Greetings Monte Vista from Tom’s office,

One of my favorite stories from the life of Mother Teresa comes from the time when she was a young nun working with the poorest in Calcutta. One day she became convinced that God was calling her to open an orphanage for the children of those who were dying daily in the streets. So she went to talk with her bishop about the project. He listened attentively to what she outlined. After she finished, he asked, “How much money do you have?” “Two pennies,” she answered. The bishop laughed out loud. “You can’t start an orphanage with two pennies.” “No,” she replied. “But with God and two pennies I can.” And she did. 

– from a sermon by Eugenia Gamble called Mary and the Angel

I love that story!

With God and two pennies, all things are possible. 

Have you ever felt God’s call to an impossible mission?   Impossible, at least, from the perspective of those who see God as a nice deity who does not get involved in the day to day of our lives.   

Let me rephrase the question, have you ever felt God’s call to a Mission Possible but only with God’s help?

If you have said, “yes” to Jesus then more than likely you’ll also say, “yes” to the Mission Possible question.  Why?  Because when say “yes” to becoming a follower of Christ He will take us places where they only way we can prevail is by complete and total trust in God.

When God called Mary to carry the Savior of the World, she had no idea how that could happen.  The angel’s response to her ignorance, “all things are possible with God.”

“But with God and two pennies I can.”  

Mother Teresa knew the secret of living a life of faith – fully rely on God.

My prayer is that you’ll discover that same secret in your own life.    God is more than able to bring about His desire in your life. Prayer, scripture, listening to community, having faith are all ways God gives us direction to discover His best for our lives and the lives of others.

Over the next ten weeks, during our Waiting For Water Sermon series (and small group study) we are going to explore the lives of ten situations in which individuals or groups encounter Jesus.    Some respond like Mary (and Mother Teresa) ready to do God’s will others reject Jesus because the call simply seems impossible.

As we study together and you encounter Jesus, God may place a specific call in your life.   Will you say, “yes,” even though the mission seems impossible?

“But with God and two pennies I can.”  

You can.  God will. 

Glad we are on this journey together.

Tom

Turning the page

“A schedule defends from chaos and whim. A net for catching days.” --Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

After the holidays' noise and excess of celebration, I have been grateful this week to sit quietly and fill out my 2013 calendar. Here in the Midwest, buried under snow in midwinter, I find that as I create a schedule I find it becomes a net, a scaffold, to catch important things and carry my family into the future.

Like me you may be building your schedule for this year. If you can believe it, Lent will begin in less than six weeks. This forty-day journey brings Christians onward to Easter and the hope of resurrection. As you write out your appointments on a calendar or tap them into a smart phone, can I suggest you add one more date? February 13: Lent begins.

Waiting for Water offers free resources for you to guide you through a meaningful and rich Easter Journey. This year, don't let the days slip by. Put Lent on your calendar; talk to your family, friends, small group, or church; and take a moment to browse the many amazing resources found on our website. Together, we can weave our nets and prepare for an amazing Easter in 2013.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” --Annie Dillard

a note from Dan, our founder

Dear friends,

They’re here! I’m excited to share with you that after many months of hard work, Waiting for Water’s 2013 Easter Journey Bible studies and sermons are now up on our website. As I’ve reviewed these contributions from pastors and ministry leaders across the country, I have been blown away and humbled by the quality of their work. I think you will be too.

Waiting for Water’s resources aren’t just well-written, professional, and available for free to churches and individuals. They are effective at drawing people toward Christ and into more faithful obedience to his commands. Earlier this year a pastor shared the following observations with us after completing the 2012 Easter Journey.

“The study was easy to use, accessible and very helpful toward getting people thinking about Christ and caring for others. In fact, one student in my class has become a Christian because of the study. She grew up Muslim, this was literally her first bible study ever (had no idea how to find the books of the bible) but persevered and last night asked how she could become a Christian. Her introduction to Christianity was immersed in caring for the poor and keeping Christ central.”

More resources are still to come, but today, I hope you will join with me in rejoicing at what God has done and is doing through Waiting for Water. I am grateful for the many people who have volunteered their time and talents in the cause of safe water, and I am grateful for each of you, my partners and co-laborers in God’s kingdom work.

In Christ,

Dan Stevens

Eugenia Gamble on the Annunciation

Here is a wonderful excerpt from a new sermon by one of our 2013 contributing authors, Eugenia Gamble; enjoy! 

I grew up in the 1960s in the Jim Crow south. The Civil Rights Movement shaped my life and family from the time I was a tot. After the total desegregation of the school system, I attended a high school where 80 percent of the students were African American. As a child of white privilege, I attended the school as a matter of choice. I believed in desegregation. I believed in public school. So, I went to public school. During my senior year a friend of mine, a young African American boy, and I decided that we were going to help with voter registration after school in the public housing projects in our community. We didn’t have the sense God gave a turnip. But that was what we decided to do. Somehow, word of our plan reached the school librarian, a wise and wonderful African American woman who had seen it all. She called us in to her office one day after school. Telling us what she had heard, she told us that we simply could not do it. I remember rising up to the full stature of my sixteen-year-old indignity and saying, “But we are working for the truth.” She leaned over her desk, clasped her enormous chocolate eyes on me and said something I have never forgotten. “Genie, you be careful of the truth. The truth can get you killed.”

Mary knew from the first flap of angel wings that the truth could get her killed. Yet she was able to respond with joy and abandon. Why? Perhaps it was just who she was. Perhaps the Spirit prepared her especially for this opportunity. We don’t know. But in the moment, she made her decision. Yes. She would be who she was created to be and she would do what she was created to do no matter how inconceivable, no matter how inconvenient, no matter how incongruous. The risk of saying yes to God’s call on your life may be great. But the payoff in intimacy with Christ will be greater.

Thank you

Like any other parent, I have watched my children grow at alarming speed. What happened? I ask myself approximately twenty times a day, watching them bounce basketballs, scooter down the driveway, or devour yet another snack. My memories of their earlier years are fogged up in my mind, blurred by exhaustion. Yet since I came home with the first bald-headed baby, they have been teaching me gratitude. My children celebrate sunlight slanting through a window, ants crawling on pavement, toads in the garden. From them, I have learned to pause, a hundred times a day if necessary, see the world around me, and say "thank you."

For cupboards groaning with food, thank you.

For a spouse who is kind, thank you.

For sunlight and green grass, thank you.

For another pitcher-ful of sparkling clean water, thank you.

Perhaps it's no accident that Richard Foster's book on spiritual practices was called Celebration of Discipline. Acts of gratitude and celebration do not usually just happen; they must be cultivated, paid attention to, given space to flourish in our daily lives. As someone who is task-driven and thrives on productivity, I joke that sometimes I have to plan for spontaneity. But however I get there, moments of thankfulness, alone and with others, feed my soul, cast out a doomsday mentality, and draw me close again to my Maker.

Celebration is the antidote to anxiety. Gratefulness cures discontent.

We have come to the end of the Waiting for Water journey for 2012. And there is so much for which we can be grateful. Below are just a few of the comments and notes we have received from people who have participated. As we are already thinking of how we can continue this adventure in 2013, growing, improving, and expanding it, we also want to pause and say "thank you" together.

"A friend of mine went on the Waiting for Water website after hearing about the program at her church. She told me that while she watched the video, she was given a feeling of hope. The simple message that we can all do something, but together we can make a real difference in the world, moved her to tears." --Pat Klever

"Tom - Here's that word again - Awesome!  We had a great study.  Lot's of smart interesting people.  Good things in the works.  We are going to work on compassion in the community!" --Lynn

Dan Stevens receiving a gift from Highlands Church in Paso Robles, CA, on Easter morning. Photo courtesy of Highlands Church.

 

"The information your group put together for the Lent season was very helpful for our church.  We loved the graphics and videos too.  Thank you for all of your work." --Katy Griffin

"Before today, we had collected close to $3,000 for Waiting for Water, more today came in as people sought to help bring safe water to the world... Wonderful day of fellowship at our Waiting for Water Carnival. Easy, fun and relaxed time of celebration and fun. All three pastors plus others got dunked (repeatedly) in our dunk tank. So much fun to watch the children get so stoked every time a pastor went under." --Tom Stephen

Thank you to each of you who participated in Waiting for Water; thank you, God, for including us in your work in this world.