There I was standing in a crowd of people, my stomach turning, my eyes tearing up, my heart breaking. I was scared, and filled with emotion as i looked around me, at the men, women, and children who live within the dump of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I am overwhelmed with the sight of these people, never-mind the smell. How is it that I an American could cease to believe that people really do live this way. There are children who eat garbage, children who climb into moving dump trucks, in search of the newest garbage available in hopes that they will be able to find enough to sell to the recycling companies to eat. There are people who die daily, from all sorts of ailments, from parasites, to Malnutrition, to murder. This is a way of life for these people.

I was there not to watch these people as spectacle but to bring hope. To help them, to love them, to be Christ to them, but i believe they instead taught me, loved me, and helped me to see many things i had never seen before. Our missions team was there to bring food to them, and to set up a temporary medical clinic. They were there to teach us what love truly is. Love is not the giving of material possessions. Love is to touch, to smile, to give, to feel another's pain, and rejoice with them that one day, there will no longer be any tears. My life changed in Honduras, for i learned that there is Hope everywhere you go. I learned that a smile is worth a thousand words, and the touch of even a complete stranger can change a life. I found my hope in Honduras.