“Before me no God was formed nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am The Lord and apart from me there is no savior” Isaiah 43:11-12
Thinking back to four weeks ago I realized something really unfortunate. As a baby Christian who honestly knew nothing about missionary work, I came into this mission trip with a “Savior’s mentality.” So here we are three weeks into this mission trip, standing ankle deep in rotting garbage and Vicks Vapor Rub under our noses. As we do every week there is worship, prayer, the most excited hand washing I have ever seen, and then handing out a meal and clean water. After I finished drying hands I stepped out of the crowd and noticed a small boy and his father who had come late. I asked in the most broken spanish I had “do you want some food?” The boy quickly hid and told me no, but there was something telling me I had to help. So I took a deep breath and pushed into the crowd of families to get ahold of some clean water. I brought it to him with a smile, he then proceeded to bite open the bag and squirt the water all over the ground.
After seeing this multiple times and thinking I had shaken off this “Savior’s mentality” I found myself being truly upset. I thought to myself, “Why do these children feel the need to dump all this clean water we bless them with out every week?” Later that night I decided to share my concern with The Lord and what He revealed blew my mind. God spoke to me and said, “do you not understand what you are actually seeing? Each and every day I offer clean living water to my filthy homeless children. Some of those children choose to taste my sweet water while others choose to pour my water upon the ground.” The first thing I thought was, “well that was definitely not my own thoughts!” The next day The Lord felt the need to really confirm what He had spoken to me and lead me to verse John 4:10.
“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.” (NIV)
Although that verse confirmed what He had spoken through me it also revealed a new layer to this issue. When He spoke to me I spent the whole night dumbfounded. If they knew God they would never refuse His living water. Once I read John 4:10 it all became clear. His children do not pour out the water because they do not want it they pour it out because they know no different. I started thinking back to a conversation I had with our host the first week here. He described multiple situations where below a savior, these people need a teacher. He began by asking me this: “If you cut your finger open, what would you do?” Like most of you would answer I said, “clean it up and put a band-aid on it.” He then asked, “why?” Because that’s what I learned to when I get a cut, I answered. He proceed to ask one last question, “And who taught you that?” My parents, I quickly responded.
That is the whole issue here. Until someone shows them they will always be stuck in their ways. Something even as simple as hand washing is very foreign to many. The fact of the matter is these people don’t need us to save them they need us to teach and guide them. So after three weeks here and hours of prayer The Lord has finally showed me what I am here for. I am not Jesus Christ but I pray everyday to be His hands and feet. To enter every battlefield with wisdom and most importantly teach Gods beautiful, filthy, and hopeless children of Gods living water.
