Take a moment to look around you and think about the things in your life that you've come to rely upon and consider a basic necessity. Perhaps it's watching television, heating up a quick meal in the microwave, or staying cool by air conditioning. On a higher level, perhaps it's your house, a car, a job, your church, school, the grocery store and the variety of food options found there, and when you just don't feel like cooking - you can always go out to eat.
Now imagine life without most, if not all, of these things. Imagine life without a car and the only places you can get to is by walking. Imagine having to pick a branch off a tree or finding a piece of garbage to burn to create fire to cook with. Imagine outhouses and cold showers. Imagine eating beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There are people in the world that live this way. And its easy to set thoughts of this aside and go about our life pretending it doesn't exist. This is what I've done all my life. Oh, I've seen the infomercials on TV where I can sponsor a child, or feed a family for the price of a cup of coffee, etc... but I never put a serious thought to it - until now!
On May 2nd Zach and I had the opportunity to give our time and travel to Tegucigalpa Honduras as part of a mission trip with the Quinta Terra organization. To say it was an eye-opening experience would be an understatement. In Honduras you have the poor and the very poor. I'm sure there are wealthy people too but I never saw any indication of them. Most people do not have jobs and do not really know how to provide for the basic necessities in life. They are poor and uneducated. They also don't have any religious influence in their lives.
As part of a mission to provide these people with basic necessities and teach them about Jesus, we were able to take approx 40 boxes of donated clothing, pots & pans, toys, school supplies, etc... and distribute them to the very needy at two church start-up locations - one inside the city and one right outside the city. Everyone was allowed to go through the line and pick up one item, then cycle back to the end of the line and repeat the process. This way the lucky people in the front can't get all the good stuff. It is heartbreaking to see children go for pots & pans before toys but true necessity comes first here.
I think I speak for both of us when I say this was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives. It's amazing the feeling that comes over you as you see person after person walk out of the distribution center carrying what they need most. The smiles on their faces says it all.
Here are a few pics from the trip.
This is a typical home in a very poor area of the city. It has two rooms - a living room and a bedroom. There is an outhouse to the left of the house. The kitchen is actually in the front yard. This family is lucky to have electricity that runs a small fridge in the living room.
This is a picture of a kitchen in a nicer home. Unfortunately no electricity! When the sun goes down they move around by candle light or moon light. To heat up the stove, they pick a branch from a tree.
This is perhaps the most disturbing picture of all taken. These are drums where water for drinking is collected and stored. On the black drum you can make out the word "poison".
Here is a picture of a typical little boy who is happy to have received a stuffed animal.
