Living Water

A thick, dark cloud covered the desert horizon. “Looks like we are about to get a storm,” A Burkinabe woman said to me as we were waiting in the customs line at the airport in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.  Sure enough, as soon as we got our luggage loaded into the vehicle, the heavens opened and it started to rain. No, it poured.

Water ran through the streets like a river, and the windshield wipers could not keep up with the amount of rain coming down. The funny thing is that we are in the desert...in the dry season. Even the missionaries said they had never seen rain like this.

Welcome to the desert of Burkina Faso. It is miraculously pouring rain.

I fell asleep to the sound of unexpected raindrops on the windowsill, thinking about how Jesus rains love-water on us in our dry, desert places. “This must be a promise,” I prayed, “of what is yet to come.” It is a beautiful thing to be in the rain.

The next day, we traveled to our destination city in Burkina Faso to stay with the Richter family of six. They have lived here four and half years, working with Living Water International to provide clean water to villages. Their team has also helped plant churches and raise up spiritual leaders. “Water and the Word,” Geoffrey said, “That’s what we are about.”

So today, on my 22nd birthday, I traveled with the team to a Dagara village to celebrate the completion of their water well. The Richter team has been doing work there over time to bring education and the gospel to the people, and we were there today for the grand opening.

There was much dancing, music-playing (using a cool marimba-type instrument called a balaphone), and singing. Emily and I sang and danced with the women as they raised their hands and clapped in praise to God for the gift of clean water and Living Water. The men watched the workers put in the pipes to finish the well, and then everyone gathered together for the climax of the day.

They prayed, said a few words, and then chose an elderly woman from the village to start pumping. She pumped and pumped for about a minute until water started shooting out the spicket. The crowd erupted into loud cheering and celebration, and the dance party moved around the well as they filled their buckets and splashed one another with the new water.

I have never seen such a joyful celebration in my whole life. The people worshipped with their whole bodies for hours, with sweat gleaming on their dark faces, which were also glowing with delight. The whole ceremony was so joyful, so energetic, and so worshipful. I felt Jesus smiling.

Usually birthdays are a day for receiving gifts, but I got to be a part of giving a great gift today - clean water for an entire village. And thanks to the work of the long-term mission team who has gone before us to prepare the way, this village now knows the Living Water as well, and that is the greatest birthday gift of all.

Jesus, you are the only one who satisfies the thirsty, sets feet dancing, and brings rainstorms in the desert. You are the Living Water, the ever-flowing Fountain, the Well that never runs dry. As I begin year twenty-three of my life, I realize that you are worth celebrating today and everyday. You are worth proclaiming day after day. You are my soul-satisfier, and I will spend all my days making You known.

And still I wonder, after days like today, will it be here? As my heart swells with joy as I dance with the African women, and as my spirit grows angry when I see malnourished babies in their sad mother’s arms, is this what I am called to do? Am I being pulled and planted to return here, to spend my days among these people?

You make your plans known one step at a time, and so I move forward each day, wondering and worshipping.