A Thousand Words Isn't Enough.

No matter how many times I look at the images on my computer taken by my hands (and from a few friends) I can't fathom them. Images of dirt, blazing sun, wire topped buildings, trash piles larger than cars, children bathing in the midst of the trash - these are what I've been looking at tonight.

I'm speaking at Mosaic, my church's college ministry, on Thursday night. It's not something I normally would do. I don't speak. I don't even speak up in class when my grade is dependent upon it. The whole idea just freaks me out. For some reason, along with being slightly distracted, I agreed to speak about my international mission experiences this Thursday night. I believe I will be focusing on Mexico and Nicaragua.

I've been trying to get some pictures together to show. Pictures that can show what it is like, but all my pictures pale in comparison to the real heartache and situations that I have seen in these countries.

I'm good at having my mind on several different topics at once. I'm great at compartmentalizing and becoming numb to things. These pictures though, I can't become numb to. To become numb to them is to deny the reality that these situations are truly going on in other places and in a way right here at home too.

Now I can't get the pictures out of my head. Although my tears are gone, I can feel them lurking, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

I don't know what else to say. These pictures kind of cause a loss of words...

If you want to see my Nicaragua pictures from Summer 2009, click here.
If you want to see how God reminded me of La Chureca in the fall, click here.

La Chureca Is Holy Ground

Tonight at Disciple, we spoke about the part in Exodus where God speaks to Moses in the burning bush. Moses takes off his sandals because he is on holy ground and hides his face in reverence. Laurinda, our pastor and leader of the study, asked us if there has ever been a time we were on holy ground. Tongue-tied is the only way I can describe that moment as I saw the faces of those that I passed by in La Chureca, the city dump in Managua, Nicaragua, the faces of those that I spoke with, tarped houses for and generally enjoyed. Our team claimed La Chureca in the name of the Lord as his holy ground. Tonight, as Laurinda spoke about holy ground and us being on it, I began to read part of Exodus as if the Lord was speaking directly about La Chureca in the passage.

The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in [La Chureca, the city dump in Managua, Nicaragua]. I have heard them crying out because of [the situation they are in], and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the [oppressors] and to bring them up out of that land [known as La Chureca] into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey ... And now the cry of the [Churecans] has reached me, and I have seen the way the [government] are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you ... to bring my people the [ones I adore] out of [that filth and grime]." - Exodus 3:7-10 NIV

God said, "I've taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in [La Chureca, the city dump in Managua, Nicaragua]. I've heard their cries for deliverance from [the situation they are in]; I know all about their pain. And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from the grip of [those who oppress them], get them out of that [dump] and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey ... "The [Churecan] cry for help has come to me, and I've seen for myself how cruelly they're being treated by the [government]. It's time for you to go back: I'm sending you ... to bring my people, the [ones that I adore], out of [the dump]."- Exodus 3:7-10 Message

The Lord is crying out for his beloved people who are living in this filth, grime and oppression as the world turns, having the knowledge of this and yet living life as if it is not a reality but just a fact of life.Wake up, for it is real and Jesus Christ desires to redeem his beloved people of La Chureca.