This past week, I got to be a counselor at a church camp in
Missouri. I feel like me being there was just completely a God thing. Between
my work schedule and the short notice I shouldn’t have been able to make it.
Amazingly my boss found someone to cover for me and I was able to go. Shortly
after I found out I was going to make it I found out the theme this year was
going to be social injustice. If you know me at all you know how passionate I
am about this. God started putting this on my heart my senior year in high
school and every day the need becomes bigger and bigger and my heart yearns
more and more. This past week my heart was broken at the injustices that happen
not only in the US but also all over the world. The incomprehensible lives that
REAL people, just like you and I, live everyday. The daily fight they face survive. The unbelievable
situations they are put in.
Did you know?
- An estimated 29.8 MILLION people live in modern slavery today
- Slavery generates $32 billion for traffickers globally each year
- Approximately 78% of victims are enslaved for labor, 22% of victims are enslaved for sex
- 55% of slavery victims are women and girls
- 26% of slaves today are children UNDER the age of 18
- An estimated 60,000 victims of slavery are enslaved in the United States.
- 1.2 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day
- Each year 2.6 million children DIE from being malnourished
The whole week I kept thinking of the day I hopped on a
plane to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The day I saw true poverty for the first time as I stood at the dump,
and watched babies, children, mothers, fathers, people just like you and me
rummage through trash as a way to provide for their families. I talked to 18
year old girls who didn't grow up with a mom and dad. They didn't know what it
was like to be loved. I got to love on the children of Casa De Esperanza. I got
to build homes in the community of Buen Samaritano. In the midst of it all, I
got to see God's name being glorified everywhere we went.
This trip changed my life in so many different ways. My heart was
broken. I was angry. I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand why God put them
there and me here. It was hard coming home and sleeping in my warm bed. It was
hard sitting at the dinner table with my family and eating a freshly cooked
meal. It was hard hearing people complain about superficial things that DIDN’T
MATTER. It didn’t matter because the friends I made in Honduras were fighting
to survive and I had everything and more that I needed. It didn’t matter
because they were sleeping in a cardboard box and I was sleeping in my 4
bedroom house with a/c and my memory foam mattress. It didn’t matter because
while I was eating three meals a day my friends were digging someone’s leftovers
out of the city dump so they can survive. It didn’t matter because while I take
my parents love for me for granted there are people who pray for parents like
mine.
I found myself asking where God was in all of this? The truth is, he was
everywhere. I saw Him in the children and the constant joy they had. I saw Him
in the man who had nothing and prayed over me. I saw Him in the woman singing
out praises to God in the midst of the city dump. I saw Him in the families fighting
to survive. I saw Him in Terri Tindall and her love for people as she continues
to establish ministries in order to spread Jesus' love throughout Honduras. He
was there and He was at work! I would be foolish to not recognize His existence
in such a dark place. In the midst of the dark, His light was shining bright
for all to see. Praise be to a
loving, just, compassionate, and eternal Father. Praise be to Him for days to
come. May I never forget the needs of those around us. May my heart never stop
breaking. May my fire never burn out. May I always want to do more!
In October I will be returning to the place that forever captured my
heart. I get the opportunity to rekindle the relationships made and create new
ones. I get to love on more children and remind them of their worth to God. I
am so excited to return and pray that God will use me in every way possible.
“You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and
you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order
that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.” Psalm 10:17-18
