
The Samburu Area of Northern Kenya was gripped by an intense drought. The Samburu region is normally a dry, arid place, but an extended period with no rain had reached a crisis. The Samburu people, who usually eke out a subsistence living as nomadic herdsmen, were desperate. Their camels and goats were dying, leaving them with little or no hope.
My wife and I were in Samburu working on a mission project to drill deep wells that could reach the water table at 700 to 800 feet deep or more. We loaded our SUV with bottles of water tucked into every possible space. We started out across the bush looking for a possible site to drill a well. Michael, our partner and a Samburu tribesman, was driving. Miles from any village, Michael stopped the vehicle. A short distance away was a slender teenage girl standing in the meager shade of small bush. She was watching her few famished goats searching for food.
Michael called out to the girl, “Do you have any water?” The girl did not understand that Michael was offering her water. She thought Michael was asking her to give him water. Her response still haunts me, “Sir, it is not my day to drink.” Her family was dying of thirst and had to alternate days to drink in order to preserve the small amount of water they had. People can generally only survive about three days without water. It’s a scene I will never forget.
As we worked to help relieve this life-threatening calamity in Samburu land, we were painfully aware of its spiritual corollary. Failure to avail oneself to the ‘Water of Life’ is a threat to a person’s eternal welfare. If we were helping bring physical water to these precious people and not the ‘living water’ of Jesus Christ, it would be a mere band-aid. Our mission, in the name of Jesus, was to not only to give water to quench their physical thirst, but to also introduce them to the One who is the ‘Living Water’ and gives eternal life.
A great blessing in helping bring wells to Samburu was sharing the ‘good news’ that no one had to perish without the Living Water. It was their day to drink! God’s promise is to all people:
- “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost” (Isaiah 55:1).
- The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Revelation 22:17).
Reliving those days in Samburu still stirs my heart. It prompts me to ask all who read this post, “Have you received this Living Water?” Jesus said, “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14, NIV). It’s your day to drink!
Prayer: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
~ Brother Roy