Preaching to poverty

So I've been able to upload some pictures today, I'm gonna put a full album on facebook but I wanted to single out these because of how well they show off what I've been doing. The days are flying by while I've been here so I can't always remember everything that I've talked about. But over the past few days the things that have been the most significant were the trip to the dump and then preaching this morning. I want to thank all of you soooooo much for praying for me this morning. The service went really well, so well that they want me to me to give a similar message on Tuesday on the radio! Yeah, God is a little crazy. lol. Then again, there was some miscommunication and the translator never showed up, so if I can give the message without trouble this morning I guess the Lord can give again on Tuesday. Be praying for me though, that's gonna be Tuesday at 2PM and it's a station that all of Puerto Plata gets. Oh, I almost forgot, this is the church that I preached at this morning. It's small and beat up but full of love and passion for the Lord. That was a really cool first experience for me :)

The other big thing that happened in the past few days was going to the community down by the dump. In english it's called the pig hole. And that's not just what it's referred to as by people outside the community, people in the community know that that's where they live. I didn't think that it was possible to get worse than aguas negros (and you can see those pictures on facebook) but this place really broke my heart. This community literally eats out of the garbage landfill. They take whatever they can get from the garbage and really when you look at these pictures you'll see that they live IN the garbage. I can't express how horrible the stench was, it really made me question how God could allow such a thing to happen in this world. These are two pictures of two parts of the village, and this wasn't the worst that I saw. 

The worst part about this is that they bathe in that river. While we were there, there was a guy who took a bath in the exact same spot that another dude had just cleaned his bike. It's water and it's all that they have to work with. The hardest thing about being there though was knowing that there's not much of anything that I can do right now to help them. They're almost all Hatian refuges that have no legal paperwork and therefore no way of getting any kind of salary job. They speak very little spanish if any and their mentality has to be changed before they can really rise out of the place where they are. When thinking about how hard it would be for them to get out of that literal dump and that most of them would never know anything close to even a sub-decent life I really had to pray to the Lord and ask how I could be so blessed and they so devoid of blessing. And what it all comes down to is God's power and glory. I learned more this week than ever that God really is all that we need. Us having more things than they do means nothing in the heavenly realms, all that matters is Christ. And God has already given them a lot of relief, they're all clothed with donated clothing and they have soap....I mean it's not a lot but it still doesn't matter, the fact of the matter is that with Christ they have every bit as much as we do. And a lot more grateful for it! We're very spoiled people, but God chose to bless us abundantly in terms of wealth and not them. Who can question his choice? All I can do is say thank you and share whatever I'm given the chance to share. And if given the chance, sure I'd love to come back and try to help them but I have peace knowing that God is sovereign even with them living in the dump...

Anyways, I'm sorry that this was long winded and disconnected I obviously have a lot on my heart and have a lot more to share than I can put on this blog. Thank you so much for your prayers and for taking the time to read this. I'm posting pictures on facebook as soon as I post this so you can look at those and see more of where I've been this week and what places God is working in mighty ways. Much love and God bless.