Being a person passionate about fighting oppression and injustice, I have come to realize that my fire comes with an expectation: that once people are informed of the truth, the inequality will END.
I couldn’t fathom a world where brokenness was permanent. When I saw a problem, I always created a solution. Take for example my work with the homeless. I was working to END HOMELESSNESS! That was always the goal. Each conversation I carefully calculated to see how I could use it to make the world understand that what was happening was wrong! I wanted things to change; and this month my mindset was no different. For my month in Swaziland, God walked me by the hand through the front gates and into a dump. Yes I’m talking big mounds of trash filled with everything and anything a person’s heart has ever desired but now finds useless. Trucks come in droves, one after the other, dropping off the garbage they collected from the greater city of Manzini, and leaving people trapped in poverty to sort it all out…literally. See, Manzini doesn't have a recycling system; therefore, actual people do all the sorting: separating the plastics, from the cardboard; the aluminum cans from the bottles, and the scrap mental from now pointless objects, all in hopes to make some much needed petty cash.
It may sound strange, it did to me at first too, but every part of this ministry has been God ordained, even down the smallest detail. I could tell you story after story about how the Lord guided our footsteps and planted our path so that we would pass the dump that first day, or how he multiplied our food so that we would have leftovers for the people at the dump, or how he provided Bibles (yes I said Bibles(2)…the saga continues) literally out of the rubble.
But one moment I must take the time to share with you is the first thing I saw the day I walked into the dump. The very thing that ignited a fire in me that said PEOPLE DO NOT DESERVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS SO I MUST FIGHT FOR CHANGE! The first thing my eyes caught site of was a man dressed in ragged clothes. His shoes had holes in them, exposing his toes to whatever was left over in the heaps beside him. His shirt was dirtied with mysterious stains, no doubt a result of days of sorting through the trash. As I looked down to his hands, my eyes fixed on the black garbage bag he was holding. I watched as his hand reached inside, grabbed a French fry, lightly brushed any other food remnants off of the fry, and started eating. This process continued the entire time we greeted one another. I was watching him eat his breakfast. As I tried to grasp what exactly I was witnessing, it was as if the Lord had affixed my eyes to see only moments like this. I looked over at another person and watched as they meticulously inspected a bottle of some sort of liquid. He peaked his eye inside to check its coloration. Then brought it to his nose several times to give it a smell. Unsatisfied with this assessment, he poured a portion of the drink into the bottle cap to get a more accurate smell. And only after all of this, did he decide he was better off throwing the drink back into the waste pile. I started to scan the crowd again and a different man came into view. He was talking to me, lifting his hands in the air in victory, “I found breakfast” he proclaimed. Finally, someone had found something suitable to eat, I thought in my head. But when I took a closer look at what he held so excitedly in his hands, I discovered it was nothing I'd ever deem eatable: stale cereal and spoiled milk. Not quite 5-star dining.
My hand in the sorting pile (plastics)…look at the beauty in and beyond the dump
How can THIS be real life? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it in order to understand. It was illogical, irrational, cruel, and unjust. Any word you assign to it wouldn’t come close. They were eating what someone else wouldn’t have dared to eat days ago. And now by this time it had sat in a bag with who knows what else, rotting even more, and yet they cheer because they at least found something to eat.
Some of the amazing friends I've made down at the dump
I had found my calling for this month. I was going to work and build relationships at the dump. I was going to love what the world would call, "the least of these," because I knew that is what Jesus would do. Matthew 9:12-13. This place would be forgotten no more, and I was confident that the Lord had sent us to bring about change. I believe wholly and truly that the Lord cares about his children, especially those at the dump. But when I thought about how the Lord could demonstrate his love and faithfulness to these people, the only solution was to bring them out. How could I believe that they were provided for if they continued to live, work, and eat in a pile of trash?
Manga
So that is about when God introduced me to Manga. Manga is a 21-year-old Swazi man who left his home 3 years ago to work, and little did he know, live, at the dump. His father died when he was just 15 from Malaria and since then life has been really hard. Although he is the middle child, he has carried a big portion of the responsibility for making sure his family is healthy and fed. Two of his brothers have also already died, leaving him with three living siblings (two brothers, the oldest and the youngest, and one sister). His mom who was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS two years ago, is no longer well enough to find work and even struggles to take care of herself. For this reason, Manga was forced to move two hours away, out of a rural town trapped in poverty, in hopes of finding a job to earn some money. Ever since then he has saved up every penny he makes from recycling items at the dump and sends it back home; while he sleeps at the dump, in a makeshift shelter, eating someone else’ thrown away scraps.
The fort in the front is Manga's "home"
An inside look at his home
There is no possible way for me to capture the essence of who Manga is through the use of clever wording. No matter how I twist or turn them, I’m afraid I can’t make him come alive the way he is when you meet him in person. To say that Manga is the essence of pure, selfless love (a true reflection of Christ) still shorts him of his character. He expects nothing, but is grateful for everything. Let me explain. One of the items that Manga collects for recycling is soda tabs. I have gotten particularly into the hunt that comes along with finding these tabs, so I have made it a sport to check each can lying along the road as I walk in and out of town. Each day I see Manga I hand over my loot and you should see his face. Whether or not I give him five or twenty-five tabs, his response is the same. “Wow you are a hard worker,” he always says and then he proceeds to thank God for this blessing. By his reaction, you’d think I was giving him a present he has long dreamed of, not just some silly tabs. Not to mention, every time he responds it’s with surprise. Even though everyday before my day is through, I hand him my collection, he never expects it; only appreciates it when it comes. He finds joy in the small things making sure to never leave an interaction without laughing or smiling. And somehow through everything, the heartache and the pain, he still manages not only to believe, but to thank, Jesus.
Manga's hands with some of the tabs
I must admit, I didn’t know how to thank Jesus for where Manga was living. Why was this man brought here? After all he was willing to sacrifice, why was this it? When I prayed for him, I prayed that God would take him out of the dump. I prayed that radical things would happen and in my heart, in order for the Lord to be faithful, Manga’s dreams had to come true. If things went the way they should, the Lord would find a way to send him to school. He would get his degree in IT Services and fix computers just like he always wanted. He would simultaneously have a job that would provide enough for him and his family. He wouldn’t have to live under a shabby piece of mesh, but would have a bed of his own to lay down his head. I envisioned so many beautiful things for Manga’s life and I was convinced the Lord wanted those same things. After all, THAT is what it looks like to care for your child. You want what is best for them. The Lord fights for our desires. So he would NEVER ask Manga to stay in the dump. If he did, where would there be hope?
However, it is right here, with that line of thinking, that God flipped my world upside down (I'm not exaggerating here…from this moment on, everything changed!). One night, I was praying harder than ever for the Lord to reveal his plan for the dump. Specifically, I wanted to know God’s vision for Manga’s life. What if God asked Manga to stay in the dump? What if the dump was meant to be Manga’s ministry all along? Would that make the Lord unfaithful?
(I want to note that I struggled a lot in this moment. This was changing my entire worldview and the way I thought I understood the heart and the inner workings of the Lord. What does it mean if the Lord doesn’t always rescue us from what is hard but instead asks us to stay in it? But as always I heard His truth.)
NO! God had never stopped providing for Manga, or anyone else at the dump for that matter. Even though his life didn’t look or feel the way I thought a person’s life ever should, the Lord was, and had always been, at the dump. How else could I explain Manga’s precious heart? He has been living in the dump for three years and yet he still welcomed us with open arms and a softened heart. Coming from someone who has spent years working and studying patterns of the homelessness, after a certain point, people often harden their heart in order to survive. It becomes an automatic copping mechanism but Manga’s heart remained untouched. The only way to explain such a thing is the Lord. It is only possible through his hands of protection. He was there each night Manga crawled into his fort of a home and it was God that held Manga’s heart between his hands.
Me and my buddy Manga
God’s love didn’t stop when life got hard and it won’t stop if God continues to call Manga to the dump. I had to learn to surrender both my and Manga’s life to the true will of the Lord and embrace the hard reality that it might not be easy. Just because we serve a God who is holy and just doesn’t mean he won’t ask us to serve him in heartbreaking circumstances. And while my body shutters that any human being would be subject to provide for themselves with someone else’s trash; I need to accept the fact that if I am truly chosen, than my life is so much bigger than what just happens to me. The reality is, God may ask Manga to stay in the dump in order to disciple the others. Manga may never get out but that doesn’t mean the Lord stopped being faithful. That doesn’t mean God forgot about Manga. Instead, it means that God is using Manga for His glory, not what we envision or hope for that glory to look like.
When I sat down and tried to absorb all of this, I could only reach one conclusion: True freedom can only be found in Jesus. I was reminded of the passage in 2 Timothy where Paul is talking from prision, literally in bondage; however, his faith cannot be chained (2 Timothy 2:9). Our freedom is so much more than what our life looks like to the world (whether we live in a dump or in a mansion). So if I can hope to give anything in my ministry with the oppressed it will not be to "save them" from their circumstances, but to give them a fighting chance to know true fulfillment….in other words…the LORD.
I told you in my last blog that I knew God was going to break me for the nations. I knew the things I was about to witness in this country in particular, were going to lay heavy on my heart. But what I didn’t know is that he was going to use that hardship to teach me a new level of trust in Him. Yes the world is hurting and I wanted to believe that all of that could be taken away here on earth but there is HOPE even in knowing about the brokenness. In fact, just today one of my squadmates prophesized this exact hurt I speak of. When she was praying for me, she was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness, even into a state of tears. She could feel that my heart was breaking for what I was seeing in the nations. But she told me that most of all the Lord wanted me to know, that even though the world is hurting, THERE IS HOPE!
Sorry this one is sideways…I'm not sure how to flip it but it was just too cute I had to include it. This is a picture of me and my brother Justin, after we went out to lunch with Manga and his friend.
Lord I surrender any and all the things I thought I deserved because I gave my life to you. The ways I thought I ought to live or what I was entitled to have. Lord use me; empty me of myself. And I pray that you send me wherever you need me. I want people to know you and I am open to whatever that looks like for my life. I trust you Lord with my life and with everything and I thank you so much for my freedom! Thank you for showing your justice through the life of such a special person as Manga. I will never forget it!
If you're anything like me, then after reading this blog you're thinking to yourself….ok now what? How can I help? Well I've got your answer…
JOIN THE MOVEMENT…TAB CHALLENGE!
The start of our collection…about 300 tabs
I want to invite all of you to join with me and my squad in supporting Manga and our other friends at the dump! Every time you drink soda, beer, or just anything in a can, keep the tab. You don't even have to be a soda drinker to get involved, you would be shocked at the amount of soda tabs you'll find lying along the side of the road or on sidewalks. I had no idea until I started looking myself, but there's a gold mine out there waiting for you! I promise. I want to challenge you to start now, and with every tab you pick up take a moment to pray for Manga. This is the most important part of the challenge! We all know the power of prayer; it's a force much stronger than any amount of money…or in this case tabs, so please join us as prayers warriors and pray for Manga's relationship with the Lord!
Updates on the movement
Our squad has been collecting soda tabs ever since we left Swaziland. Our plan is to send Manga a package with tabs, pictures, and notes of encouragement once we get home from the Race. I've committed to praying for Manga and all of our friends at the dump every time I find a soda tab; I pray that now you will too! To give you some perspective: for every 2 Liter soda bottle Manga fills, he receives about 20 USD. And on his own, it takes about 2 weeks to fill one Liter. So just imagine how many tabs we could send him if we all worked together!
If your interested in being a part of this movement go ahead and start saving tabs NOW; tell your friends, family, neighbors, anyone you know, to get involved, and when I get home I will come and pick up your collection. Let the challenge begin…TAB OFF!
