Nicaragua - getting outside of my box

In a couple weeks my hubby and I are going with our church on a mission trip to Nicaragua. We will be working with the guidance of an organization called Forward Edge International. Once place we will spend some time at is the city dump of Managua. It is a dump where the trash of over 1 million people goes, but it is also the home to many people. Yes, people actually live there. Adults and children. The people along with vultures and rabid dogs scour the dump to get food and things to sell. Many of the young girls there prostitute their bodies to the dump truck drivers either for money or so that their family can be the first ones to go through the truck load of trash. Which leads me to the second place we will be going, "The Village of Hope" It is a community being developed outside the dump to house those young girls and get them out of that situation. I'm not sure exactly what we will be doing in the village, but some of the possibilities are working the home construction and finishing and furnishing 2 of the homes. We will also be spending some time at the orphanage near by that ends up taking in babies from the families at the dump. There is a school that will be opening for the dump children the day before we come home and I've heard that there will be work to do there as well to get it ready.

Doing something like this is SOOO outside my box. I'm not a real "manual labor" kind of gal, holding babies isn't really my thing, and I've never been really good at relating well to little kids that I don't know. So why am I going? Because the Lord asked me to. I've known for awhile now that he's been calling me to do something like this. Something that will stretch me and cause more growth. Something that on my own I would have a hard time doing, but with His strength, will be able to do. I'm excited and scared at the same time about what the Lord has in store for me. What he wants to teach me through this. But I'm prayerfully preparing, so that I am ready.

Here are a few pics of the dump so that you can have an idea of where we are going.

In the pics below you can see the "houses" of some of the dump residents


These are some of the dump residents crowding around a new dump truck load
This is a video that I found from another organization that is working to help in the dump as well.

Feliz Navidad! from Braddigan on Vimeo.

If you want to see a bit more, you can go to this link:
www.kptv.com/video/14039837/index.html?taf=ptl1