Diamonds in the trash

Rubbish Dump in Maputo

Rika and I started our journey in Mozambique serving with Iris Ministries a ministry founded by Rolland and Heidi Baker. Friday morning consisted of an out reach to a local rubbish dump in Maputo. It is a huge dump, with hundreds of people living on the dump. Spontaneous fires often start on the dump, burning down the houses built on the dump. Hundreds of people run behing the trucks that come and dump the trash, trying to find the best of the trash. One day a truck dump rotten sausages, the young men grabbed this rotten sausages and started to eat it. The first day Heidi visited the dump, one of the men put a broken bottle against het neck, threatening to kill her. Later he gave His life to Jesus and became a leader in the church. We would come to the dump and then walked and invited the people for a time of worship and teaching. It was some of the most amazing worship times for me, kneeling in trash and human escriment, millions of flies and an smell you can not explain to anyone. Jesus chose to be present, in this place, people forgotten living of the trash of others. Here Jesus revealed Him self, here He chose to live and to be present. Many people gave their lives to Jesus on the dump, choosing to serve Jesus. On Sundays they came to our church services at Zimpeto, a centre for over 500 children. Jesus is present were He is needed and wanted. I ask this question many times, Do I need Jesus today? We live our daily lives without Jesus and then on Sundays we worship Him for a few hours. We have to live our lives in desperate need of Jesus, wanting His presence in every moment of our lives.