Friday we visited La Chureca, (a place infamous enough to coin the name THE Dump) the city dump of Managua. In and around the dump there is a community of about 800 people that live and work in the dump. The workers dig through the trash day in and day out, collecting valuables from what the city discards so that they can feed their families.

The dump is enormous and there is constant smoke from burning trash that fills your lungs as you breath. For many, this is life.

We had the opportunity to meet Daniel from Love, Light and Melody and walk around the community and meet some of the families that they work with.

We are committed to becoming experts on the life and culture inside the city trash dump in Managua, Nicaragua. Our goal is to identify and meet the immediate physical needs, raise awareness about trash dump communities, and fight social injustice. We use music and the arts to rebuild, restore, and bring healing to communities ravaged by extreme poverty. [taken from their website]

Among many other things, Love Light and Melody love the people of the community and this was evident as we walked around and talked with Daniel. One thing that Daniel said that has stuck with me: “The fact that people are digging through trash is a result of the kingdom of this world. We are praying for full restoration in their lives. We are praying for God’s kingdom to come.”

We sing this song on Sundays and I’ve rediscovered my love for this simplest of hymns. It’s full of Adoration, something I often struggle with, and puts my focus on God and his amazing strength.

My Jesus, my Savior
Lord there is none like you.
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of your mighty love.

My comfort, my shelter,
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship you.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing.
Power and majesty, Praise to our King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of your name.

I sing for joy at the work of your hands,
Forever I’ll love you forever I’ll stand.
Nothing compares to the promises I have in you.

I started a new small group that met this morning. We are calling it a recovery group because it is geared towards people who are struggling with addictions – specifically drugs and alcohol. It is set up to run sort of like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. About 15 guys showed up this morning. We started by reading the 12 steps and then I shared the full version of my story. I know it’s hard for people who only know the “clean Frank” to see or know how messed up my life truly was before Christ. I was excited to share this with the guys. When I finished we went around the table and everyone had a chance to introduce themselves and share whatever was on their heart. We ended the meeting by reading Just For Today. It was a great morning to say the least.

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Our church meets the first and third Sunday of every month under a huge tree. There’s about 40 people in total, a healthy mix of Gringos and Nicas, recovering addicts and families, men and women, adults and children. The musical worship is pretty lively, involving a lot of offbeat clapping and shouting by our worship leader, Osiris. Today, we even had a little rap session during the last song.

Today, it felt like I was part of the community instead of just a visitor. This is happening a lot more lately. Life here is turning into our normal. It’s normal to have clothes stiff from the clothesline. It’s normal to drink grama out of a plastic bag. It’s normal to leave leftovers on our porch step for the dogs. It’s normal to walk most places. It’s normal to buy our vegetables and fruit in the market. It’s normal to have roommates.

I’m happy for normal. I’m happy not to feel overwhelmed, and to feel like God has given us direction here. We’re starting to develop classes and curriculum for small groups, and implementing everything we’ve learned at Brookhills. I can feel Christ changing us, and it is good.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will begin to implement a program that will focus on plugging everyone from the church we are a part of into a small group. We know the effectiveness of this model personally and we can’t wait to get started. Rebekah has a small group that meets weekly here at our house composed of Nicaraguan women and another small group that she is co-leading composed of some team members working here in Granada. I believe God is calling me to starting a small group that meets weekly made up of recovering addicts. The small group will have the feel of an Narcotics Anonymous group with a focus on who we are in Christ, taking life and recovery one day at a time, serving our community, praying for one another, etc. The goal of the group is that we would all go out and teach others what we have learned. I think step #12 of the program says it best:

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Please pray for us over the next couple of weeks as we prepare to begin.

Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6

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The day before we moved to Granada, our missions pastor at Brookhills sat down with us to see how we were doing. At the end of this very positive conversation, he dropped a load of negativity on us. He told us that we would probably end up really disliking the people we were called to share the gospel with and that our fellow ministry partners would disappoint us time and time again. That we would, at times question God’s calling on our lives. But to hold on, because those times would pass, and God’s calling would be clear and relationships stronger through each struggle.

I thank God at least once a week for this wisdom.  Tonight, the disappointment with our ministry partners showed it’s ugly head. Through a series of miscommunications, a difficult conversation was had, without any real resolution other than an agreement to disagree.

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