Every day I spent in the village I watched the women work constantly in the fierce sun. From sunrise to sunset I would see and hear the pounding of grain, I would see them pump gallons upon gallons of water and cook over a hot fire preparing three meals a day. Throughout the whole time they are working I hardly ever saw them drink water. My time spent there, almost always sitting down in the shade, I felt that my body was in a constant state of dehydration, always being thirsty. I cannot even begin to imagine how dehydrated their bodies become and how thirsty they feel after working all day.
One morning as I was sitting around visiting with friends, a woman came up with her child asking what she can do. Her child was sick. The only thing I knew to tell the woman was to keep her child hydrated and to show her an easy way to put electrolytes back into the sick child by adding sugar and salt to the water. Then G0d opened my mind to think why not show all the women how to make this easy solution and visually show them the importance of hydration realizing that all of them were probably dehydrated from working in the long hot days.
So that evening after a little preparation I waited for the time the women were able to stop working and come by to learn how to make the sugar/salt water. At first only one woman showed up ready to be taught, but slowly one by one 6 to 8 women stopped by eagerly listening how to make the sugar/salt water. As I looked around at the women I saw on their faces the desire to know how take care of their children and themselves. The whole time they listened intently asking questions when they didn’t understand or wanted to clarify the type of water to use. Even the next morning as the team and I were packing up to leave the village, two women came by asking if we could show them how to make the sugar/salt water. These two women had heard about the sugar/salt water from the other women in the village and they too wanted to know how to make it themselves so they could take care of their families.
This day I was in the village G0d showed me this opportunity to share with the women the importance of drinking water, giving water to their children and a way to put electrolytes back into their body. A year ago I was an athletic training student in college where a lot of my days were filled with hydration, dehydration, and rehydration. I remember back to weeks upon weeks that were filled with the meticulous, mundane work of filling up water bottles, emptying water bottles, and cleaning water bottles so the athletes would not get dehydrated or become thirsty during practice or in games. Every day I would be reminded, even lectured on the importance of hydration, rehydration and preventing dehydration until I lived, breathed and dreamed about it. By the time I graduated I often wondered the significance of spending 4 years learning about how important water is to our bodies and how I would use that here were G0d was leading me to be.
G0d revealed to me that I spent 4 years learning about water because He was equipping me to be able to demonstrate His love and compassion among His people for this time. This time I spent with the women was about showing the compassion and care that J.s.s showed to us throughout G0d’s Word. It was a time to remember G0d’s Word when J.s.s says “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” Pr@y with us that one day these women will understand that they will never be thirsty again if they believe in our Father.
c@therine
