The inside is coming out. I haven’t even been here a week, and I am already experiencing incredible things. My inside isn’t as nice looking as I thought it was. Some parts are actually quite ugly. I am so good at sitting home on the couch crying at the World Vision commercials, spouting off ideals about changing the world and people should DO something. Here I am “doing something” and this is what happens. Monday we went to a small village, Tambo de Mora, that was so severely damaged by the earthquake that the government has decided not to rebuild. There are people living in tents on the street, families of 5 in one tent. There are hundreds of families in refugee camps on borrowed land, and the owner is getting ready to kick them out with no where to go. And all this time I feel NOTHING. How is that possible? I thought that I would be devastated. I expected it to wreck me completely. Instead, there was nothing. I thought I had the compassion of Christ, or at least SOME compassion for people. I felt like there was something wrong with me. All of my ugliness was coming out for sure.
Today though, God is working on me. He is showing me the beauty that only He can provide in my life. He needs to be in me, and then what comes out will be beautiful. This year is all about me discovering myself, and I thought it would be bringing my inside out, and yet, within these first two days I have already discovered that I don’t want my inside to come out, I want my inside to go away. All I want inside is God and His love and hope that He provides to all of His children.
God, I want to thank you for keeping me close to you. Thank you for all of the hope that you bring. Even when I think a situation is hopeless, you are able to provide the hope and peace we need.
Today, God did a lot of things for my team and I. We had a great time going to a town called Chavalina. There we were able to pray with a woman who was too scared to pray or go to church because of a dark shadow that followed her. There is hope though because she had a dream that her ceiling broke open and there was a white shadow that was taking care of her. She allowed Pastor Nestor to pray with her, and that was a big step in the right direction. Although she said afterwards that she did not feel different, I believe we planted some seeds. The fact that she let us pray for her when she is so scared of these shadows is amazing.
The people in Chavalina are so hospitable. Every house we went to, they would bring us chairs to sit on, and open up to us about their lives. It was a really good experience. Please pray that we will be able to continue to go back there and build relationships and to maybe work on some of the projects that the individuals would like to see happen for their homes and the community. One suggestion that everyone said was that they would all really like to see a garden built, and that made me really excited.
Please pray for us, for our safety and health. Pray that God would continue to show up as He has been. Thanks again for your prayers and support.
Some of the damage in Tambo de Mora
As people were leaving their homes, they would write their name and how many were in their family on their houses
Some tents that entire families are using as their homes for months on end
