Source

It's a French word, you know: source. We borrowed it.

Here it can mean the 'well' or 'spring' that drinking water is drawn from. Even if local folks have city water pipes (they provide brown water about 50-60% of the time), they often continue to haul water for drinking/cooking from a more trustworthy source.

This month the preaching roster at our Congolese church has been focused on provision. Last week was about God's provision of manna in the desert. Kent was asked to preach today on Exodus 17 and the provision of water to the people. As he was preparing his sermon in between linguistics sessions, deadly cholera was making it's way into town.

Apparently, there was a cholera epidemic here in the 1970's that killed tens of thousands of people. Entire families disappeared. It is not a small thing that cholera is 'back in town'. People have been tracking it through different locations for some time, and it has now arrived. This morning sandwiched in between announcements about the youth mission trip and choir leader's meetings, there was also a page-long infomercial about hand-washing, vegetable preparation and other ways to avoid cholera. Seems we just got through the pervasive 'un-ease' about elections and now this?

It was the perfect time, as it turns out, to think about the 'Source de vie' we have in Jesus. Moses struck the rock and the people had the water to live. Not just any dirty water. Pure water. Life-giving water. They got life. Paul later explains that Jesus is that Rock. He is struck. We get life. For something that pure, we have to go to the Source.