Living Waters

Today we had the privilege of serving the people of Cite Soleil, delivering over 10,000 gallons of water... 5 gallons at a time.  The sights of garbage, shanties, bright colors of clothing and fruit in the market, and unclothed children... the smells of delicious foods intermingled with burning garbage and sewage... the feeling of dust in our eyes... the sounds of idle chatter and children laughing... all consumed us simultaneously as we pulled in.  The horn on the water truck beeped letting everyone know we were there, and people came in droves.  Men, women, and children... all carrying their precious buckets.  Those buckets were like gold as this would be the only clean water they might get in days.

Bucket Line From Atop the Water Truck

  

As the adults and older children lined up behind the truck, the younger children surrounded us, automatically reaching up to hold our hands, looking up at us with their big brown eyes, and smiling at each of us when we smiled down at them.  It's amazing how a simple "Bon Jour" can conjure up the biggest smile in children and adults alike.  How powerful a simple touch can be.  I spent twenty minutes sitting and gently tickling a small child.  Imagine a child, in the midst of that chaos, sitting still for twenty minutes.  God was using me to deliver His love to that young child without a spoken word.

We served three different areas, each unique in their own way, but with the same loving and compassionate people.  God had a plan for each of us today.  Jeff experience a moment of sorrow as he watched a child walk away with an empty bucket when the water ran out.  Sue experienced joy as she interacted with the happy children.  Lisa experienced love as she watched the rest of us display Jesus' love all day long.  Gina and Allison experienced their gifts of giving as they played with all those children with the dark hair and big brown eyes.  And I, at one of the stops, as I held that hose filling the water buckets through all 3,500 gallons, experienced Jesus.  I literally felt his presence flowing through that hose... his living waters flowing into those buckets... into the lives of those Haitian people.  And I was reminded of the story of the Samaritan women from John 4.  Jesus says, 

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.  Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

I pray that throughout the rest of this week, and the rest of our lives, God's living water continue to flow through each and every one of us and through the lives of all the people we have the honor of serving.

-Christi Ebert

Healing Haiti Team Member