May 13th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

There is a fascinating pattern in Scripture of God meeting desperate women at wells, providing for their physical and spiritual needs.

Hagar came to know Him powerfully as El Roi, the God who sees – the One who saw her and met her need through a well when she felt forgotten, abandoned, hopeless.

The Samaritan woman at the well found Jesus to truly be the Son of God – the One who saw everything she ever did and loved her anyway, the only One who could fill the deep thirst in her soul for love and acceptance, the One who was unashamed to speak with an outcast woman who was drawing water in the middle of the day to avoid the cruelty of the other women of the town.

Women around the world still find themselves in desperate need of God’s presence and provision at wells – and He is still alive and well, working through His people!  Please take a moment to read this note from Becky McDonald, the president of Women at Risk, International (the focus of our Redeemed series about human trafficking.)

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I need to let you know immediately about 5 widows that come to a Bible study in a village in Bangladesh. This village was visited about 45 years ago by my mom and me as a little girl in a Bengali chemise shalwar outfit. Few people would step foot in that village. It was poor, remote and viewed as stubborn. The “missionaries” didn’t really have time for it. But my mom did. She loved the little widow ladies that were barely 4 feet tall and bent over from hard lives of work and marriage at the age of 11.

I still remember sitting on the hard mud ground under the burning sun watching my mom tell them Bible stories with flash cards with pictures she herself had drawn. They were and still are today, illiterate. My mom spent hours in her air conditioned bedroom drawing pictures of Bible stories and especially the parables with characters in Bangladeshi clothes and cultural elements that they would immediately recognize.

…My mom – quiet, sweet, gentle, artistic – poured her gifts and a heart for God into these flash cards. Then she sat for hours hugging little shriveled widows (her favorite) in white muslin sharis sipping hot tea in the hot sun, telling them that God especially loves widows, and going to the forgotten but unforgettable. I sat at her feet and learned a deep and abiding love for the forgotten.

During the war of liberation, the civil war we went through as a family when I was 14 years old, my father went to this village to protect it from the invading army. They still remember that my mom and dad cared for them when they were desperate. Today I got an email from a playmate of mine, a Muslim background believer who has started a Bible study in that village that my mom first visited many years ago. Now there are 75 women (that represents 75 families) in that village that come every Saturday to learn about the Bible. A small house was built for them to meet in and they don’t fit. People lean in the windows to hear the good news that there is a God that loves the forgotten, the widow, the marginalized.

In that group, there are 5 widows that have no protection of a male authority in their lives. This makes them seriously at risk in a male oriented desperate community. Our plan is exciting. We want to drill a well on their property. Then all the village will have to show them respect and honor to get clean water. There are no wells around. The drinking water comes from the stagnant pools that are also the laundry facility, the outhouse and the people and cows bathe in them. It is no wonder that no one wants to go near this village. CLEAN water on a widow’s property instantly makes her a valuable commodity to the community. It is her water. She will be treated with respect so that everyone can fill their pots from her well. When she tells them there is a God that cares for her, the simple logic will be “of course”…look at what her God did….he brought her and us clean water.” …

…This will not be a well for well sake. Oh NO! This is a redemptive parable, an object lesson, a picture of Living Water….a wide open door that will continuely bring forth fresh living truths. You can trust these Bengalis to “dig deep” and make this well of fresh water count for eternity over and over and over again! They have already done what no one else would do. They went to the “yucky village” that only a mom and a child went to 45 years ago. I would love nothing better than to visit that village again with Living Water. So, I am shamelessly begging you to help my little widows who I am so fortunate and privileged to be a voice for. I love being the champion of those that no one cares for. But God does! He heard their cry and sent my mom, my partner, now you and soon crystal clear clean life giving WATER.

Let’s do this…NOW for the forgotten but unforgettable.

Privileged to be a voice to the voiceless:

Becky McDonald
President
Women At Risk, International

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Friends, it only costs $175 to put a well onto the property of one of these widows.

Will you help me?

If only 35 of us donate $5.00 each, we will together provide a physical well of safety and health… and open a door for many to hear the truth of the Living Water available through Jesus!

If 35 of us donate $10.00 each, we will together provide TWO wells.

Becky told me that there are actually 15 women on their list who desperately need wells.  If you can do more, please do.

Will you be part of providing a cup of clean water to MANY physically and spiritually needy Bengali people in Jesus’ name?  Can you spare $5 or $10 to not only protect and provide for a Bengali widow, but also to impact an entire village with the Gospel?

Click here to donate online through the Women at Risk, International website.

Under “intended purpose” mark your donation for “Wells for Widows in Bangladesh.”

I want you to be able to give quietly… but I would LOVE to have an idea of what is coming in for this project and keep our “blog community” somewhat informed as to what is happening.  If you feel comfortable, would you leave a comment or email me privately and tell me about your donation?

Current Total: $525.00!

Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory,

because of your love and faithfulness.

Psalm 115:1