Well of Life

Imagine yourself walking in a desert. A scorching hot desert. Your camel just died, you haven’t eaten for days and this very fact seems incomparable to the other fact that you are so very thirsty. The heat from the sun feels like little daggers cutting through your skin as your natural milky smoothness becomes a new blistering surface. The day before, you felt like you could not go on anymore, but somehow you have made it to today where you truly feel like this is the end. You sink to the ground and review your life for the last time. You think of your happiest moments, your saddest, you think about how you hate sand, all the things you are proud of and all your shames. Your mouth is unable to salivate and the chalkiness is unbearable so you begin to close your eyes and hope that as you fade away into a deep sleep, that you will not wake up…..

Your dreams are shattered as you feel a small bit of shade and then something on your shoulder. You muster the strength to open your eyes and as you peer up, you see the figure of a man who has outstretched His hand on your shoulder. You think to yourself, “Oh, great! Not another mirage.” The figure then kneels down to you and pulls out a sheepskin and holds it to your mouth. All of a sudden it is as if life itself is being poured into your being from the sheepskin. The wet, cold and moist liquid not only caresses your mouth but also somewhat soothes the rest of your body. The idea of the man being a hallucination is destroyed at this very moment. The only thing this moment can be is ‘real’. The mystery man then picks you up and proceeds to carry you on his back. He begins to walk. The walk seems to have gone on forever. The man had begun to walk way before the sun was at its highest point and now it was dark out. The heat of the day was excruciating but not overwhelming for you because you didn’t have to use any of your own strength. Finally the man stops and carries you in his arms to a canopied area and places you on a cot (which happens to be far more comfortable than the sand you have been sleeping on). He pulls out the sheepskin bottle he had been using all day to slowly rehydrate you with and he walks over to a well nearby. He slowly pulls up the dangling bucket filled with the same refreshing substance and he refills the sheepskin. He then walks back to you and as he hands you the bag of water that seemed to bring you back to life, he gentle tells you to “rest”. As he walks away you muster up as much strength as you can to softly ask “Why?” The man turns and smiles and replies saying, “Because you needed my help. I have a lifetime supply of water in that one well, why not share it?” At that he walks away and you roll over in your cot to try and get comfy. As you face the inside of the canopied area you see even more cots laid out and filled with many others. The man laying beside you smiles and says to you, “Everyday he goes out and everyday He returns with someone. After he offers you what you need, he gives you the option of staying for as long as you choose. If you do stay, you’ll never thirst again!”

For some reason, this is the picture that has popped out in my mind after being here in Benin for only 9 days. I have done lots of ministry with the newly chosen Benin leaders and have had two team meetings with them as well. These are 4 Beninese natives who have a passion for spreading the good news to their own people. People they don’t know personally, and have never met. They however strongly believe that they have a truth, love and life that their people need to really live. So it is as if they trudge away from their comfort area where the “well” is situated, to travel out just so they can give their people a taste of a water they may never have tasted before. I have been out there with them only a few days but doing 4 days straight of ministry I see how people react. Ministry here is different than with DRIME Vancouver. The leaders translate the dramas in Fon and French while the dramas are being performed! There are some people who laugh out loud who make the job of both the performers and the translators somewhat difficult. Some people in the crowd focus their attention on them instead of what is being shared with them. The leaders here however are so determined to get the good news out. They are not phased by what is going on, only driven by what God is doing in them. They are like the man in the story that leaves his well and heads back into the hot desert in search of anyone who may need a drop of water. The water of the good news however always proves to be more desired than the words of the heckling audience members. As I stated in my last blog, God is so good and is really working here in Benin. Every time we go out to minister, at least 10 people give their lives over to Christ (ad that is a very low estimate!). In this post however, I wanted to put a challenge out to the few who do read this blog. I am in a country right now that is not only surrounded by spiritual darkness but also physical poverty and yet there are people here who don’t allow these things to discourage or hinder their desire to do Gods work. I know as North American Christians we hear it a lot that we have more and we shouldn’t have a problem with giving of our time and ourselves because we have more of a comfortable existence but I myself as a student and former Trinity student know how its not always that easy to believe or do. Being here I see that you do not need anything but God to do God’s work (to live in fact). The 4 people that have been chosen to be leaders of the new DRIME base here in Benin have a passion to follow God that nothing else matters. This is my challenge for you. If you ever feel like you are being pulled to do something for God, or like God is calling you to do something, don’t allow the challenges of this world to become greater than God. I feel like often enough humans limit the work God can do in our lives because we don’t even try to allow it to happen. Being in Benin I am seeing people who don’t have the resources Canada has, and yet they head out to do ministry with such strong faith, they lead events with such enthusiasm and hope because they put their all in what God can do, not what they can do. I want to pass on encouragement to you today because I have been encouraged as well. It doesn’t matter who you are or how much you have, God is greater than it all. If He is calling to you, don’t block Him out with worry and stress and what you think you know about the way things work. All I know is that I wouldn’t be here if all my worries and fears came true. I know that the DRIME Benin team wouldn’t be touching so many lives, and moving along so fast if they didn’t fully open themselves up to what they know God can do. And I know that, what ever God is calling one of you to do He can do it and you don’t need to worry. Let Him work in your life. Let Him do big things in your life. Let Him bless you by using you in ways you could never imagine! Be Blessed friends!!!!