In Ethiopia, one of the ministries that I did was water distribution. At HOPEthiopia, they have a well that provides water for a lot of people in town. Houses and huts usually don’t have running water in them, so people rely on the few wells that are in town for all of their water. Sometimes the government decides to shut off all of the water in town, but since the well at HOPE isn’t run by the government, it still has water! And that’s sometimes the only source of water in the town for a day or two.
So what I did at the well was help the women and children carry their jugs out and put them on their donkeys. When Ralph (founder of HOPEthiopia) was explaining what he wanted us to do at the well, he told us that he wanted us to be the woman at the well. Showing the people who come that we are unworthy of the living water, but Jesus offers it to us in full.
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
John 4:13-14
So 3 of us went out to the well the first morning. Madi, Cindy and I. We were unsure of what to do, so we just sat there. A few kids came up to us and played with us. Then the next day we sat there again, but we realized we could make them laugh if we danced. So we sang and danced to all of the songs we could think of off the top of our heads. Then the next day, we still came out with no clue what we needed to do. Then in one moment, our job for the next 3 months came into fruition.
A child called Cindy over to the well to help her get the jug out of the fence and onto the donkey. These aren’t small little containers or water bottles, these jugs are BIG old sunflower oil containers that probably weighed 35-40 pounds easy. So Cindy went over and helped her. Then all of the ladies and kids at the well realized that we were more than willing to carry out ALL of the jugs and they didn’t have to. So they asked us our names and for 3 hours everyday, we heard “ Cinday!!! Aleeza!! Madddii!!!”
Something that kinda sucks about doing missions in a different country is that you can’t really communicate with them by talking. So we asked what their names and ages were, but our Oromifa was limited to those two phrases. But something we figured out during those first few days was that singing and dancing was universal.
So I continued to do water distribution for a few weeks, but then we rotated ministries and I went onto another ministry.
I did my rotation of the ministries, but the Lord really put a desire in me to go back to water distribution. I had expressed this passion to my team leader and she made it happen!! So I spent the last 3 weeks of our time in Ethiopia doing water distribution. These weeks were some of my favorite.
Some kids that came back everyday were Aba, Fatiya, Eftay, Bakana and Soury. These kids were my bffs. Something they started doing with me was they would tap and make a beat on the jugs while they were filling them up and they found out that every time they stared to make a beat, I would dance. They LOVED it! I would just kinda bounce and squirm but they found it so entertaining.
Something I struggled with all of Cambodia and some of Ethiopia was sharing the gospel. I was really eager to go out and share, but we just couldn’t because of the language or because in Ethiopia, the religion was Orthodox and Muslim so our host advised against directly evangelizing. So we really practiced showing people Jesus by the way we loved. And that was the only way we could really “evangelize”.
So through silly songs and dances, I grew closer with the kids and the moms that were at the well. They became my friends and were comfortable with me.
I asked Jesus to show me where he was physically during my time there, and every day he told me. Sometimes it was next to a mom and her kid, comforting her, being her strength while she carried a jug on her back. Or he was sitting on top of the well, watching his children. Or he was next to me, helping me have patience with the kids or the flies haha. He was always there.
It was truly a blessed time. I got to be the woman at the well; unworthy of his eternal water, but still receiving it ten fold.
Thanks for reading!! Contact me if you have any questions about anything!!
Eliza
