Living Water

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Reflections of the day, by Brook Hinman

As the day began with the wonderful sound of Debbie’s voice ringing in my ears, “Oh little boy Brook, time to get up”, I felt myself lying in bed fighting the day. How is it that even when I’m in a new place with a day awaiting me full of new experiences and the opportunities, I still find myself giving in to the selfish desires of ME. Here I am in a wonderful place and I still feel like sleeping in and taking care of me. Luckily, Debbie is persistent and I felt as if I heard “little boy Brook” one more time as a 25 year old man, I was going to have to get back on a plane that same day! I love you Debbie

After a quick breakfast and a short waiting period for our driver to show up, we packed into our awesome Toyota AWD diesel van (America take note) and made our way to our friend Abbey’s house to pick up Abbey, Michael, Usher and Eddie. We then proceeded to the home of Eddie, Usher, Edith and Derrick’s mother, a woman by the name of Hadija. Abbey, Debbie and Sarah spent time connecting with Hadija while Jack and I talked with the older children gathered there and watched Michael playing with the younger ones. Bethany spent the majority of her time holding Linda, the younger sister to Hadija’s four boys. Watching Bethany interact with Linda was a very cool act to witness, I will certainly be praying that God moves in her life to bring her the right child for adoption because you can tell her heart is ready. We concluded our time at Hadisha’s with an amazing time of prayer led by Abbey in the local Lugandan language. Even though I could not physically understand the words, my heart could feel the sincerity and I was able to just let my heart connect with his and offer up a prayer to our same, One true God, praying for the boys and their mother. It was an awesome experience for me and one I’ll keep in the old memory bank for quite sometime.

We spent the afternoon driving out into the bush to look at 20 acres that our friends Bob and Mary Lee Bolitho are eyeing for their expansion in Uganda. This was a eye opener for me and the highlight of the day. As most of you might not know, I spent the majority of 2011 fundraising for clean, deep water wells to be drilled in Africa. I had never been to Africa before but God spoke into my heart about the clean water crisis and I was hooked like a trout rising to a perfectly thrown fly on a still rivers waters. After our fundraising project was completed, I knew that I would be needing a trip to Africa to see first hand the plight so many people face. So there I am, in the middle of my trip to Africa, when I start seeing these young faces on the side of the road standing in puddles collecting water into their yellow jerry cans. This was the picture I had locked in my head all 3,300 miles I walked across the U.S., the reason why God spoke into my heart and I froze. I didn’t know how to comprehend what I was seeing. We drove on and continued to see more jerry cans, more children, a few wells and a few more puddles. We made our way to Bweya church and met some of the key people involved in operations there but those little faces I saw never left my mind.

I believed in the water crisis and knew it to be true even before i stepped foot into Africa but now it’s forever personally entrenched in who I am. God changes lives, He has changed mine and I am forever humbled that the God of the world would call me his own. I believe that I will continue to be changed while I’m here for the next few days and I pray that all God reveals to me will continue to mature me in the Word of the Lord, that my time here will enable me to continue fighting the good fight.

In all that we do, do it unto Him who gives you the breath of life and speaks life into your heart, until it overflows with The living water.

In Love Brook Hinman

Brook aka Little Boy Brook

Sarah and Usher

Bethany and Linda

Usher and Linda

Hadija

Bethany and Linda