day 2 (ben)
After a night of wonderful dinner (giant sea bass) and cheescake and swimming, we arose around 7 for breakfast. The complimentary breakfast was a buffet with a chef at the end taking specialty omlet orders. so blessed. muy bueno. We stuffed ourselves and then went to the pool side to pray and read and discuss the day ahead. while sitting we met a man and his daughter. the two were also here on mission work. they are wonderful christians. so refreshing. they are ministering to the same mesquite indians that chuch is going to see in the fall. that same day chuck met other people there AT the hotel we were staying at the were missionaries to the top, middle and bottom portions of mesquite indian country. an absolute miracle. he was able to give each one of them proclaimers (solar powered audio bible in the mesquite language) or set them up with the people who can give them many more. apologize for the disjointed nature of this writing. the keyboard is a bit strange and i don´t have much time. at 9 oclock we met a 75 year old man with a white abe lincoln beard. His name is Perry. He has a ministry working with the kids of the managua dump and also runs feeding programs all through out the city. fun fact...nicaragua has 80% unemployment. just to put that in perspective...the great depression (the world´s worst economic collapse) only hit approximately 24% unemployment in the US. its a different world here.
back to perry..who calls me gentle ben (like booger)...he took justin, emily, chuck, nancy, abu (our translator and dear friend) and myself to the managua dump. the managua dump is the largest dump for nicaragua. currently hundreds live there. Many live on the top of the trash. they build temporary lean tos and permanent structures made out of bits of tarp, wood and plastic. because of the harsh economic times they are forced to sift through the garabe looking for recyclable pieces. From dusk to dawn every day the people go through the trash. vultures, in the hundreds, swarm consistently over head. many of the kids are unable to go to school because they must work in the dump to get enough for food. the average person can make about 2 to 3 dollars per day. many of these kids, not joking, walk and run and work all day bare foot on the top of the dump. these are normal dumps...glass, syringes, metal, yard waste..every imaginable thing...they walk on top of it. the small villages they live in are constantly filled with smoke because of the burning trash. woman...sitting in the midst of the burning plastic and metal are nursing babies and stirring food. these are the realities of life for them.
we met abu´s grandmother. she lives on the top of the dump. she is 90 years old. she ways under a hundred pounds i would speculate and has no teeth. however, i have never met a woman so full of the holy spirit. she was overflowing the the joy of the lord. i asked her if we could pray for her and she asked if she could pray for us. she prayed with power and faith. i have never been so moved by a person´s words that i could not understand at all. she poured out the holy spirit on us all. i asked her how she was doing ...she said through a translater that she and her family are blessed because of God. she complained that her house...a see through structure of tarps, wood, tin and metal was too big. flys surround her every move. chickens and dogs roamed her house. however, she offered of drinks and food and welcomed us to her house. i am so humbled. i can never ever explain this day. the pictures and video can´t possibly tell the story. i watched grown men push little kids out of the way for a can of vienna sausages...women, men and children tried to board the bus and take us over to gain access to the food we were giving out. the cops that joined us held the hands on their guns and screamed at the people to move back, but were ignored. its impossible to describe the fight for survival. abu and myself left the bus and walked across the top of the dump.
abu lived there himself a year ago until perry rescued him. as i said early much of his family is still there. a woman warned him that i shouldn´t be there..that local gangsters would take me. i had no words for people. all i could do was say Jesus..and beg for him to come back to these people. they some day soon will be the greatest in heaven. i look forward to being least. this is such a small portion of everything that happened. please...get on your knees and beg for mercy for the people of this country and ours as well. the world is in so much pain. pray for the kingdom to come. pray for the people of the dump of nicaragua and just in general the people here altogether. the grocery stores are guarded by guard towers with men with machine guns. everything ...everywhere has a guard. socialist proproganda is everywhere...we need Jesus!!
a side note...we visited some of the feeding programs as well. perry feeds, with help, hundreds and hundreds of widows, elderly and children. justin and i got to play soccer for a while with some of them after the meal (corn and beans...literally what sustains the entire country from starvation). the amount of filth and flies were astonishing. the kids were so used to the flys that many didn´t even brush them off of their faces. there is so much water. the rainy season is harsh. 20 minutes of rain creates widespread flash flooding...
well..this was one very disorganized jumble..but thank you for your prayers. please continue to pray for the people plagued by leeches, parasites and poverty..you can´t possibly imagine the depravity they have come to find as normal. praise GOD for knowing all things and being with his people. we anxiously await your return oh father.
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