Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
Surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Psalm 16:5-6
My tent is a mess with my clothes piled on one side, my electronics and valuables on the other side. I’m sitting on my sleeping pad, sweating profusely in the relentless heat. An occasional breeze gives a little relief. Worship music plays, as I drink water, dream of A/C, and think on the precious children we get to love each day.
Left: Setting up camp.
Right: Cooking dinner at the stove
This community does not have much. Here in Salinas Grandes, there are the salt mines; they get paid $1.50 per 100 pounds of salt collected. The teacher at the preschool where I help gets paid an equivalent of $50 per month. The government buys the kid’s school uniforms for them, but then comes the challenge of the white shirt. It gets dirty – not allowed to attend school with a dirty uniform – but the washing here is limited. The high school is over 6 miles away, and few teenagers can afford the 20 cents to take the bus to school. Both boys and girls tend to be married between the ages of 12 and 15. First comes the baby, then the marriage, and then they hope to eventually finish their high school education. The majority won’t finish. Many, many pregnant women have miscarriages each year because of lack of medical care.
We are involved in the food programs, preschool teaching, and English teaching. What are we doing here? We can’t fix the fact that there are hungry people, starving animals, homes made of trash bags, unsanitary living conditions, lack of medical services. So what are we doing? Just sharing the love of Jesus, caring for their needs as we can, and giving them hope.
The well where we pump our water Our Outhouse
At the end of the day, I sit in the evening, a wonderful breeze cooling the world around me. I watch as Liz plays soccer with some of the local kids, Ana pumps water from the well, a few of the girls work out behind the school. I remember Ashley’s beaming face as she learns new English words, little Priscilla running to her mother so excited, “Mama, ella sabe mi nombre,” Yolanda teaching the women in the community to sew, or Carlos practicing advanced English conversation with us. God has brought our worlds together for a few weeks. And I think that our boundaries have fallen in pleasant places. Our lives are all so different, but He has surrounded us with His love, His favor, His grace. His presence makes up the borders of our lives, and therefore every place is beautiful in Him. Not only can we be secure wherever He has placed us, but we have an amazing inheritance in Him.
