One’s Trash is Another’s Treasure

 This saying became truer to me than I ever could have imagined it would. 

My team and I went to the trash dump right outside of Trujillo for an afternoon of garbage-dump ministry. 
It was an extremely humbling experience, to say the least. We pulled up to an area on the outskirts of town that was covered with filth. Burnt ashes from burning garbage were all over the place- there were heaps of garbage everywhere. On the outskirts of the dump- scattered between mounds of trash, were little shacks that the children came out of when they saw our bus pull up. 
Talk about an eye-opener. These children don’t just play here, they don’t come here for the day, they LIVE here. Their parents WORK in the garbage dump, and these kids will someday work there too. They scrounge for anything that they can find. Literally everything that they own is garbage. Their clothes, their shoes, their “houses”, their food, it literally ALL comes from there.
One sight we saw upon arrival was all of the trash and “houses” were to our left, and a giant cemetery was to our right. We talked to one of our contacts about the cemetery, and found that it is for the people living there, and the people they “find” while working in the dump. Generations upon generations that live and work in the dumps are buried in this cemetery. They don’t choose this lifestyle, they are born into it. It is their life– they are born there, they work there, and they die there. When I said it is also for the people they “find” there, I really mean it. We were told that many babies are found in the dump, and the workers take them and bury them in that cemetery. I felt sick to my stomach, and felt ready to vomit with every step closer that I took. There are babies that nobody wanted buried there, there are many unknown persons buried there. It is such a heart-wrenching experience being exposed to something like that.

Once we looked at the beginnings of the cemetery, we started walking through the dump. We were greeted by many children who were playing by digging holes in the dirt, as their parents were busy digging through the trash.
We put on a program that was intended for the children-which is something that the ministry we are working with this month does every week. Children and adults alike gathered in a small shack built with dried plants to hear our message. As we were all sitting there, I started looking around at the people in attendance. The thing I was noticing was their shoes. Many of their shoes didn’t match. Many of them didn’t wear any shoes. Many of the shoes were way too big or way too small. Many of the shoes had too many holes to count. There was one pair of shoes that only had a couple of holes, and looked like they were only a couple sizes too big. They were by far the nicest shoes in the entire dump. Something in my heart started welling up when I realized that those shoes, by my own normal terms, would’ve been considered trash even before the holes appeared. Once they showed a small sign of wearing down, I would’ve thrown them in the trash. Yet in this place, those shoes were the jackpot- they are the treasure. I can’t really describe the feeling in my heart once I came to this realization. All I know is that something started to twist and turn inside of me, and I have never felt compassion and humility like that before.

The ministry comes to the dump once a week- but once a month, they celebrate the kids birthday’s that month by bringing cake and pop. We passed out a slice of cake and a glass of pop to all the kids and adults that were around. I was so distraught when after they finished- they all threw their napkins and cups on the ground and walked away. My head was telling me “I should pick all of this up. I can’t believe they’re just throwing it on the ground when there’s a trash bag right here.” Then it hit me. We are in the trash dump. We would pick it up, just to throw it in a different pile 5 feet away. They live in garbage. These beautiful children of God only know this lifestyle. These children will grow up living here, and the majority of them will die here.
I don’t believe that God intended for us to live in filth. I don’t believe He intended for us to be “stuck”. My heart was so broken for these children-I wanted nothing more than for them to feel the love of Christ. To feel that beautiful treasure that can carry them to an eternity in a paradise that they could only dream of. 

My heart has never felt so humbled, or broken for circumstances than it was the day I visited the garbage dump.
(Stay posted– Pictures/Video is yet to come once we get faster internet access.)