Living Water

As we headed out to the island we had two main goals in mind: live life with the people on the island and share stories and parables with them. On the first island a common part of their culture, especially for the women, is public bathing. Several times a day the women would go to the nearby well in a sarong and bathe. We knew about this ahead of time and made sure to bring our own sarongs. While we were nervous to try it at first, it soon became an enjoyable experience that we looked forward to. In the midst of the heat it felt so good to go to the well, cool off, and get clean. We were taught the proper ways by the locals and often had a large group of kids gather to watch the "bules" (white people) bathe at the well.

After a few days on the island some of us were running out of clean clothes and so we decided it was time to go bathe and do laundry the island way, doing both at the same time at the well. One of the high school girls went ahead of us with a group of kids. As we arrived at the well we noticed that they had already started. She had the whole group of kids with shampoo in their hair. There was soap everywhere and water was splashing all over the place. It was truly a community event.

Then they taught us how to hand wash clothes at the well. It was not an easy task and took us well over an hour. And as we washed we got to tell a story we knew about a woman who had once met a man at a well. We told of how the man had been traveling from far away and stopped to take a rest at the well. He asked the woman for a drink as he was thirsty from traveling. The woman was shocked because their people didn't get along and as a result he wasn't supposed to be talking with her. The man answered her that if she knew who asked her for a drink she would have asked him and he would give her living water. The woman was very confused and asked "where can you get this living water?" The man answered that whoever drinks of the water from the well will be thirsty again but whoever drinks of the water he gives will never thirst. For the water he gives becomes a spring of water welling up to eternal life. And in desperation that woman asked "will you give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to this well?" The story continues but for lack of remembering we stopped there. While nothing miraculous or life changing occurred that day we did get an opportunity to plant a seed. A seed that we trust will be watered and hopefully one day will be harvested.