first post
I am writing to you from a city at the base of the mountain I live in. A couple that works at the New Life project invited me to come over for the weekend along with Miguel, who I work alongside in Pane, my city. Here in the city there are taxi’s, coffee shops with wifi, and even a movie theater, guarded by two *jacked men with bullet proof vests and shotguns (how much money is in a movie theater to warrant that?). My roommate told me two nights ago that the minimum wage here in the city is around 275 american dollars a month.
Pane is very different. Its the most beautiful place I can imagine on earth, but the people here are in great need. Poverty is strong. It saps hope and changes peoples hearts and minds and breaks down families.
I brainstormed with Osmany and Jennifer (the people who started and run the New life project which helps cloth and feed and teach children here two days of the week) about what my role will be and how my passions and abilities may be best used. They said that, in addition to teaching children guitar lessons at the project, there is a need for worship leaders in the church in Pane as well as churches in some surrounding communities. They set me free to brainstorm ways to reach the youth of the community as well as anything else that God placed on my heart to do. Miguel (a very compassionate person I ‘work with’ here) and I have decided to do this together by visiting people in their homes with bread, serving the soccer team, and trying to get the people in the church engaged in these things.
But one thing that has become so obvious to me is that i have zero power here to create change. and I’m not just saying that. I do not speak much spanish at the moment, though I am learning, and am struggling a lot with the transition, and the dryness is so dry that I am just a drop that gets swallowed up by the ground the second it touches the earth. I was playing soccer the other day with some honduran hipsters (skinny jeans, converses and all, really nice guys) and an older man walked up to me and told me he is completely alone, his children are dead and he has no family. I do not know the spanish well enough to talk, nor do I know what to tell him. (he knows where i live, so maybe we’ll get to know each other, who knows)
Another things has become more apparent. The love of Christ is stronger than the power of poverty and has the power to break down the most fortified walls. I am a jar of clay. The living God is in me and you. Our weaknesses reveal that the power comes from Christ and not ourselves. We must first be present. Please never, never, never, underestimate the power of your simple presence in the lives of others…or rather the presence of Christ in you! In the end, I could visit every home in pane, teach guitar until every kid here had a record deal, dole out bread until every stomach was filled (that would actually be amazing), but if God wasn’t seen, if His love in me was not active, if I was not present, nothing, i say nothing, happened.
All that to say, I know He is and will be present, and I want to share with you what happens throughout the year. The people I work with are amazing examples of Christ to me and what God is doing for people through the New Life Project is really cool. I will probably share mostly through video because I have a hard time writing, hahah, and video can capture so much more, i feel.
I hope this has been somewhat descriptive.
much love!!!
David
*jacked-as used mostly by one John Waltz, to be swole, buff, or otherwise bounced.
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