Offering the Water of Life

By S. R. Morris

This is a true story of how the Holy Spirit used a creative woman, a bottle of water, and a paper bag to make an eternal difference.

I

T WAS A HOT JUNE MORNING, and Rosalind had already distributed more than 200 bottles of water to homeless men and women in central Phoenix.  For nearly two years, once a week, she had been passing out free bottled water to the thirsty souls who live in this inner-city neighborhood.

Tired and feeling the effects of the heat, Rosalind thought about her air-conditioned home and longed to be there.  She packed the remaining six plastic bottles back into her vehicle and started for home.

“At first I thought it was guilt because I kept thinking about how good it would feel to be home,” she recalls.  “Then I was struck with the thought of those last few bottles of water and how there must be someone on the streets who needed them.

“Now I know it was the Holy Spirit who led me to go back and give away those last six bottles,” she concludes.

A Providential Opening

One of those bottles of cold water went to a man who was thirsting for more than just a drink.  The young man with the dark sunglasses was panting and perspiring as he reached for the small plastic bottle.  As Rosalind handed him the bottle, he asked her which church had sent her to distribute water.

“You don’t have to be sent by church to be kind to someone,” she replied.

Again he asked if a church had sent her to do this work.  She ignored his question. But the thirsty man would not be put off, and pressed his question by asking, “What church do you go to?”

No longer able to deflect his inquiries, Rosalind replied by saying that her church was located near Seventh Street and Thomas, but she still did not give the name of her church.

After talking more with those who were willing to listen, and giving her cell phone number to those who might later need someone to talk to, Rosalind returned home.

A few days later the cell phone rang, and a man on the other end said that he would like to go to church with Rosalind sometime.  After a short conversation she realized it was the young man with the sunglasses from the previous morning.  She explained that she was getting ready for church right then and asked if he was still interested in going.  The young man said yes.  So Rosalind and her teenaged son went to pick him up and give him a ride to the church.

“I’m in charge of personal ministries this week, and I was wondering if I could use you today,” Rosalind asked as they arrived at the church.  “I’d like to put a paper bag over your head, lead you up front, and use you to make a point about the way God treats people.  Would you mind?”

The young man seemed shocked by the idea of being lead around with a sack over his head, but he decided to trust the woman who had given him water.

A Real Live Object Lesson

Once in front of the congregation, Rosalind asked if anyone knew who the man was; if they knew anything about him.  With his identity disguised no one could identify the man, let alone tell much about him.

“That’s the way we should always look at people, because that’s the way God sees us,” she told the congregation. “The Bible says that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart, and that’s the way we should always look at people.”

When she concluded her remarks Rosalind realized her new friend was still standing next to her with the paper bag over his head.  When she removed the bad there was a gasp from the pews.

“That’s my son!” exclaimed a church member.  She and her son, Ted, had been estranged and separated for years.  Mother and son then embraced right there in front of the congregation.  Ted testified how he had received the bottled water from Rosalind and how it had helped him to decide that he was ready for a change in his life.

After that day, Ted moved into a transitional house for men, began working, attended church services every week, and shared his story at several other Phoenix area churches.

Rosalind’s water ministry, which began in 1998 with a 12-pack of bottled water distributed to people waiting for the bus, has flourished.  Friends from several area churches, Rosalind’s children, and even a grandchild have joined her in helping to bring water to thirsty, wandering souls.  Six months later, the ministry expanded by making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and giving them away in addition to the water.  Since then, donations of water, as well as bread, fruit, and sandwich items, have been received from those who hear about the ministry.

The Greater Good

Centuries ago Jesus sat with one of the castoffs of His society and said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13, 14 NIV). Pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide those wandering souls who are thirsting for the Water of Life.

Copyright 2001 by S. R. Morris