Lent: Day Twenty-Three

Maybe it's the journalist in me, but I've always liked this picture from my time in El Salvador with Living Water International. As a features reporter at Wyoming's statewide daily, I was always begging my photographers to take detail shots. For example, if I did a story on fly fishing, I wanted captivating scenery photos, shots of the fishermen in action, and some up-close-and-personal views of gnarly hands tying on a fly or a fish in a net.

When considering the big picture problem of dirty water and thirst--both physical and spiritual--in the world, it is easy to overlook the details. We see that a well has been drilled in Africa or Haiti or India and forget the many details that went into that well. Each 40-pound pipe driven into the borehole was lifted off the truck by one volunteer, greased by another, twisted into place by another, and driven into the ground by the volunteer running the drill. Someone had to remember the brush for the grease, the hard hats, and the wrenches.

The parts of the well, the rods, pipes, handle, and body, were paid for by donors who baked cookies to sell at a bake sale or who gave up coffee, pop, and other beverages for Lent.

The details are important. That $2 cup of coffee you are giving up really does matter because those $2 could buy that paintbrush that is used to grease the pipe that drives the borehole deep enough to hit water and complete the well that will provide clean water to a village in El Salvador. And that clean water presents an opportunity to share the good news of Christ's love with the villagers. And that could lead to one--or more--people trusting Christ as their savior and satisfying their thirst forever.

It's a little like "The House that Jack Built," only cooler.