Day 3 was our first full day in Chiquimula. We spent the morning getting debriefed by the Potter's House leaders about their mission and what to expect when we went into the dump for prayer walks later that day.
After our meeting, we packed food bags for each of the families we would be meeting. The food bags had a weeks worth of food for each family.
We had been told what to expect when we arrived at the dump, but nothing could have actually prepared us for what we experienced that day. Families of 6-8 living in one room cardboard "houses". Children running toward the city dump trucks as they arrived and then fighting over garbage bags in hopes that they might find something they could use or sell. A never ending amount of flies. An indescribable stench. Stray dogs running wild. Piles of trash as far as your eyes could see.
We broke into two teams and each team visited and prayed with two families.
Our team met with a mother whose husband worked in the dump. She had 4 kids and stayed in the dump with the baby all day while her husband worked. She openly nursed her baby the entire time we visited with her. If you can't tell from the picture, it made Parker very uncomfortable! All he wanted to do was get out of there!
Our next visit was with a man named Hector. He told us that he got up at 3:30 every morning to tend to his garden before walking two hours one way to the dump to work and collect plastic bottles. After working all day in the dump, he then walked two hours home to his family. He did this 7 days a week. He had a wife who cleaned houses and 4 kids who went to school during the day. When we asked him what we could pray for, his response was that God would keep him healthy so he could continue to provide for his family. I think this request made more impact on me than anything else I heard that week. He didn't ask for God to deliver him from a hopeless situation but instead just asked that God keep him healthy so he could keep doing this day after day. It completely changed my perspective on the struggles I face every day. Hector will never know what a difference he made in my life that day in the city dump in Chiquimula.
After lunch at the Potter's House headquarters, we drove back to the dump community to drop the men off at our work site before heading to our first day of Vacation Bible School.
We met the pastor of the church that we were working at as well as several of the church members.
The men got started scraping the plaster walls while we went to VBS at another church a few miles away.
The children were already waiting for us when we arrived. They were timid at first but warmed up quickly.
Every day, we sang some songs and then broke the kids into three groups- crafts, games, and story time. Laurie and Addison were in charge of crafts, Stephanie and Parker were in charge of games, and Jonathan was in charge of story time. Emily, Robert, and I were group leaders and rotated with a group of kids to each station.
Parker loved being in charge of games. It was fun to see how the language barrier did not hinder the kids from having fun together. No matter what language they speak, all kids love to play tag, ball, and duck, duck, goose (or pato, pato, ganso)!
Story time
Although they were dirty and lice infested, these kids quickly stole our hearts.
Craft time
It was soooooo hot in Chiquimula! We were so ready to get back to the hotel for a shower each day.
After dinner, we had our nightly worship meeting at the Potter's House headquarters. It was another wonderful day but we were definitely ready for bed that night!
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