PI, HI, & me

A few years ago I got to go to the Philippines for a short mission trip with YWAM (Holoholo Ministries).  It was really great.  I love to see different places and experience different cultures.  Not only do you get to learn about other people, but you learn a lot about yourself.

Let me say that the Philippines is a beautiful place.

But like all places, there are areas...that could use a little more beauty.  Areas you don't see on the vacation brochure...

This is the Balatas dump.

(click on image to enlarge)

We went to the dump on more than one day.

There were a lot of things you don't want to see there.  Homes...built on trash.  The ground you walk on sinking just a little under the weight of your foot...because it's not soil...it's trash.  At another site named 'Smokey Mountain', methane gas would be visibly rising out of the 'mountains' of rubbish.  But the most heart breaking thing about this whole scene is the people...kids even...going through the trash for things they can recycle for money...or for things they can eat like left over hamburgers and other food.

Someone was here...

Saw this hand print on a window at the airport.  I imagined a little kid looking outside, watching planes, luggage trucks, and other kinds of airport vehicles.  

It made me wonder what kind of mark am I leaving here in this world.  

Good?  Bad?  Am I even leaving any mark at all? 

Not sure.  I hope that if I am leaving a mark that's it's a good one.