I just remodeled my office last week at the church and I came across an old picture that reminded me of the phrase, "...a cup of cold water." The picture was from 1998 and I was in District 14 of Addis Ababa, an impoverished area in the capital city of Ethiopia plagued with poverty, disease and death; in fact, the tuberculosis and HIV infection rate was well over 50% (the closest medical facility was miles away and simply not accessible for these hurting Africans). With past business experience in the medical field, I was asked to lead a team of doctors and nurses into this area to determine if we could provide some form of relief. After months of planning & negotiating, we convinced the government that we were humanitarians and really did love these people. Hence, we set up a temporary medical clinic to document our findings so we could put together a game plan to come back, build a clinic, train the nationals and within two years, provide a self funding, indigenous ran state of the art medical facility (…over 13 years later, I’m blessed to say this clinic is functioning with twenty beds, four birthing rooms, high-tech equipment and totally ran by Ethiopians!). The picture that captured my heart was Doctor Dan (from Yakima, Washington) treating a Muslim man who was fighting full blown AIDS; I remember my heart moved with compassion for this precious guy. I asked Dr. Dan if there was anything I could do to help. His comment was, “…Randy, there’s nothing we can do, he’s dying; if you have a long sleeve shirt to cover his exposed sores, that would be like giving a cup of cold water to thirsty man on a hot day.” You see, this fellow had oozing sores all over his body and in his poverty, he had no shirt to protect his upper body from the elements. Well, I ran to the taxi and quickly grabbed a long sleeve shirt out of my travel bag and gave it to Dan (I was actually in a suit at the time because I was about to be interviewed by the Ethiopian National Television crew on why we were in the country…). After putting ointment on his sores, Dan and Erin, one of our great students from our youth ministry, put my long sleeve, blue shirt on this man, said a quick prayer and hugged the man. With tears in all of our eyes, we said good bye as his family literally carried him out of our clinic – he did die shortly thereafter.
Well, years later, as I was looking at my old mission trip pictures in the midst of the remodel, I was surprised how that event in my life still impacts me. Yes, totally sad he died; and, yes totally blessed our work continues to this day. But, more impressionable for me, simply put: is that I am given opportunities everyday to provide a cup of cold water to those in need. Whether it’s speaking words of affirmation to a downcast friend, “…hey, I believe in you!” Or, taking food to a shut-in that is battling cancer – I have that privilege and I submit the responsibility to give a cup of cold water! And you know, the interesting thing, not only does this behavior mirror what my favorite Rabbi said years ago, “…its more blessed to give than to receive…” there’s a sense of accomplishment, a sense of – yea, I’m doing what I was created to do!
In short, why not today be proactive and intentionally look for someone you can give a cup of cold water to! Seriously, you’ll be blessed, fulfilled and glad you did! And I close with this, there's not a greater calling in life than that of investing your life into the life of others - and, one way to do so is to give a cup of cold water...
