On Monday, February 26th, my team and I went on house visits to the students involved in the ministry. Light & Salt Ministries makes it a goal to visit the homes of their students once a month to check on the families well being, students behavior, how their homework is going, and if the family needs specific prayer. We had the privilege to accompany the staff and meet these families. We split into 2 groups, 4 of us went with two staff members- one being the English teacher so he could translate for them, and 4 of us went with the other two staff members and I was the translator.
My group began our day by walking to the poorest neighborhood in the whole city. It took about 30 minutes to walk there through mud and rocks and big fields until we finally arrived at a short dirt road with maybe 3 houses. The houses were made out of bricks, sticks, rocks, tin pieces, and garbage bags. Upon arrival at the first house, it was hard for me to believe exactly what was in front of me. I had always seen pictures online of extreme poverty, but seeing it in person just struck my heart differently. The first family we visited, we met the mother and she had a baby with her in a stroller next to her. Her wrist was wrapped like she had badly injured it. The staff did their evaluation of how the student and his family had been doing and then asked if there was any way we could pray for them. The mother asked for us to pray for her wrist, so we gladly did. After our prayer she said her wrist was feeling a bit better, and my friend insisted we pray again, so we did. After we finished praying, we asked her how her wrist felt, and she responded by taking the bandages off her wrist, picking up her child, and swinging her arm around saying it was healed! I had never seen the Lord heal someone right before my eyes before, but it was the most beautiful thing ever. She cried and was so excited, then I started crying and my friends too (we cry when we see someone else cry) but we were also so excited! The Lord moved in such a miraculous way and we were so blessed to be able to see that and take part in it!
The rest of the day we spent walking from one end of the city to the other, all throughout extremely poor neighborhoods. In the moment, it was very difficult to see what I was seeing and it was extremely saddening. The hardest part for me was translating to my team everything the families were saying. When these families were telling us the situations they are in, it’s one thing to listen, but it’s another thing to have to retell their story. Having those words come out of my mouth made it even more real and even more devastating. That really hit me hard.
At the end of the day during team time we reflected on our day talking about the most exciting things that happened and the toughest part about the day. Mine was definitely just seeing the devastation and how poor the living conditions were. These families have been through so much, and it all just shattered my heart. The most exciting part about my day though, when I was thinking about all these families, the consistent thing I saw was joy. They were all so joyful no matter what had happened to them and no matter where they lived. They all know the Lord and they all know that that is the greatest treasure in life, not a carpet floor, not a washing machine, not a refrigerator or even light bulbs. These people have the light of God in their lives, and that was so evident.
It was so eye opening seeing all of these things. It was so humbling and really makes me appreciate the tent that I get to walk home to at the end of each day here. The Lord is so good and He is so faithful.
Thank you for reading and staying updated!
With love, Rachel <3
