Dollar Tree Blessing

In the midst of a crazy day, Miles and I decided to end it by going to start purchasing the flip flops and medicine we always bring to the people of Guyana.

On the streets, the homeless men often lack any kind of "slipper" (what they call a shoe!) so we do collections and purchase rubber flip flops of our own. We went to the Dollar Tree in town and were having fun selecting flip flops and just enjoying the moment. We went down another aisle to look for medicine and although we went down the wrong aisle at first, it proved to be a blessing in disguise.

"They must be going on a mission's trip," a kind woman remarked to her young daughter. Then she turned to Miles and I, "Are you?" We then told her we were which prompted her to ask where we are going, when, and what we would be doing down there. We answered the questions and finally made our way to the next aisle. We got all the medicine the store had to offer and with our huge cart of flip flops and medicine, we got in the shortest line I could find. The line happened to have the same kind woman who had asked about our trip earlier in front of us with her young daughter and baby.

A conversation began again and then she told us to place ten of our pairs of flip flops with her stuff because she felt led to buy ten for us. "It's not much, but I just feel led she said!" After thanking her profusely, I told her that it definitely was alot! It was ten homeless men who would now have flip flops; it was ten more bottles of children's cold medicine we could now buy because someone else bought ten pairs of flip flops.

She asked our names, and I never learned hers.
Whoever you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
 I pray blessings over you and your two sweet children.
I just know that God will bless you so much for being so willing to buy shoes for homeless men in a foreign country that you haven't even had the pleasure of meeting yet.
I wish more people were like you.
What an incredible example for your children!

Some of the precious homeless men and children of Guyana

A New Face of Guyana

There are very few things that will convince me to make the drive from college back home- my incredible boyfriend is one, and the other one is Guyana, anything and everything Guyana.

We had the incredible pleasure of meeting a missionary who grew up on a farm in North Carolina and who now serves in Plastic City, Guyana. She is an inspiration to me, and we will be working with her in Guyana in July so she took the time to share with us what we will be doing there.

From the small glimpse of Plastic City I got tonight in a little seafood restaurant at the beach, my heart already began to break. She slowly told of the poverty that exists in Plastic City:

-It is called Plastic City because traditionally that is what their homes were made of; Angie says now they are more like drift wood and cardboard (anything that floats down the Demerara River which is 50 feet from their homes)
-The government is not in support of the community (the people are squatters) so we are not allowed to help "improve" the community because the government wants them on their own land.
-There is no electricity in most of Plastic City (only 3 houses out of 120 have an "in" with the electric company and have rigged their own)
-There is no running water so obviously no indoor plumbing or any other modern conveniences
-In order to get water, they must walk a quarter of a mile to a "pipe" and carry it back for their families.
-120 houses, 200 children within only 90 of those houses, and extreme poverty

What does this mean to me? All I can see is hope rising. Hope is rising for these people, and I firmly believe that with people like Angie in place, they will slowly be able to get on their feet and start a "government- supported" life.

In Plastic City, we will be spending most of our time with the children and some time helping to hopefully obtain a resource center for Angie's ministry. Currently, school lessons are just taught out of a house, and they would love a center to call their own! Angie says that the children would seriously sit for hours just to listen to someone read to them. God has a plan, and I have no doubt they are in Plastic City for a reason, and so is Angie.

I absolutely cannot wait for July. I am so ready for God to break my heart for the things that break His. That's scary sometimes but so very worth it.
I can't wait to see the old children and make new friends.
To spend hours reading to the little ones if that's what they want.
To dance and sing.
To be silly at times and serious at other times.
To learn what it means to not be allowed to openly talk about God in Plastic City. In the other areas of Guyana that I have been to, it has been allowed, but this community does not openly embrace Christianity. While this makes me so thankful to be able to do that on a daily basis in the U.S., I am ready to learn how to show Christ differently and subtly.

But most of all, I'm ready just to simply try and love them like God loves me, and to love like crazy.

           

El Salvador Recap Part 2

So after all of the sight seeing was over, the next four and a half days were spent doing the hardest work I have ever done up to this point in my life. Although incredibly long and tiresome, it was work that changed my life and made me truly appreciate the life God has given me more than ever before.

We made our way into the community in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador and stepped out of the van into the heat that literally took your breath away for a few seconds. Our translator flung open the van doors and said, "Good morning everyone. Bags go in the building for safe keeping, grab your gloves and a wheelbarrow, and follow me to the worksite". We did as we were told for the next four and a half mornings. One of our team mates even commented on our walks to the site that she sang the "Holes" theme song in her head every morning! : )

Our work site consisted of one lot that needed a foundation laid and one lot with a foundation that needed a house built. We had four and a half days to do both, and I personally doubted it would happen, but with God, it did. Because of the overall poverty of the community, all tools were man made. We had an efficient assembly line of people:
People bringing wheel barrows to the sand
People shoveling sand into wheel barrows
People delivering the sand to other people using this sand to make concrete
People pouring the concrete mix onto the lot
People using weight paint cans attached to wood poles to stomp every inch of the concrete mix into a foundation
Repeat process all day until 4 p.m. : )

I have never sweat so much in my entire life or felt as wonderfully exhausted as I did after a work day there. At night having a tiny little mattress and no air was completely unnoticed because we were so exhausted.

As far as building the house, we spent an entire day in an assembly line with small tin buckets containing concrete that we handed to workers sitting on top of the frames. They poured the concrete to make the walls of the place that some family would soon call home- a complete new chance at life!

Completed the walls in a day!

The workers at the site are some of the most inspiring and incredible people I have ever met. They worked 10x harder than we ever could have, every single day for very little money and no lunch. You see, buying their lunch would have costed them an hour wages and an hour wages means no dinner on the table for their families that night. When they learned they weren't getting lunch, we began consolidating the huge portions we had been given so they could eat too. They deserved the lunch way more than we did.

The three head workers and three of the most inspiring men I have ever met. You can't see in this picture but the man in the middle had nothing but dress shoes to wear to work every day. The shoes were falling apart. Needless to say, we left the work site on the last day all in socks, and the workers have sweet new shoes!!

I know full well that being an El Salvador for spring break is exactly where God wanted me to be. He revealed so many things to me while there. He also confirmed to me more than ever that life is about way more than just going to college and getting a good job and making a ton of money. Life, for me at least, means stopping on the side of the road in a foreign country to feed homeless men,women, and children. It means wanting to give up a spring break to serve alongside of some of the most joyful Salvadorians you will ever meet and helping to give them maybe a little hope. It means, yes sucking it up and embracing college, but it also means wanting to have a career that serves people and maybe doesn't make the kind of money those around me expect me to make. It means spending a week every summer in Guyana, where I want to live, fixing boo-boos, hugging and loving as many little orphans as I physically can, building homes for people to escape the drug cartel in El Salvador. It means truly taking the time God has given us and living it for Him and the people He cares alot about. It means simply learning how to love people, expecting nothing in return yet finding absolutely everything as a result. 

The whole team!!

Stopping by the school for hugs and good-byes on the way out on our last day in San Luis Talpa!