Our first week of “dump ministry” is over, and the second begins tomorrow. I feel as though we have been here forever, and at the same time it is flying by. I wish I could put everything into words for you, but that’s impossible.
The word I have come up with to describe this next year of my life is “Redefine.” I’m redefining pretty much everything that has been normal to me my entire life. I spent almost an hour today hand-washing my RANK clothes. I can’t sleep peacefully because I lay sweating in my bed every night. I have encountered hundreds of cockroaches, spiders bigger than my fist, and nests of rats. (I’m actually barely wincing anymore, believe it or not!) I am covered in filth and sweat, and the only hope of air conditioning in sight is the nearest Starbucks. (The only problem with Starbucks is that it requires me to buy a drink, but I’m not exactly raking in an income–ha!) We each have $2.70 a day to spend on food, and peanut butter sandwiches have become our lunchtime reality. Privacy = non-existent, and everybody here is getting to know all of my junk.
I’m not gonna lie; this is hard. My flesh is feeling very selfish. When I think about the fact that these are my new realities for the next year, I kind of want to cringe. God, what were you doing in bringing me here?
But then days like today happen, and I remember why all of this is worth it. We went to church at the dump school where about 300 precious little children stood and lifted their hands in praise to the Lord. Oh my– it touched my heart in a deep place. We were able to spend more time with the children today than we have been able to all week, and they continually stole my heart. I didn’t have my camera to take any pictures, so my apologies for that.
The thing that Joanna (the wife of the couple that started this church) told me has amazed her most about these children is that they never complain. Holy buckets. They have nothing and yet are so thankful for the little they have. It’s almost like the more we have, the more right we THINK we have to complain when our situations in life suck.
This year is about redefining. I’ll be writing more about this in future blogs because it’s really hitting me. Right now, I just want to end this with the lyrics from “Desert Song” by Hillsong that has been really touching me lately.
“All of my life, in every season,
You are still God,
I have a reason to sing.
I have a reason to worship!”
