Two weeks ago, as we arrived to set up our food dispensary, one of the ladies in the colony asked us if we would come with her. She wanted to show us what had just happened the day before. She didn't take us to her own home, but to the home of a friend.
When we arrived we met a mother named Eva. She was traumatized because her house had caught fire and much of it had been destroyed. She had lost everything except maybe a wall in her house, maybe two. I saw burnt clothes (the little that she had), burnt furniture (the little that she had), a destroyed refrigerator and a few salvageable mattresses that were black from smoke but not burnt.
Eva's face had no expression as she let us take pictures. She looked like she was still in shock. We didn't see any emotion until we asked her if we could pray for her. Her tears began to flow.
Having a fire in your home is always devastating. Imagine if you didn't have insurance, or a place to stay until your house was rebuilt. Maybe no friends to take you in. No church family that would come to your rescue. Again, I was faced with what could I do at that moment. The only thing I was sure of is that if it had happened to me I was confident God would send someone to rescue me. He had always been faithful to me. I was faced with time. What was the quickest thing I could do. I had no time to raise funds, no dispensary of food to go get (like I hope to in the future), no government organization was going to help me, because these people were "indivisible" to the government.
Hector, Maribel and I prayed and then asked if they would give us their shoe sizes and clothing sizes. We didn't promise anything. We left with the neighbor that had brought us, thinking that we were going to return to our food dispensary. Instead she took us to four more houses that had been completely burned down to nothing. I remember feeling so sad and then wondering if I felt this sad when it wasn't my home and everything I owned; how did these families feel.
I learned shortly after our tour that the first lady was the true victim. The other houses had been set on fire due some revenge of an angry drug pusher of some sorts. Eva's house had caught fire simply because she was closely located to the other houses that had burned down.
The next morning, I gathered blankets and clothes from the orphanage, some of my oldest sons clothes that he no longer wore and headed back to Ensenada with my friend Lynette. We stopped at the local grocery store and bought enough food for what we thought would last Eva's family a few days. We headed to the colony to meet Mario our friend from the colony that always is happy to be our guide/ protector. Mario helped us carry the things we were bringing as we traveled by foot up and down some of the steepest hills I have ever climbed. (Made me think of my friend Lauren and how we joke about this is what "real missionaries" do.)
We delivered the things to the home to Eva's mother who was at the burned house watching her grand daughter while Eva was away. Then it really hit me. I was looking at a little girl that wasn't going to be allowed to attend school unless she had a uniform. So, Lynette and I went back in town to purchase the two required uniform to keep that little girl in school.
We returned to Mario and asked him to take it to the little girl for us. He agreed wearing his big smile. Then I asked him a question through Lynette. I asked Mario if it was true that he turned down a paying job that day just to escort us and help us bring the clothes and food to Eva's house. He smiled and told us yes and that he didn't mind.
To my understanding, Mario has not yet committed his life to Christ and yet he had just been more like Jesus than many of will ever be. He already was practicing "Love your neighbor as yourself." He gave far more than I did. Even though I may have paid for the gas to get to Enesanada, the groceries and the uniform, I still had money in the bank, running water and electricity to come home to and knew where my next meal was coming from. Mario didn't and still gave far more than I have ever given.
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