Helping Hands in Tegu

Wednesday morning we met Marc to help him feed the people who live at the city dump. After navigating through two hours of Tegu traffic and David's human car block, we made it to the dump outside the city limits. Small boys were climbing onto the backs of garbage trucks for free rides along the main and only road to the dump on the mountain.

As we drove into the main area, birds were circling, cattle and dogs were running around and the people were sifting through the trash. They started lining up for food as soon as we stopped and we began passing out tortillas, beans, rice and water. We served a couple hundred people. As I saw the line of people build as they left digging through the trash, I couldn't help but feel humbled and blessed. Blessed to not only have been helping but of all the blessings God has graced me with through my life. The most startling moment was when I saw a pregnant woman holding onto her child's hand while searching through the latest load.

Once we returned to take showers, the water ran out again. This time due to the fact the dogs chewed through the water line. We are grateful for friends with working showers and dogs with humor. We're hoping for everyone to be fresh and clean for the evening's activities. We are taking the Casa kids to dinner and a movie. I think many of us are too excited to see chipmunks sing Single Ladies in Spanish....but can you blame us?

Tuesday with the group

Tuesday we were up early again and headed into the city. Some of us enjoyed a breakfast of french fries and hot dogs from a street vendor. The hot dogs were piled high with cabbage, jalapenos, onions, mustard, ketchup, and more! So good!

We then headed back out to Nuevo Oriental to open up the "store." When we arrived there were more than 100 people standing out side in a line waiting to get in. They had been there since 6 a.m. waiting for us! We spent 3 hours slowly letting people filter into the building to search for their size of clothing. Each family was able to get 8 items for 20 Lemps ($1). We were able to get rid of all of the clothing. In the end we raised over $200 for the feeding center. The feeding center has actually been closed for the last couple of months because of lack of funding. It costs them around $110 a week to feed the 300 + children that come through the doors.

After we left the village we stopped at the Basillica in the city. It is a BEAUTIFUL church....and quite huge!

Mother Teresa Home pictures

They will know we are Christians by our lovet

Ok ok I know it has been quite awhile since I've gotten on here to update you all. I promise to be better from here on out and I promise to one day soon get on and update you on what all I've been doing these past few months.

Right now however we have a team here that I'll keep you updated on with pictures and stories.

The team flew in on Sunday. We spent that first afternoon loving on the brothers and sorting out clothes that were sent on a recent container from Ohio.

Monday morning we were up bright and early to pick up the sorted clothes and take them to a village (Nuevo Oriental) to set up a "store." We used a building in the village (that is normally used for a feeding center) to organize the clothes in piles of women's, men's, and children's clothing. We informed the people in the village that we would return the next day to open the building up so they could come in and shop for what they needed. We made it clear that we would set a flat rate for the price of everything and then any money we raised from the day would be given back to the feeding center to help feed the children. After we had sorted everything out we headed to "The Mother Teresa Home." It is an orphanage that houses nearly 70 children. The home is definitely understaffed and underfunded but they feel strongly about getting kids off the street and trying to help. We were able to take diapers, wipes, blankets, and sheets to donate to the home....and were able to spend a couple hours loving on the children that were there. We found out when we got there that they were down to their last 4 diapers and had NO wipes at all. They were ecstatic for what we were able to donate while we walked away wishing we could have done more. The Mother Teresa Home also has an elderly home on its property so we spent part of our time there as well.