My trip to the dump

i went to the dump tonight...er, the waste management landfill. sorry. it's an interesting experience. the smell. the view. the trash. the tractor moving all the trash. did i mention the smell? there are two different landfills right here in our little corner of paradise. one pile is for our neighbors down the road. the other is for those within lewisville city limits. not sure why both piles are in lewisville, tho... for the record, our neighbor's pile looks cooler than ours.

when we lived in san diego many years ago, my boys first experience playing baseball was in the chollas lake little league. the field was built on top of the old san diego dump. bad grass. gas release valves around the complex. strange odor. they couldn't ever get the field level. funny thing...the kids still loved playing there. it was their home turf. they ran and hit and slid and dodged the release valves. aren't kids great?

down in tijuana mexico (right across the border from san diego), there is a whole community built right in the tijuana dump. not near it. on it. years ago, when i first visited it, there was nothing more than old shacks and cardboard box homes and stacks of worn out tires and broken down pallets all piled up to make places for families to live. it was shocking. it was overwhelming. it was humbling.

good hearted people (including amor ministries, the organization we partner with on our spring break and men's missions trips) began to help. simple, but quality houses were built. small businesses sprang up. today, there are schools, shops, grocery stores, medical clinics, churches, and even some little baseball fields right there in the dump! i haven't been back there in years, but i am confident that the work that was begun a long time ago continues to make life totally different for the people in the dump. i know i am different because of it...

isn't amazing how God has a way of taking refuse and turning it into something beautiful? always has. always will.