Detour to Samaria

ONE OF US HAS A NEED THAT JUST ONE OTHER CAN MEET

“It was necessary for Him to go through Samaria.”

John 4:4 AMPC

I don’t see it in scripture, where it says that the Samaritan woman ACTUALLY GAVE Christ Jesus that drink of water that He asked of her. Perhaps, the rest of the story is written in another chapter, or book. And that He, The LORD of ALL creation, including that well, desperately needed to drink particularly from the waters at Jacob’s well…and yet John 4:4 said He had to be there. The ensuing encounter was so powerful, that the woman herself stopped her own pursuit of that commodity, perhaps until after the two days He spent ministering there… perhaps, were not told. This got me thinking…

A few weeks ago, we were in a desperate situation. My friend’s son Leroy was missing again, and we had been searching for him – literally day and night – for four nights and three days. I remember waking up on Friday to the search. His sisters would be at the house in which I live, under the watch of Njoki, Leroy and Shukri – of cause playing hectically with Giovanni, while the search party would head out… but where does one even begin to look for a child that is lost, especially in a densely populated neighborhood in a populous city like Nairobi? Especially when the child lives with a challenge that makes it difficult to communicate his need to others, beyond those who already know him. I was overwhelmed, heartbroken, perplexed, AFRAID and yet was called upon to be present, have FAITH and help. We passed through a school, a supermarket and ended up at CITAM Embakasi’s sanctuary – three ladies and two men. The female part of the search party spilt ourselves on the altar there, and just wept our prayers beyond words. I sat back, having already broken down earlier while trying to explain to the staff at QuickMart Embakasi why a thirteen-year-old could not just find his way back home, if he wanted to be home. The exasperation of this place.

In the sanctuary, I sat for a while somewhere in the middle and asked God to speak to me. Show me where He would have us go. Actually, He had already spoken twice – once to his father, on the first day of the search, and earlier that morning to his mother, the name of a place – Kayole – but we needed clarity. We had already been to Kayole. To the police station. On Wednesday. It was Friday. I heard God speak to me, simply, quietly two verses that seemed to have little to do with the situation found ourselves in – John 4:4 and Isaiah 46:4. So we went along that day. On our #roundiemwenda through other places except Kayole, where he had been found or where he had been sighted in our about four previous searches – South B, Tena, Greenspan, Tassia, Fedha….We found out later that evening, at about 10:30pm that he had been in Kayole that whole day. This was confirmed by a comment on the Missing Children Kenya’s post on him, and on my other wall. People had seen him being ejected from places in that area. We got there at 10:30pm and were there until 1:30am and again, the whole of the next day with a larger search party. ONE OF US, found him on the line to get a matatu to Juja…at 7pm that evening, in the CBD, and he is now home safe. EMMANUEL.

But God’s words to me lingered still. Why had God given me that verse? Those verses. What was He saying to me?

I am still learning from particularly John 4, even today. But as one who often seeks from and conveys help to others, I am learning that sometimes the one who asks of us, has more to give us than we could give Him. When God asks me to give Him something, it is often an opening to a teaching, an experience, a gifting that I would never have partaken of, if I had not stopped still, and just heard Him out. The One Who takes care of me, is permitted to ask of me, and while I stand thinking about how…ahem…’improper’ it is of Him to ask of me, He opens me up to a world that I would never have known about, a liberty that makes little of my current endeavors while paradoxically fulfilling them.

Listen today to the appeal. Your own salvation could be attached to it.

Shalom.