It was one of our last days in Honduras and I decided to tag along with some of the teams going to the local garbage dump where hundreds of people live and work. One of the teams spent the entire morning cooking spaghetti enough to feed 300 people. I didn’t really know what to expect for the day – except that I knew I would be wrecked and that God was going to do something big. You know when you can just feel it in your bones? So we loaded up the food and jumped in the back of three trucks and headed the 45 minutes through Tegucigalpa. From a distance, I could see these black birds encircling a huge mountain and soon the smell hit me. I can’t put into words the stench that filled me as we drove up the mountain and into the dump. It was absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever smelled.
The size of this dump was unreal and the amount of people literally digging through piles of garbage was even more unbelievable. I saw men, women, children, and grandmothers alike covered from head to toe in trash and dirt. While we were up there, two or three garbage trucks drove up to drop off the latest load of trash and the people ran with all their might to be one of the first to get their pickings of the fresh pile. They rummage it searching for food that may have been thrown days before, old clothes, and recyclables that could make them some money for their families.
The feeding took about an hour and a half and it was chaos for most of it. We had our nice little American request that everyone forms a line and wait patiently; but the truth is that doesn’t really work in a garbage dump full of starving people. By the time it ended, my hands and shorts were covered in spaghetti, sauce, and dirt. To say serving these loved ones was humbling is an understatement. I talked to one guy that told me he had a wife and daughter and house in America but because he can’t get off drugs, he’s stuck here in the worst possible conditions.
After the food finished, I jumped out of the truck and walked around a bit trying to talk to some of the people there. I look over to Danae, and she’s praying with a woman who looks to be about 40 years old. Later I found out that this woman is actually only 25, has five children, and is pregnant again. Oh, and her husband was recently murdered. I smile and think how great Danae is for sitting in the garbage and praying. All of the sudden I see this woman’s body go limp and Danae’s face turn to panic. I run over to them along with a few other Racers to see what’s happening. Devin, one of our team leaders who is an EMT, immediately starts checking her pulse and breathing and with urgency says, “guys, we need to pray right now.” She was going into cardiac arrest. I’m sitting on the ground with my hands on the knee of this woman who still has wet tears on her face and I’m thinking, okay, God… really? Is my squad seriously going to witness someone die today? Because I’m not cool with that.
So about 6 of us basically call down heaven and prophesy life and breath back into her body. We prayed and believed, and prayed and expected God to move. As we’re praying, Marielle puts her hand on this woman’s heart and taps it twice. The first time, her breathing came back. The second tap, her eyes gently fluttered open. She came back to life! I mean, we just prayed…and God listened. It was a miracle. After a few minutes of waiting for her confusion to pass we comforted her and told her about the life, hope, and love Jesus has for her. He’s the one that breathes breath into her lungs and awakens her heart every day.
We could all feel the Holy Spirit so strongly as she decided to dedicate her life to Christ. He’s the one that literally just saved her from death and the only response we had that day was complete awe. In awe of his love for people, in awe that he uses us gringos, in awe that he is in everything. He is so awesome!
