Living Water

“those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.” John 4:14a
Financial Times/International Water Conference Report from August 2006 - click here*
Trinity Lutheran Church Living Water Update for January 2008 - click here*
Bishop Mark Hanson - "Challenges of Hunger" - click here*
"Drinking rain in the occupied West Bank" - (Number 4 in a Church World Service series on water) - click here*

Since the Day of Pentecost, June 8, 2003, the Edmonds-Lynnwood Parish has gathered LIVING WATER offerings systematically and regularly to begin to make our contribution in addressing the world’s hunger needs. Our goal is to collect $3 per person per week to fight the pervasive hunger problem that confronts our world, dealing with immediate needs and providing lasting infrastructure.

People who are hungry have physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Healthy people have all these needs satisfied daily. LIVING WATER seeks to make lasting and meaningful changes in the lives of many to whom we bring immediate hunger relief and a lasting supply of safe and sanitary water. By “infrastructure,” we mean that we address root causes of needs and provide lasting solutions, like wells, waterworks, and sanitary systems.

When people are challenged to discover their values and [when they] align their core values with their daily lives, they receive a treasure. It's a message that is life-changing, renewing, and powerful, because [they] remember who they are at their deepest core [and they have] permission to honor, value, and live that discovery.
Bill Grace, The Center for Ethical Leadership

In the Edmonds-Lynnwood Parish, our challenge is to integrate our core values into the daily lives of the people who make up our community. Alignment brings treasure. We are touched by God, and learn what is good and acceptable and perfect.

LIVING WATER is our opportunity to share daily bread.

But, the real significance of LIVING WATER is not so much what LIVING WATER does for hungry people. Rather, the more important aspect of LIVING WATER is what LIVING WATER does for us and our neighbors in Edmonds and Lynnwood. LIVING WATER is more about quenching and satisfying our spiritual thirst than it is about providing food, drink, or wells to malnourished people around the country or the world. LIVING WATER is about Edmonds and Lynnwood, and our role in the world, not Nicaragua, Iran, India, or the like.

In John’s Gospel, the woman at the well was startled that Jesus would speak to her. She was even more startled that he would ask her to give him a drink. She knew that she was an outcast, and that, in speaking to her, Jesus was violating all the rules and customs. With LIVING WATER, however, we learn what is good and acceptable and perfect.

LIVING WATER is becoming a core value across the parish that we simply cannot fail to do. The Lutheran wrote about that when its editor spoke about our work. LIVING WATER weaves into our worship its essence through liturgy, readings, sermons, music, media, art, and a processional in-gathering at the well, when the people rise to share their joy. We use sensual experiences; things to see and to hear. When we process to the well, we pour out our gifts, and, with those offerings, we are ‘digging wells of hope’ to make lasting change.

In a thirsty world, communities need reliable sources of healthy and clean water. God gives breath and living water to us in abundance so that we might share it with our brothers and sisters locally and across the globe. And so, through LIVING WATER, we do.

At Jacob’s well, the startled woman mentioned to Jesus that Samaritans and Jews did not share (many) things in common. What tremendous irony she spoke. After all, they shared a well and the ancestors who dug it. They shared the land where they dug that well. They even shared our God. Indeed, they were different, but they were more alike than they wanted to admit. Jesus and the woman shared a thirst. They shared physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Jesus addressed the needs of the woman. It was at the outset of his public ministry. He was ministering to a non-Jew, a poor, wayward Samaritan woman, who he met in an unfathomable encounter in the middle of the day, in a public place, a place of tradition and destiny. The woman wanted water, and Jesus gave her a drink that she would never forget. Jesus also wanted a drink, and, in his inimitable way, instead of having his thirst quenched, he became the water of life for that woman and for all who thirst. Jesus said to her: “The water that I will give them will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” John 4: 14b Now, that is LIVING WATER!

Hungry people share few things in common with the fed, the rich. Hungry people need water to satisfy the hungry heart, their physical needs. They also need assistance today to address their emotional needs. We can provide that.

In the Edmonds-Lynnwood area, members of the parish congregations and our friends and neighbors are thirsty to satisfy their spiritual needs. We must provide that, too. In 2 Corinthians 4:1 and 7 – 10, Paul wrote:

Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.

LIVING WATER is about unleashing the awesome power that is stored up as "the treasure in clay jars." LIVING WATER is about making Jesus visible in our bodies, and about letting others know about his presence. LIVING WATER is about tapping the resource of the Spirit in each one of us and about letting that Spirit out. LIVING WATER is about pouring it out, giving it away, making it known.

LIVING WATER is about hope and promise. It is about grasping onto the truth and living it. LIVING WATER is about combining a drop or a little trickle from one with the trickles of thousands to create streams of hope in Edmonds and Lynnwood. It is about $3 per person in worship per week. LIVING WATER is about helping grow what otherwise might be considered insignificant and independently meaningless contributions into an everlasting cascade of waters of a community that bring justice and mercy, righteousness and hope, joy and courage, to our troubled world.

We may think that times are tough. Life is never easy, but there is no better time than right now to make it better. Although times are tough, we hold “the treasure in clay jars,” nevertheless, and that will bring salvation to the whole world. We need to release it. Yes, these days are difficult for many of us, but most do not face death from malnourishment, dehydration, or both. Three billion people across the globe do - - daily. But, we are the ones who will carry Jesus’ message. We must say to those who are being saved: "Jesus is my Lord and Savior. He is the living water. He is the treasure that gives us life and hope." We must begin to say it and to do it in Edmonds and in Lynnwood. The rest of the world can wait to hear, but our friends in Edmonds and Lynnwood cannot wait any longer.

That is LIVING WATER.

LIVING WATER is a local campaign to satisfy the spiritual needs of thirsty people. While we do that, we can also help some of the physical and emotional needs of hungry people near and far. When we pour out our love and give ourselves away in the process, we will discover that it is the greatest blessing in our lives.

Paul told the church at Corinth about the response the Macedonians had made to aid the plight of the church in Jerusalem. The Macedonians collected an offering beyond their means, in the eyes of most. Paul, then told the Corinthians, in essence, "I, Paul, have told the whole world of your faith. I have boasted about you and about the values you share and the hope that drives you. Now, the whole world is looking to you as a role model of the response of Christian people because of what I have told them. Please be the people that I have told the entire world about."

For the Edmonds-Lynnwood Parish, it is our time to follow the example of the church in Corinth. This is our moment. The whole world is beginning to learn about who we are and what we value and what we will accomplish together. People have heard of us in Bangladesh, Iran, Nicaragua, Uganda, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Tanzania, Germany, South Africa, Madagascar, Mexico, Sultan, Washington, and, even Lynnwood and Edmonds. O, indeed, are we blessed.

We have no life but that which God provides. Remember the parable of the larger barns. We are dust, lifeless, without Jesus. With Jesus, we hold a treasure that every other person wants to possess.

In 2006 we plan to collect $4000 and sufficient money to dig two wells each month, about $8000 per month in January – June. For July – December, we hope to increase our giving to provide $4000 and four wells each month, $12,000 per month.

It can happen with just $3 per person per week.

As Bill Grace said: “When people are challenged to discover their values and [when they] align their core values with their daily lives, they receive a treasure.”

“Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38b

LIVING WATER
an initiative of the Edmonds-Lynnwood Parish

A "Global Mission and Gift Guide" has been prepared to help learn more about the global missions that Trinity is involved in,
and to assist you with your gift giving decisions regarding all of the ministries that Trinity supports.
click here* to view the Global Mission and Gift Guide.
click here* to view the Missions Update and Prayer Letter for October, 2007.

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