Water

This is a picture from the last home visit we did today. This is her home.

I have been here a week, and I am in my first Ugandan power outage. I had to type this on Word before posting. They say that is very common here, and I knew to expect it. I’m glad it is during the day, but there is no telling when I will be able to post this. Five minutes! Here it is! I don’t know if it is a generator or not.

Today was quite the day. I went with the hospice team on two home visits and one Clinic visit, to see a total of four patients. What I was struck with today was when I was on the road, and I noticed all of the Jerry cans. I would start to count, but they seem infinite. I saw a young boy, maybe six or seven, carrying two twenty-pound jugs barefoot up a hill, and my heart hurt for him. I wanted to take them for him. At Passion2010, Living Water came and had a demonstration, where we carried two cans, like him, for an eighth of a mile. It was very hard, and I am much older, and I know he carried it much farther. There is also red dirt everywhere, which means that his water probably got some into his water, and the already contaminated water gets even dirtier.

We abuse water in America. We run it when we don’t need it, and we throw it away instead of drinking it. They need it. It’s so heart-breaking.

More and more, I’ve been feeling a conviction about water; it’s good because that is why Austin is a Civil Engineer, to bring water to people, and because I know that social justice, caring for widows and orphans and the like, please God as an act of our worship. So, I am praying about what God’s will is for Austin and I in the future with water, and observing its purpose in third-world countries.

God has also been working in my heart about the allocation of my resources (time, money) and how to glorify Him with it, which incorporates into the Social Justice idea. Austin sent me a passage from Amos 5 the other day that paired well with the Jon Foreman song (the song is based off of it) and as the song continued to ring through my ears, I asked God what He wanted me to do with this conviction. In America, I used to feel these heart stings. Being here, and seeing the poverty and the need, it increases. And I am here, praying for these people who are hurting, and praying for a way to help them.

Thanks for your continued prayers! God is being so good to us.

Amos 5:21-24

"I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

"I Hate All Your Show" by Jon Foreman

I hate all your show and pretense
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stomp on my ears when you're singing 'em
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show

Your eyes are closed when you're praying
You sing right along with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There's blood on your hands
You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don't fit in your plan
Quit playing religion games
There's blood on your hands

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show

Let's argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let's argue this out
You'll be one of the clouds
Let's argue this out
Quit fooling around
Give love to the ones who can't love at all
Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can't stand at all, all
I hate all your show

What "show" is there in my life? Change me, O God.