Mother and children inside a container home.
Where do you live? A house? Apartment? Mobile home? Condo? Castle? That special place where you go at the end of the day is your safe haven, your own personal refuge, a place where you can simply relax.
For many people, a place to call home is a luxury, the likes of which are only in their dreams. The homeless people served by Pilgrims’ Peace Center live about a half hour’s drive from Medjugorje, in the city of Mostar. The city dump is where they eat, sleep and make a little money by recycling what they can salvage from the garbage. Make shift huts made of scraps from the dump provide little protection from the elements, not to mention the rats, wild dogs, and other animals with which they share what food can be scavenged from the foul smelling, rancid waste material from people like us who can’t even begin to imagine a day in the life of one of these people.
They are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, ranging in age from a few months old to well on in years – about twenty two families in all. Most of them fled to this area during the Bosnia War. They have nothing to return to and nowhere else to go.
Unemployment among this class of people is 98 percent so their survival is dependent upon the trash and garbage of others, and whatever help we are able to provide.
Mother Teresa said, “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
Her description describes these people perfectly, but they also have no food!
Container that will be the future home of a family in Mostar.
Some time ago, we discovered containers – rectangular shaped boxes made of steel most often used for shipping, either by land or sea. With the addition of a door and a window or two, these 20 x 8 x 8 foot boxes make an enormous difference in the lives of the people who call them “home.”
In early May 2011, we were able to purchase and deliver another of these container homes – compliments of YOU (you know who you are).
Now another family has shelter from the storms and can sleep up and off of the ground where their feet will no longer be bitten by rats. Their new home may not look like much to you and me, but in their eyes, it is a castle.
The current price of a container home is $2,500. If God is calling you to provide a home for a homeless family, we hope and pray that you will answer that call.
If you can help a family in Mostar, please call us at 352-564-2463 or send us an email at pilgrimspeace@mindspring.com
God bless you!
Mike and Sandy Tobin