"How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action."
1 John 3:17-18
Benefit Concert to Provide Clean Water for the Children of Yamaranguila, Honduras
When: Tuesday, June 2nd
Where: New Hope Presbyterian Church (892-0853)
Time: 7:00 P.M. (Doors open at 6:30 P.M.)
Cost: Suggested Donation of $10 per Person
From I-75, take the Shallowford Road exit and head towards the mall. New Hope Presbyterian will be immediately on your left (across the street from Krystal). Childcare provided!!
It's hard to put into words what Living Waters for the World means. For us, it's an opportunity to put faith into action. For those receiving the gift of clean water, it's literally the difference between life and death for some. The number of children dying of waterborne diseases as I write this is staggering, beyond comprehension. I weep at the loss of life on the Air France flight just the other day. My eyes glaze over at the constant reports of violence from Iraq and Afghanistan. How can I truly comprehend such violence? I feel irresponsible for going numb, yet to sustain outrage for five, six years seems impossible. Perhaps I'm not trying hard enough...
Yet the thought of water being fatal is so alien to my situation. Water surrounds me. I am constantly reminding myself to drink more water. I drink tap water, sometimes filtered, on occasion bottled, but I never worry about it. It's just water, right?
And yet every eight seconds, I should be reminded that a child beyond my field of vision is dying due to a lack of clean water. What to do? What Christ would do--act.
A mission trip is not the only way to act, of course. Prayer and awareness are the first steps in the battle. But action is required, at some level. I am excited for Shane and John as they travel to Honduras, and I look forward, with some anxiety, to my own travels in August. I pray that Christ will use them, use me, to spread the Word of God, to spread the gift of clean water. I wonder how it will work, what it will be like, but the reality is I don't know. I don't have the answers to so many questions; I only have faith in God above to guide me.
I pray that this is the first step on a long journey, one that will lead me in the steps Christ has set before me, rather than on a path of my own making, tended by selfishness and removal. I pray that tonight's concert will be an eye-opening experience for many. I do not doubt the ability of John's voice to inspire. I only hope that the awareness of the acute urgency of the need for clean water will inspire those present as well. May the Holy Spirit be present tonight and lead us forward!
No comments:
Post a Comment