Bread and Water

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst.” John 6:35

By now, if you get our newsletter, you know that Kevin has been appointed the DS of Cambodia. Months before this appointment came, we began attending the bi-monthly leadership meetings in Cambodia. We met with them in December and in February. In December we actually went to the meeting on behalf of Work & Witness. We wanted to see what W & W teams could do to help in Cambodia.

They asked for the most simple things in the world. They told us that their most pressing need was for water. In Southeast Asia there are 3 seasons: hot, dry, and rainy. The hot season, which we are coming up on, is hot and muggy. The dry season, which they sometimes call “cool”, but is really just hot and windy. And the rainy season is—rainy, and still hot. The agriculture is built around these seasons. They depend on them. But unfortunately, there has been less and less rain over the past several years. The reservoirs, rivers, and streams don’t fill up as much as they used to and so the reserves are low during the hot and dry seasons.

Villages with good wells can access clean water. Those without cannot. In fact, sometimes it’s not a matter of not having clean water, but a matter of not having any water at all.

Can you imagine having to travel to purchase water on a regular basis? The number of people who suffer from dehydration is astounding.

The second request they made was for Bibles. Each church had about 2 Bibles. Could they have more? And would it be possible to get song books as well?

Digging wells is a big deal, it takes planning. We know first hand, because we just finished a well project at the Maetang Children’s Home.

But, purchasing Bibles just takes money and we found out we have a fund for that! Just a few weeks ago we were able to hand a stack of Bibles, hymn books, and a children’s Bible storybook to a representative of each church.

We encouraged the family of God to use the Bibles and to give them away. If needed, we would get more. The excitement over this gift of Bibles filled the atmosphere. Before we left, one of the guards at the hotel showed us that he had one of our Bibles. A church had given it to him. Was it okay if he kept it? He would read it to the people in his village. Before ever returning home the people of of God were giving away the Bread of Life.

Bread and water. Essentials. It’s exactly what Jesus offered: living water and the bread of life. The correlation between the physical and spiritual in Cambodia is so striking. There is physical poverty: hunger, thirst, and the depravity that accompany that. But it’s such a clear picture of the spiritual condition of the nation. They are thirsty for the living water, hungry for the bread of life. They need Jesus. Only Jesus can transform and when he does, he transforms from the inside out.

Jesus never ignored physical needs; he knows how we are formed. But He always accompanied physical provision with spiritual provision. He offered forgiveness, mercy, love . . . Himself.

As we work with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries to see wells built, and work with the local churches to find ways to provide physically for the people, let us do so in love, never forgetting that the most important thing we have to offer is the living water and the bread of life. The best gift we have to give is Jesus.