has young children of her own.

Daniel, her brother, is three months old, and the nursery opened at an opportune time for him. His mother took a “maternity leave” of three months when he was born, and was about to go back to work in the dump when she instead decided to put he and Lilobeth in the nursery. Daniel’s skin has a healthy glow, and his smile is easy. He is the eighth child of the “Paz” family and the first to grow up outside of the dump. “Paz” means peace. Daniel will be the first to crawl on tiled floors, sleep in clean blankets…with the sound of twinkling mobile instead of garbage trucks.

Thank you to all of those who helped bring peace to the children of the Paz family. Our prayer is that little Daniel will be the first in the Paz family to never know the garbage dump. The cycle of working in the garbage dump ends with Daniel.

Shelter

I walked into the small, cardboard tent , which was created to be a refugee shelter, and pondered: how could this serve as better housing for anyone? In an hour I would find out.


We drove up to the ¨Buen Samiritano¨ community, ironically named. Rey had heard the people in the community called “invaders” because they divided up land that did not belong to them. Some of the families of AFE live in that community, some garbage workers, and some who are just desperately poor.

A man cradling a baby came up to our car. “Please give me money for a doctor, my baby is sick.” And indeed she was…with bites all over her legs, sucking feverishly on a bottle, and crying angrily into my eyes.


Of course she was sick. She lived in one of the crowded “shelters” that dotted the land. A couple of sticks precariously held up garbage bags flapping in the wind. They were the size of the closet I once had in the states. Usually around six people lived in them and received little shelter from the wind and rain which entered as it wished.


The cardboard refugee house, airtight with a tarp covering it´s solid roof, was definitely a better option for these people. Thank you, Aid Matrix, for providing the shelters for thirty families. The need is overwhelming in Honduras - over 100 people lined up for the thirty shelters - but God is at work, moving in the hearts of people like you and me.

“ "A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.' (Luke 10:33-25, The Message)

New Church Building

On Saturday October 25, Amor y Vida inaugurated our new church building. We have officially moved out of the community center and into our own building. We had a huge celebration with many special guests and the whole church. We have so many people to thank including Orphan Outreach, ACEMH, and Washington Cathedral who have been involved in various ways.

The construction team that funded most of the building is from Heritage Family Church located in Fort Worth, Texas. They do not have their own building yet but meet in a school. They were in the middle of a building campaign for their own church when the pastor visited our project in Honduras. On his return to the church, he announced that they would begin construction on a new building. The church began applauding thinking that the building was for them. Yet the pastor told them the new building was going to be about 2500 miles south. He explained our project and vision and the church was in agreement to build our church first. It was a tremendous sacrifice and one we do not take lightly.

Spiritual formation is at the center of the transformation process. We believe that unless God is in the center of the process, it will inevitable fail. Our church is fusing two different communities together. It has not been easy but God has worked miracles which are evident on the first visit to our church. We serve families connected to the garbage dump which most of society has ostracized. But God is doing a work in their lives that is impacting the whole garbage dump community. We have started ‘small´ groups in three different locations but they have all grown to over 50. The new building was a definite need as we were standing room only in our old location.

Please pray for our church, our pastors, leaders, and members.

Preventative Education

As we seek transformation, we see the importance of prevention in this process. Yet we think there must be more than prevention. In the community the AFE kids run in, a downward spiral exists, luring and enticing all of the students into its clutches. It is like a black hole whose center pulls and pulls until all hope evaporates. Most of the people have been in this situation for several generations. It seems they are destined to stay in this context of oppression and poverty. Despite all of their efforts to escape, most have been unsuccessful.

John 1:5 – The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Once God starts moving and shining his light, the end of darkness is inevitable. That is the ultimate reality of the garbage dump and the surrounding communities. God is moving and people are taking notice.

Part of the darkness that is being snuffed out is drugs and alcohol. Today we had a special group of police officers come to teach about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. It was a great experience for our children.

However, preventive education is not enough. How many students in your fifth grade class tried drugs and alcohol after graduating from the “DARE” program? That is why Jesus aims at the heart, and we aim at the heart in our work at AFE. Most of the students attend church together faithfully on Sundays, and have great mentors in their teachers who look at their jobs as ministry.

The other day kids ran after Rey, quoting back his message at church: “Jesus is the only drink that can satisfy.” Yes, we work in preventive education here, but deeper than that, we work at heart transplants.

Dreaming of Homes...

Tuesday evening we participated in a meeting to brainstorm the development of a new community for those who actually live in the garbage dump[1]. Part of the mission of Project Transformation is to address the whole person with the whole Gospel. This involves helping people to create and own a healthier living environment. We are among a group of dreamers planning how to support the community's creation of new housing structures for these poorest of the poor.

Here is the Dream: Help the community to build 300 homes for people who currently live in the garbage dump. This effort would be similar to the creation of the Linda Miller community - people getting involved in building their own houses and taking ownership of the work.

Visits to their current homes are driving this effort. Jose Ramon and his sister, Ritzy (a student at AFE) invited our team to visit his two children. They were beautiful children even though they were covered in dirt and soot. Their smiles reminded me of my own son, yet saddened me as I saw where they lived. On dirt floors, surrounded by garbage and terrorized by vultures, six people eked out an existence in a six foot by eight foot make shift shack. They had no water, no electricity, and were under constant threat. The health risks apparent from no way to flush waste, no way to clean dishes, and a dirt floor are too numerous to mention.

With tears, Jose Ramon confessed his children suffer from constant sickness from the conditions in which they live. The father felt obvious shame that he could not take better care of his family. Jose is a hard worker. He is not lazy. He is the victim of circumstances and is paying for the sins his parents committed. Caught in a vicious cycle, only God can work a miracle in this family's life.

But God works through people like you and me to work those miracles. That is why we dream.

Imagine moving Jose, his wife and their two children, and his mother and sister who live with them, to a house with clean floors, running water and flushing toilets, light in the evening and a stove to cook healthy meals. His children would not fall ill but grow healthy and strong. No longer would Jose feel ashamed of who he is, but take pride in his family and his God who reaches down to help the least of these.

Pray that our dream will soon become reality.

[1] Determining how many people actually live in the garbage dump is a difficult venture because many people live in squatter settlements just outside of it; they might as well live in the trash. Others have shacks miles away in which they spend the weekends with their families. Monday through Friday they spend the night sleep in the trash.