I had the opportunity to go with my friend to take some of the children “home” to La Chureca after our beach day.  I really wanted to see what it looked like at night.  It was more than heartbreaking.  As we entered La Chureca there was an eeriness of silence and hopelessness.  Here we are with children in our van and we are about to release them to this monster.  The dump consumes all life, and they ignite even more fires to burn more garbage at night because the workers are gone.  The smoke is the thickest right where all the people of La Chureca live.  The houses( Galvanize shacks) are the direct target of this smoke.  We turned up the road, where the school is and we let them out.  This vision has been branded into my mind, body and soul of these young children dressed in new clothes and shoes and walking away from us and into the darkness.  This was so symbolic of how we typically live our lives, we see people and then we forget them when they walk into the darkness.  My heart felt like it was suffocating as I watched them walk away.  You know there is evil and violence all over the world, but here in La Chureca it is centered in this one shanty town where there is no where to run and hide.  They suffer and endure violence, rape, disease, drug abuse, prostitution, starvation, thirst and physical and spiritual poverty everyday of their lives.  Once we turned around to go home, we went to the top of the trash heap and we could see a place where the darkness of night does not even compare to the darkness of the oppression that fills that place.  As we left La Chureca for what was my last time on this trip, God broke my heart for these children and also for the teachers of  the school.  Seeing this place at night and realizing the commitment these women make to come into this part of Hell everyday for the sakes of these children’s well being and salvation.  They risk being robbed, raped, beaten and killed everyday and they choose to do this because of the love that God pours into them and overflows onto those children.  We have such an amazing an powerful God that would place that type of courage into the women that do this everyday.  My heart and respect and soul yearns for them to be safe and I also pray that I may stand in the gap for those who cannot feel their pain or cry to release their heavy burdens.  I love Christ with all of my heart, but this trip and this view of life has guided me into the direction of wanting to fall “IN LOVE” with Him. AMEN!