Last week I had the opportunity to serve the people in the dump again. Steve's group was in and wanted to take pizza and water to feed the people in the dump, so we loaded up the vehicles and met up with the AIM interns who go every wednesday and headed for the dump. Once we started up the dirt road that leads to the dump, it started to pour the rain. And it wasn't just any old rain, it was one of the hardest rains I have ever witnessed, and not to mention that the rain was ice cold, and the wind was howling. As we were driving up I began to wonder if/how this weather would change life in the dump. Once we arrived at the top of the mountain, I wasn't surprised to find that NOTHING at all about life in the dump had changed. The people were still digging through the trash in search of food. The vultures, cow, dogs, rats, and horses still fought the people for the food. Dump trucks still dumped the trash, and the people still jumped in the mounds of trash before all of it had been dumped. As we drove through the muddy piles of trash I realized for the first time, that this IS life for them, rain or shine. I think it finally set in that this is real for them, they really have no other place to run to, no place to go when it rains so they continue 'working'. As soon as we began driving back down the mountain the rain subsided. It really made me think that God just wanted to show us all something that day, that they live this way day in and day out, they don't have the luxury of shelter from the rain, or a blanket to warm them up after they get wet. The don't have the luxury of sleeping in a dry, clean bed, or eating a hot meal when it's cool outside.
As we were getting ready to leave, a lady came over and told us that an elderly man, Systo, was very ill, and wondered if we could help. So of course we took the time to at least see what was wrong, and he had a spot below his ankle that looked like a puncture wound. The surrounding tissue was rotting, and the area was infected. He was in terrible pain. His whole body shook, and his breathing was heavy. So we put him in our car and took him to a clinic down the road. They cleaned the wound and prescribed some antibiotics to get rid of the infection. And gave him a shot for the pain he was in. Systo is 65 years old. He told Jen that he really, really didn't want to live this way. {living in the dump} When he was younger he worked really hard to support himself, but now he has paralysis in his left arm, so he is no longer able to work, and just simply has no where else to go.
Again, I beg for your prayers over the people living in this mess. Pray for their safety and health. Pray that we do everything we can to help them. And that we do our best to show them Christ's love in everything we do.
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