Water and the Word: Seeing What's in Front of You

Seeing What's in Front of You

The deeper you dive

into the LWW world

of clean water for all God's children,

the more your focus changes.

In the beginning, when your blueprint

for mission is formless -

or at least, loosely formed and blank -

things like trips, and budgets, and timetables

scroll across the screen like ducks

at a carnival shooting gallery;

and you want to get them

in a row, if not finish them off,

so you can cross a finish line.

Once you've ventured beyond

the paper and numbers,

you find yourself face to face with partners;

people with hopes, dreams, and needs;

you begin to see similarities

far outreaching differences.

These companions are tethered

to plans and dreams with you;

both of you, focused

on improving a community's future,

one batch of filtered water at a time.

It's usually not until you return

for reunions that your mind slows down

long enough to let you see what's been

in front of your heart all along:

children and families

in their homes and everyday lives,

doing a lot of the same things

you do in yours; only now,

because you're woven together

by water, time spent, and stories shared,

their dreams are raised

to levels you've always taken for granted.

Now, you see how

you've all been transformed -

by trips, budgets, partners,

and water, to be sure -

but on more visceral and spiritual levels,

by the faces, narratives, and dreams

now freely flowing through homes

and communities across the globe.

© 2017 Todd Jenkins