-Harvey Cline
I enjoy a good workout. Workouts normally feel pretty good. It’s also good for you. You burn calories, relieve stress, build strength, and improve aerobic fitness. Anytime I am able to get a workout while performing a useful task is even better. Things like yard work or helping someone move come to mind. This week, at the Care Point, we have had the privilege of performing some very useful work. We were able to pump water from the well at our Care Point. The water that we pumped was used to water a garden. I’d like to share a couple of thoughts about this work.
1. This work would normally be done by the wonderful Bomake who are also responsible for cooking, cleaning and caring for the children, amongst other things. However, at least for a couple of days, our efforts have given them a break from these duties. Our prayer is that this break has brought some renewal to them in their service to the children and the Kingdom of God.
2. As many in the US may not know, Swaziland is experiencing a severe drought. In the major cities, the government has instituted water rationing. So, the fact that this well is producing water is a blessing from God. Our workouts are evidence of this blessing.
3. The relationship of this task to our mission in Swaziland and in life as God’s people are difficult to ignore. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well, recorded in John 4:14 “… but 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.” And again in the book of John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” So, what we have been doing physically in Swaziland, Jesus states that this should be happening spiritually in our lives.
4. I sometimes struggle with seeing the tangible results of my efforts when on a mission trip. However, I’ve come to learn that the results aren’t mine, they belong to the Lord. I Corinthians 3:6 and 7 states, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” We have faith that God will use our efforts in ways we won’t fully know on this side of eternity. He will use our efforts to grow His kingdom just like He will use the water from the well to grow the plants in the garden. I’ve enjoyed my time being Apollos at the Care Point this week.
