(I'm toying with the idea for a new series on Fridays where we'll look back through our photograph archives and find a moment that holds special significance to us. We'll try this a few weeks and see if it has any traction. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!)
Photo taken: 4/14/2008 near the village of Senou on the outskirts of Bamako, Mali.
(written by Thom) In April 2008 my Malian pastor, Christophe Dembele, asked if I'd come with him to see a project he was working on. Several times of the previous year or two he had hosted work teams from Canada and New England as they came to build an orphanage. Pastor Christophe is one of the most ambitious and driven men I've met and he does a great job of focusing that internal drive for the glory of the Lord. This orphanage is just one of many of the projects he's spearheaded or gotten involved with. Aside from the importance of the orphanage (the building was going up behind me when I took this picture) this was going to be a significant place for at least three other reasons: they were going to start a school for the orphans and the greater community, it was located in a bustling, newly-built community where the government was giving houses to the military, and the well you see. Wells are so important in this dry climate. Christophe's church was built in a neighborhood in Bamako that didn't have a well and miraculously held water and became such an important centerpiece for that neighborhood, opening all sorts of doors to outreach. This well, which was so deep I couldn't see the bottom, would be a solid foundation to outreach in the Senou area. I think, as Americans, we can look at such a primitive thing as this well and wonder how it can revolutionize an area but we've seen it happen. Praise the Lord for wells and for his living water!
(Side note: On the way out to Senou we drove by the Coca-Cola bottling factory. I pointed to it and jokingly told my pastor "There's the most important factory in Mali!". He looked back at my like I had just kicked a puppy, "But, they make beer there!" was his response. I had no idea what to say to that.
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37-39)
Labels: Friday Foto Flashback
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