The End is Another Beginning [El Fin es un Otro Principio]

After another journey of two flights and at least eight hours of driving, I'm back home. I've spent the last few days processing and trying to deal with another change in culture. As I talk through the work I did and all the experiences, one thing is clear: it was undoubtedly God-ordained. The Lord has been kind enough for the past two months to give me clear signs along the way--little whispers of peace that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

Now, I have to find that peace again, but I know the Lord will again be faithful. I know He will, in time, show me my future and whether it includes Guatemala again. I hope that it does. Until then, I can only thank Him for the opportunities and ask what is next.

Thank you to everyone who supported me...financially, in prayer and through encouragement. I have been blessed by each one of you and I pray that the people I encountered in Guatemala were blessed in turn. Please continue to pray for this beautiful, but broken country. Pray for the kids, the parents, the lost people, and those who haven't yet been given the opportunities they deserve. Pray in faith knowing that God can do anything He wants in any situation He chooses.

Treasures Found [Tesoros Encontrados]

In the midst of the tragedy in the communities outside the dump, there are inexplicable moments of hope and incredible opportunities for God's love. For six weeks in the American summer, Casa del Alfarero hosts mission teams from the US and they spend their time pouring into the people in the colonies. Every day I went to work, teams built new houses for families who used to live in tin shacks. The last week I was there, we built a home for a man and his family. Three years ago, Juan had prayed for a new home with, Greg, a visiting missionary from the States. This summer, Greg came back to the dump for the sixth year in a row...only this time it was to build a home for Juan and his family. The Lord answers prayers...in His timing and in His way, but the amazing thing is that He still uses people, we are weak people, but He uses us.

Around the dump, the people have no idea of their worth and talents. They have rarely, if ever, been given an opportunity, but Casa del Alfarero and other organizations are trying to change that. These ladies are learning how to sew, and how to make tote bags out of plastic grocery bags. Last year they completed a similar project learning how to make doll clothes, which were sold in the US for a profit. Each of the ladies who worked on those clothes received a sewing machine bought with the profits. These ladies are smart and hard-working...but it takes people with skills to come and show them. It requires the sacrifice of people living in their comfortable homes to come to the dump, prepare a project, and love these ladies by teaching them-by showing them what they can accomplish.

Before I went to Guatemala I watched a movie called Reparando. It showcased the history of Guatemala, including the 36 year civil war the country only came out of about 15 years ago. They took cameras into the roughest places in Guatemala, including the dump. They showcased the hard things to see: starving children, violence, drugs...but they also showed hope and people who have dedicated their lives to changing things. One of the success stories they shared was the story of Dona Maria. She received a loan from Casa del Alfarero to start a small business. Her job...she finds parts to discarded dolls in the dump and puts them back together. She washes the grime away, dries the pieces, then sews the parts together to make it into a gift again. She takes something broken and makes it whole. She works to provide for her family and overcome poverty. While I was working there, I had the chance to meet Dona Maria and work on renovating her house. I

felt like I was meeting a movie star..someone more important than Jennifer Aniston or Brad Pitt.

These kids are precious too. They are so ready to love and be loved that it blows my mind away. Even when they've been through some really bad situations, and maybe they've never been loved, they still have the mark of their Creator on them. They still seek to be in healthy relationship--to love.

En Busca de Tesoros en el Basurero [Looking for Treasures in the Dump]

Casa del Alfarero (Potter's House) is an organization on the outskirts of the Guatemala City garbage dump, the largest garbage dump in Central America. 11,000 people depend on the

dump for survival in one way or another. Every day, people scavenge in the dump looking for recyclables or other valuables they can sell to make the equivalent of 2-5 US dollars each day. They line up behind the huge yellow garbage trucks, men first then woman, and search for whatever was leftover by the garbage truck driver and his helper because they get first pick. When Casa del Alfarero (Potter's House) first started working with the children here they asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. They would say they wanted to be a garbage truck driver - because to them they was as far as they could see, that was as good as it gets.

When the dump is covered over with dirt and the trucks start carting garbage to the next area, squatters come to settle on that land. Those with no other option clear a spot and build a shack with wood and pieces of aluminum - single mothers with children, lonely men, and whole families. If they are fortunate, they have the opportunity to build a home with concrete blocks.

When you enter zone 3 of Guatemala city, you can begin to smell the dump. Every morning, when I arrive at Casa del Alfarero a pungent smell attacks me when I open the car door. The people who live here live with that smell. They don't leave at the end of the day to go back to a cozy apartment, take a shower, eat a full meal, watch a movie, then snuggle into bed. Instead, they wash their clothes in buckets and hang them in the street on lines strung from poles. They cook food on a concrete fire-burning stove or an old electric stove. They chase mangy dogs away from stands selling fruit, vegetables and meat - all setting out in the open air attracting flies. The communities right outside the dump are cities within themselves. Entrepreneurs start businesses trying to make a living. On every street corner, woman make tortillas and families run tiendas.

Coming to a place like this every day takes a toll. On the way to the houses, we pass men lying on the side of the road either too high or drunk to get up, with eyes barely open and

rolling back into their sockets. Dogs fight in the street while dirty-faced kids play soccer and everyone dodges pickups filled with people and recyclables.

Sometimes the contrast is shocking. Women and little girls wear their best clothes, but they get mud and trash stuck to the bottoms of their platform heels. Kids in school uniforms fill the narrow streets and alleys twice a day either coming from or going to school. Sellers carrying baskets of old doughnuts or other food yell down the road. The banana car makes its rounds. "Bananos cinco por una bolsa!!" blares out of the loudspeaker.

I have spent the last three and a half weeks in a place that would take a year to describe. Every day I was there seemed like a week. I thought I experienced real life when I went to inner city Atlanta on a mission trip. I thought I understood more every time I went down to Indianapolis to talk to homeless people, but this is real life. This place and these people were not part of my reality before. If this is life for people then it should be part of my life too. If this is reality for them, it should be part of my reality too. I should never go another day without thinking about them and their life. I should not go another day without thinking about this reality...asking God what He wants to do about it -- what He wants me to do about it.