One of the videos they showed was the one below. (Sorry if the video doesn’t load. You can view it on my personal site (http://www.mattmanes.com)

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit a feeding center about 40 minutes away from the campus, that was located in a dump.

I wasn’t very prepared for what I was about to see, but I’m not sure how I could have been prepared too.

When we first arrived, we walked up to the center that Hope of Life owns, and there were people jam packed into it. And it seemed as if some of the children were almost fighting to get into the door.

My first thought was that you normally see this scene on tv, but it really hit home when it was right in front of my face. I’ve witnesses poverty in downtown Detroit, but this was a whole new level. I saw a shack that had only a piece of plastic for their roof, and it was hard to fathom how something like this could happen.

There were about 16 of us feeding at the same time. We had a tub of beef soup and a tub of rice and tortillas that we were feeding from. We also had a sweet rice juice that we gave out as well. People went through the line maybe 4 or 5 times. This is their only meal for 2 to 3 days, and they were walking around hoping that this meal would hold them until the next time that Hope of Life would return with another feeding center.

My heart was definately broken for these people. Seeing all of the little kids reaching up to me with their hands while I was giving them food really made me think. As we are studying through Job, we are talking about how we can overcome struggles, and what we saw yesterday was just a glimpse of what Job experience. And my first thought was if I would have the same response as Job did.

Out of 95 people on the team, I was humbled when I was asked to go on a rescue with the Hope of Life International team. Normally team members don’t go with them, but since I could fill in as their videographer, they asked me to go.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous when we first left. Our trip began with me being in an armored vehicle ascending up the hill. I then switched to the bed of the truck, and had the opportunity to video and take pictures of some of the scenery. Probably the scariest part of the trip was the one area where we were told we could not take pictures or video of anything around us. In the past, some Americans had been hurt because the farmers were not happy with them taking pictures of them. So we had to hide all of our cameras as we passed through.

The first place we went to had a 7 year old boy who weighs 17 pounds and has frequent seizures. (He even had a couple while we were rescuing him.) Because of where he lived, there were no doctors around who could help him. We knew that we could help him if we brought him back to the Hope of Life campus, so we brought both him and his mother down from the mountains to try to help nurish him back to health.

The second place we stopped was really high up in the mountains. We had 2 trucks when we first went up, but had to leave one behind as the brakes would have never made it back down. So we all piled into the one truck and began our ascent up, but that truck quickly overheated so we had to get out and hike the rest of the way up.

When we arrived at the second house, we saw a boy with parasites in his stomach. We could tell because his stomach was sticking out, while the rest of his body was extra skinny. When we first saw the boy, we really wanted to bring him back down, but the people we were with were part of a Mayan religion, that says that the males have to make all of the decisions Since the dad was not home at the time, we couldn’t even pray with the child who we were visiting. So we waited and waited until finally the grandfather came home and said that we could take the boy with us, as long as we took him and the wife down as well. So we all piled into the truck and began our descent back to the Hope of Life campus.

Probably the hardest part to process was the areas we were visiting were absolutly beautiful and the scenery was breathtaking. But, there was so much poverty around, it was hard to really take it all in and process the beautiful and the broken living together.

As soon as we returned to Hope of Life, the teams began to immediately treat the boys we brought back. The boy with the parasites was treated, and the family decided that they wanted to return back to their house, just so the father would not be upset with them. But, the boy who was malnutritioned will stay here until he becomes healthy.

 This was truly one experience that I will never be able to forget. Please pray for these boys that we brought back with us.

I thought about taking the time to learn some, but the trip came a lot quicker than expected, and I just ran out of time.

So here I am in another country, and the only communication I know is Hola (Hello) and how to count to 10. (But I won’t bore you with my horrible spanish spelling.)

So day one comes, and I’m sent down the Special Needs building to help with stucco and some roofing. As soon as I get down there, I’m placed with two Guatemalans who know zero (pronounced zee-ro) English.

This should be fun.

But I began to learn their names (Jose and Hector), I may have used a translator, and quickly learned the word “mas,” which means more in Spanish. My job was to get them buckets of stucco as they needed it, and when their buckets became empty, all I heard was “mas”.

And this is when I was reminded of the day of Pentecost in Acts.

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ² And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
⁵ And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. ⁷ Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” ¹² So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”
¹³ Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”

Last night in our small groups, as we were studying the book of Job, we began to speak of heaven and what it will be like. One person said that she’s excited to go around and to ask everyone what the Lord had done for them in their life and hear all of the amazing stories of His goodness.

But I thought how amazing it will be to all be able to communicate with each other without language barriers.

For now, the only way to share Christ’s love with them is to continue to just show it to them.

“Mas eh Mas” (More and More)

When worship began, I noticed a little old man who approached from the back of the church and went directly to the front and put down a case that he was holding. Out of the case, he pulled out an accordian and began to Praise the Lord with his skills. After the music was over, he knelt down on his knees in front of the alter and began to pray.

The part that really got me, was when the Pastor asked for our offerings, I noticed that the old man, who was wearing no shoes, got up and pulled out a little pouch he had in his pocket, and walked up to the offering table and put in some coins he had.

I immediately began to cry. And I was reminded of a verse in Mark:

“Truly, I say to you. This poor widow gave more than all of the contributors to the treasury. For they gave out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, gave all she owned, all she ever had to live on.” – Mark 12:42-43

We then went back to church in the evening, and I was standing in the back. The same little old man, walked right past me, wearing the same clothes and no shoes, and walked straight to the front. Kneeled down before the alter, prayed, and then left.

I never had a chance to ask him his name, but I do know that I will never forget the old man.