Living Water

Water is a big deal here in Haiti.  Transported in well-used buckets and sold in small, plastic baggies...everyone needs water.  One of the areas in which World Relief is partnering with local churches in is through water supply and demand.  There is a need for clean water as many travel by foot several miles just to get contaminated water.  World Relief has been busy digging and building wells for people in the villages to use.  As we were walking through a village yesterday, there were several girls that were at a well that had been put in by World Relief.  I asked them if I could give it a try and after obliging they laughed as they watched this "blanc" try and do a moments worth of hard work.  As I walked away thinking about the simple pleasures of life that I so often take for granted, I was reminded about a day when Jesus encountered a woman at the well too.

It's a rare moment in Scripture in which Jesus was being described as tired and thirsty.  A woman came to the well as she did every day before that to draw the water needed for her life that day.  Jesus, being as radical as He was, asked her for a drink.  And what was just another task of an ordinary day for the woman soon turned into an extraordinary moment that would change her life forever.  There was no professional powerpoint presentation, free handout, or even services offered that day.  Rather, a simple, breathtakingly honest and raw conversation in which the woman gave a cup of water in exchange for the living water.

There have been so many incredible moments here in Haiti, and yet some difficult ones too as certainly our enemy dare not sit back and relax while the kingdom of God is advancing.  Yet in the midst of it all, I find myself encountering Jesus in the ordinary moments of my days.  When Jesus is a part of the picture, anything ordinary can become extraordinary.  And I find that every time I encounter Him, I walk away amazed and refreshed, even after hand-pumping a Haitian well.  -Tara