Water is Life

Have you ever lived a day without water?

 When there is no water every task becomes difficult.  You make every decision based on how much water it will take.  Should we have porridge for breakfast or only boiled eggs?  Which makes fewer dishes to wash?  You save every drop from every task to make sure your garden will live.  You realize that it really only takes a small tub of water to bathe four filthy children and push back washing your hair one more day.  You wear your clothes so many times that they have to be washed twice in order to get them clean.  Everything is harder without water.

 When we were making plans to move to Karamoja we were not expecting to have running water.  I was pleasantly surprised to find not only a western (NOT squatty) toilet, but a sink and faucet!  What a blessing for a very pregnant person such as myself, to not have to troop outside to the latrine (squatty) three time per night for myself and three more for various children.  Our other source of water is a tap in our backyard which we use to fill our jugs (jerry cans) with water for each day.  Because despite the fact that we have running water it only lasts until about noon on a good day.  This was a definite adjustment for me.  I am not a planner by birth, and now I have to plan if I want to cook, bathe, clean, or even have a drink.  Hence, the jerry cans.  So far this has been a change for us, but a doable one.  We have adjusted and learned to plan.

 Then one day we woke up to no water.

Now what?

 Now we discover how everyone else in Karamoja lives.  Because even though our water is often gone by noon, we have water and in our yard!  We don’t have to stand in line for hours and carry our jerry cans on our heads for miles just to do laundry.  Even in our “suffering” we have it easy.

 I spent that morning grumbling and complaining despite the fact that we were able to buy water and have it delivered to our house.  How spoiled can you get?  We Americans feel like we “deserve” things like water and food, but the truth of the matter is, we deserve nothing.  We really have no rights at all.  We are always in need of God’s mercy for every day.  How can we survive without him?  And once again he brings us back to the point of dependence on him for everything, even our daily water.  And he is always faithful to provide what we need for each day and only each day.

 So today I am thankful for water…water that is still running at 4 pm!

 “…whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  John 4:13-14