Justin Cox Presents:

Life in the Dump

I first discovered La Chureca in January at the National Youth Ministry Convention. There, Braddigan was talking about the work that his Love, Light & Melody organization does there. La Chureca is the city dump in Managua, Nicaragua. It’s just like the city dump in your town except for the 1,500 families that live there. Among the trash, the fires, and the sewage. People live there. Children go to school there. It’s hard to imagine.

When my youth group decided to go to Nicaragua and the organization we ended up working with told me they do work in La Chureca, I knew God was pointing us where we all needed to be. Right to the dump. Amongst the trash. With the people who live there.

We went in with World Missions Outreach and washed kids feet and then gave them new shoes, probably for the first time. Some four or five groups of sixteen kids at a time. Picture seeing a kid’s face getting brand new shoes that light up for the first time. It’s difficult to explain just what this meant and the experience there, but just know that it was amazing.

Next door to the school in La Chureca is a church that is completely run by the children who live there. They give the messages, lead the prayers, everything. In a dump. Children run a church. It’s amazing.

These measly words on this screen and the few pictures I’m going to attach throughout won’t do life in La Chureca or our experience any justice but just know it was incredible and, despite the circumstances, God is really working there.

(Pictures are very large.)