Alliance Kids National Director Leah Broach traveled to Ecuador recently to research and write this summer’s Alliance Kids Missions curriculum. While there, she visited the dump and the surrounding community where Envision Ecuador and Inca Link are working to reach these children. The need is great, but despite the desperation of the living conditions, Gospel ministry is taking place. There are dedicated followers of Christ committed to finding ways to be present with these children. They’ve worked hard to clear borrowed land between the garbage dump and pig farms where these children have been meeting outside to learn the Bible, get homework help, and receive nutritious meals. Most recently, the teams from Inca Link built their first-ever outhouse facility, providing a private place for children to use the restroom.

These kids are the children of the garbage miners, people who make their livelihood mining in the dumps for anything profitable for their families. These garbage miners are generations of families that have made the dump their home. Many of them are also illiterate and lack education, making it almost impossible to break the cycle of poverty.

Through the dedication, love, and compassion of ministry workers, these stories are beginning to change. Children are learning, reading, and completing school. They are being discipled in their faith, cared for by loving leaders, and fed nutritious meals. The presence of the body of Christ is making all the difference.

But the need is great! Right now, all these children have is an outdoor gathering area where the garbage, smells, and bugs plague them daily. It is time to give these kids a ministry home where they can feel safe and secure, out of the elements. They need a place for new beginnings.