Living Water

 

“Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!  For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” - John 7:38

The group of volunteers here at Amigos for Christ this week numbers about 70.  They are primarily young people (with some adult chaperones).  They have come from a church in St. Louis, and a Christian school in New Orleans. 

Yesterday, we began work in the rural community of San Benito.  And, although it is only about a 10-minute drive from the complex in which we are staying, there are approximately 110 families living there who do not have access to clean running water, or sanitary bathrooms.

One of the tasks that must be completed each morning before we leave our “home base,” is to fill water jugs to take with us into the community.  The water is needed, because the work is hard and as we dig through rock and dirt to create a trench for the pipes, each person will drink between 4-6 liters in order to prevent dehydration. The picture above shows what that looks like.  Each jug holds 5 gallons of water, and with a total of 54 jugs, that means we brought 270 gallons of drinking water into the community.

Now, while the water is important and necessary for the work, we also brought 70 people: volunteers from the United States are of whom all here with the sole purpose of doing some good in the world.  Yesterday, these volunteers worked shoulder to shoulder with community members, sweating in the heat as they used pic axes and shovels to dig a trench.  During breaks they connected with old and young residents, sharing smiles and laughs and managing to communicate even though differences in language.  

At the end of the day as we were packing up, we were thanked by one of the community leaders who said that this day, and these volunteers would live in his heart forever.

I think the work we do here is good.  But in truth – the “water” that will eventually flow to the homes, is really just a conduit for the “living water” the groups bring.