Thank you for sending me! This place. These people. This culture. Tears of joy and of beauty. Tears of heartbreak over a people who have embraced me with open arms and peppery kisses. They’ve expressed a sincerity that is beyond belief, a hospitality that blows my Southern mentality out of the water. I’m so glad I’m here. And it’s all thanks to YOU!
…
Tonight we had the pastors from the local international church over for dinner. We laughed and had a blast, but the conversation turned solemn as we discussed women’s issues and the cultural norm. It was solemn because we were discussing a topic that caused the human heart to cry out “injustice! That’s not right!” Rape. Danger. Silence. False honor. Control. I hated everything about the topic, and there wasn’t an immediate fix or solution. So many things needed to be done to solve the problem! And I am currently in the position to DO NOTHING about them.
Pray. I could pray. But why does that answer sound insufficient?
I don’t have a neat little answer to women’s issues in North Africa. However, it did start me thinking, a thought that kept me from despair…
When you first water soil that is as dry as North African dirt – dry from drought, dry from years of neglect, dry from lack of irrigation (bringing in an outside source) – the soil dries quickly… The water sinks into the dirt and goes deep, quickly leaving behind the familiar layer of dusty sand and zero traces of ever being watered in the first place. But. What if. You watered it more. What if the ground that is SO THIRSTY received a straight-up downpour. Not harsh enough to wash the topsoil away… Just enough to soak deep into the dirt, past the dusty topsoil, and into the roots of the land.
What if even a cup of water landed on dry dirt and sank into just the right place – where a seed was waiting… patiently.
The truth is, change will come. Science dictates its arrival. All that’s needed is faithfulness and educated efforts. Educate yourself, TRY, and commit to seeing progress. Allow your sense of injustice or passion to drive you towards action. I’m sure that whatever ground you’re watering will show results. (Just don’t forget to add a little seed.)
Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,‘ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
??John? ?4:6-26? ?ESV??
