A Gift Entrusted to You
Shannon Walker – Dominican Republic
During a 1998 mission trip to Honduras with the Christian Church in Indiana, there were days when our youth group had limited access to water and a couple of times when we had no access to water. That experience had an impact on me because I never had to live through the reality and caused me to reflect on how I had been living my life. When I returned home, my mother quickly became very irritated with me. For the rest of the summer, I can remember screaming at her any time I heard water running for more time than I thought necessary saying, “There are people in this world who don’t have water, save some for them.”
Shannon Walker – Dominican Republic
During a 1998 mission trip to Honduras with the Christian Church in Indiana, there were days when our youth group had limited access to water and a couple of times when we had no access to water. That experience had an impact on me because I never had to live through the reality and caused me to reflect on how I had been living my life. When I returned home, my mother quickly became very irritated with me. For the rest of the summer, I can remember screaming at her any time I heard water running for more time than I thought necessary saying, “There are people in this world who don’t have water, save some for them.”
The community of Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic where I am living is victim to a disorganized government that results in inequitable and unreasonable distribution of resources such as electricity and water. There are periods of up to four or five days when water is not available to those of us who have indoor plumbing. When this happens, it is then our responsibility to seek out and carry water strung up from underground wells. Using these wells is a daily occurrence for the 30%-40% of Dominicans who don’t have indoor plumbing and sometimes travel miles carrying buckets of water.
Apparently I didn’t learn the lesson from Honduras well enough, because I have gained an appreciation and awareness for water that I have never known. Bathing, brushing teeth, washing clothes, mopping floors, cooking, washing dishes and many other activities that we take for granted are all contingent on the availability of water. Such limited access often requires us to choose which of these activities can be done and cannot be done. It has become clear to me that water is the most important resource in one’s daily life and its cleanliness has a tremendous influence. In the Dominican Republic, diarrhea is common from eating foods cooked with unclean water, from eating off plates washed in soiled water, and women especially are advised to seek special soap for cleansing because of infection from dirty water.
Water is a resource, a natural resource. In most parts of the United States we can rapidly find a reasonably clean source of it running from innumerable supplies. We live within boundaries that have governments and companies that regulate its availability and quality. That is a blessing. Our first obligation is to give thanks to God who continues to provide for us in a way that is not possible for many people around the world.
O my soul, Bless God.
From head to toe, I’ll bless His holy name!
O my soul, bless God, don’t forget a single blessing! Psalm 103:1-2, The Message
Knowing that there are those who live without this central element of life must make us acknowledge our responsibility to be good stewards of the gifts that we have been granted. One of the details of our jobs as Christians is to be responsible and faithful with all that has been given to us, because it does not belong to us. In the second letter that Paul wrote to Timothy he says,
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you-
guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 2Timothy 1:14 NIV
God requires us to apply stewardship with the gifts God has trusted to us, carrying out their intended purpose, in moderation and being grateful in return. Access to clean water is a deposit that all God’s children are not always blessed with. Allow the Holy Spirit in you to guide you to more faithfulness and stewardship with this gift, reminding you with each use that this has been entrusted to you.
Shannon A. Walker
Shannon Walker is a Global Ministries Intern with Caminante in the Dominican Republic. She teaches English classes and supports their youth leadership groups.