Egypt is an amazing place. Yet when I went there a few years ago, I was confused over references in the Bible about the abundance of food and produce found there. When my group arrived in Cairo, all that could be seen was insane traffic, insane driving, half completed buildings and dust. The Nile River through Cairo was dirty and gave no indication of the blessings found in the Old Testament. For at least the first week of the trip, I was completely astounded by the barrenness of the land. It hardly seemed possible that it could sustain a hundred people let alone the millions now or in the past. This was until we hit upper (which is southern) Egypt along the Nile. Once there I understood.
The picture above is of Luxor (the ancient city of Thebes) just after dawn. The stark contrast of the land indicates where one piece has received water and the other has not. One is growing and fertile while the other is dead and barren. 
It’s the same land. Both have the same deficiency of rain, minerals, and ability to be productive on its own. The difference is the water. Yet the land cannot go to the water; the water must be brought to the land in order for it to be productive.
Roughly 40%, not even half, of the US population may consider entering a church building. What happens to the other 60%? Does God not care for them? Do we simply leave them to wander by the church and hope they are somehow drawn in? Do we believe that the programs will attract them? Honestly, that is what we expect, but these 60% have no interest in church and find no value in going. Why should they when all they hear about the church is that it is judgmental and condemning? For those whose lives are fraught by poverty, homelessness, addiction, abuse, emotional and mental handicaps, or lack of education, the church as we’ve made it holds even less appeal. Quite honestly, most churches wouldn’t know what to do with those who live on the edges of society even if they did come. Yet Jesus spent the vast majority of his time talking with those outside the religious establishment, outside the walls of the synagogues and temples, outside among the sinners.
To this 60% we, as God’s children and ambassadors, need to take the water…the water of life. We need to irrigate the land that cannot irrigate itself. Read John 4 about the woman at the well. This encounter reveals just how much God loves those on the fringe and to what lengths he will go to bring freedom to one caught in a life of sin.
The first thing that stands out to me is that Jesus is alone. I believe he strategically placed himself at the well, sending the disciples in town for food, so that they wouldn’t get in the way. They were shocked enough to find him talking with this woman when they did come on the scene a bit later. I have no doubt that this woman would never have talked with Jesus while surrounded by all these “righteous” men. She would have drawn his water and hers and left without ever lifting her head or eyes.
The character of the woman stands out now. The character that Jesus was completely aware of even before she arrived at the well that day. She is a Samaritan, considered a “half-breed” by all orthodox Jews. Whatever Jewish blood flowed in Samaritan veins was tainted by the mix with Gentile blood, making all Samaritans completely unworthy of association. Then to point out the obvious, she is a woman. Men and women had different spheres of engagement. That Jesus would even acknowledge her presence was startling to her. All other men would have ignored her completely, as if she did not exist. Jesus not only acknowledges her but asks for her help. He engages in conversation. He does all this while letting her know that he knows all about her life and the many men with whom she has lived. He states facts without bringing judgment. This is completely unheard of in that day and time, and I’m sorry to say in our own as well.
Jesus brought the truth. He brought the water of life. Consider this: she was coming for plain water but had living water brought to her. She could not get that water on her own. It had to be brought to her. It was then through this sinful, on the fringe woman that the entire town heard Jesus and came to believe. A radically transformed life catches the attention of all people, righteous and unrighteous alike.
That is the mission here at Woodland Village. Surrounded by morally upright people, some who go to church and others who do not, live a group of people who have no living water. They don’t even know that such a thing exists! I am called to bring that water to them. I am called to go where there is no church, where there is no interest in church, where there is fear and distrust of church. I am to bring an irrigation system, to water the fallow ground, allowing God to bring the increase. He has placed me here to be a tiller of the soil, a cultivator, a sower, eventually a reaper. Currently it is a desert land. Soon the living water of Christ will cause growth beyond all imagination, becoming a source of vast abundance not only to those here but to all who have need.
