"music in my heart"

This girls hair is discoloured due to lack of nutrition

This morning when I woke up  I was thinking of posting a short christmas cheer to all our followers.   However after coming home this afternoon from visiting the local dump, my heart isn't so cheery anymore.  I have mixed feelings of despair and sorrow.  Along with our church, we donated clothing items and a traditional Christmas meal.  I have never seen anything like this nor did I think it could get worse than what I was exposed to last year.   Over 200 people live day in and day out in the dump of Jalapa.  So many questions rolled through my mind as we drove away late this afternoon.  Where is the water, how do they eat, where is proper shelter and what happens when someone is sick?????   Before heading out, I picked through our kids clothes to donate a few items and grabbed some snacks off our shelf.  My small bag of donations felt very insignificant to the need we saw.  I had no idea what to expect.  Our church is amazing!  During this past week, they collected bags full of clothes and wrapped presents for the children and prepared warm tomalleys.   They sat on a blanket of dirty diapers, broken glass and other garbage.  With full tummies,  "new cloths" and small toys, they went back to rummaging through the endless piles of burning garbage.

Helping a mom with her children

During a prayer asking Jesus into their hearts

a "home" in the dump

What was even more

a "home" in the dump

 depressing was that we had to drive through the cemetery to get to the dump.   It's not hard to miss cemeteries here in Guatemala.  They are brightly painted cement cases that are adorned with tacky flowers, kites and wreaths.   When we were first settling into our home here in Jalapa, I would climb up to the roof top and sit quietly and pray.  It was my only escape form the echoes of voices inside the cement house.  I have a bird's eye view of the cemetery and would always see a haze as if a fire constantly was burning.  My curiosity never got the best of me and just thought it was someones  garbage burning in their backyard (as happens in every backyard).  I cried many tears up there, but tonight as I climbed up to check on the drying laundry,  I couldn't look at the cemetery the same.  Knowing that haze was from the dump garbage.  My head hung low and the tears streamed my face.  

I can't leave off with such hopeless feelings.  I know that God is love and that the greatest gift is His son Jesus.  And to share that love is the greatest gift you can give.  Merry Christmas!  We pray and thank the Lord for our donors and sponsors everyday!  Without your support, we could not do what we feel God called us too.

When the song of the angel is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost - To heal the broken - To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner - To rebuild the nations
To bring peace among brothers and sisters
To make music in the heart. - Howard Thurman