You sit down to work on that paper you have been pushing off all week, either for school or work, then you hear your name called. “______, take out the trash.” It’s little things like these that keep you from ever starting your paper as you secretly deceive yourself. You walk up and the trash is to the brim, on overload. You take the bag, of whats left of the part you can hold for handles, pull it out and let the weight drop down then spin it around. Making your way to the trash can your mind wanders and you think about different things about the day. As you throw the trash in the big can or dumpster, you turn around to head back. Then out of nowhere you hear a voice from that direction, you turn around and someone’s head is poking out of the dumpster, looking directly at you.
Yeah, that’s what happened to me today. Having no clue what that man said, I walk up to him and smile. There is a side wall that opens the dumpster up, as I pull the wall open he quickly signals me in. Haha, where the Lord takes us!! Seeing hundreds of flies, piles of garbage, and strange liquid everywhere, and this man asking me to come. A piercing stench hits my noise but I felt honored to be invited. Dipping my head underneath the top bar and walking into the dumpster made him smile. I cherish moments like this with people, God blesses me to interact with people where they are, even inside trash.
I feel torn between two worlds, you have to understand that I care a lot about myself, but God has given me a heart for others. The moment I turned around from tossing the trash inside the dumpster I got mud on my shoes, brand new shoes I got yesterday. I was easily annoyed with dirt on my shoes, lol. However, meeting that man named Sungai, which I could barley understand made my day but gave me a heavy heart. He only had a few teeth and they were extremely rotten, his face was tattered from the seasons of life, his beard was running in different directions, and his eyes had seen to many nights without true love of the Father.
I learned that He was muslim after I prayed for him, which was a surprise because I prayed all in Jesus name and he seemed fine with it. I don’t know guys, I don’t know if we really understood one another, I do know that He felt valued and loved. That God’s love has no language barrier. It pressed me to earnestly ask the Lord to touch his life and speak to him that Jesus is the living God and he can have a truly fulfilled life with His love.
My pastor says we are so narcissistic we don’t even realize it, which is true. After I got done meeting that man, I went went back to my ministry. Where we had air-conditioning, smoothies, and computers to work on this bike event. Don’t get me wrong, these things are nice and I fully trust in this ministry with the outreach and lives it’s impacting…but I feel we can get caught up on the little things so much. What type of smoothie will I have today? Thailand is hot and the smoothies are cheap, which is ideal but we can have a mentality that caters to ourselves too much.
In Honduras there were families living out their daily life in cities trash dump, scavenging out things to sell and live off of. Heart breaking to see other’s live like that. Children running to the trucks full of trash and claiming the bags that appeal to them the most first. Coming back with a proud heart to show their parents what they got. If you want to help Keith and Vickie Crowder out in changing the lives of the people who spend all their time in that dump, you can. You can donate to a tax deductible contribution to: A Call Inc, PO Box 451994, Grove, OK 74345.
Thank you for your love and walking this journey together!
