Imagine being 4 years old, living in a village at 7,800 ft. above sea level, where it can be freezing on any given night, with no electricity, no running water, no sewer, in a small wooden shack and with gaps in the rough cut planks big enough to put your hand through.  But there is more … add choking smoke every day, with eyes watering because mom is trying to cook the meals on a camp fire next to the home or inside depending on the weather, as the open fire is also their only source of heat.Unfortunately the misery doesn’t stop there … Humberto was recently diagnosed with a large tumor behind his brain and was told by the medical staff in Oaxaca City, that there was nothing they could do … so he was taken back to the village to die.  He has lost most of his motor skills now and can only make sounds of pain as his mother carries him all day. In these humble villages, they eat what they can grow, so I went to check on their corn crop. I could clearly see the devastation from a distance, but I opened up several ears of corn to find that only a few kernels of corn had formed from lack of water and fertilizer.I share this story not to paint a “gloom and doom” picture, but rather a simple fact of the “expected” way of life that is so common among the indigenous people here.  So this is where you and I come in, because God can still heal people like Humberto and we can lift him up to the Great Physician in prayer every day. Secondly, we can also show them the love of Christ through a better quality of life in their circumstances … for instance, we were able to make some blankets for all eight people sleeping in that shack on the dirt floor, deliver some food and medical supplies, connect up an electrical cable so they could have at least a little light after dark and have a small electric griddle to cook on inside the shack so they don’t have to spend so much time cutting firewood and suffering with so much smoke. We will also be testing their soil, help them with irrigation, fertilizer and some small animal projects, so that they can sustain themselves and help their neighbors do the same.As we do these things in obedience to Christ … it also has an impact in our own lives, “messing us up” in a good way … never to be the same again and to never go back … only forward.  As I write this with tears streaming down my face looking at a Christmas tree … this story brings me a profound and truly sincere sense of thankfulness.Remember, only cowards never get involved and above that … aren’t we glad Christ wasn’t one!