RIVER JORDAN WATER IN INDIA

Yes, water from the River Jordan in Israel did get to India - via a two liter plastic bottle that originally contained either Pepsi or Coke or some other soft drink! One of our faithful church members had gone on a packaged tour of the Holy Land and come back with souvenirs that included mud from the Dead Sea, water from the Jordan and pebbles from Jerusalem. Good reminders of an enjoyable trip. But she had other ideas for these souvenirs, good ideas. She and her husband come from a village about 50 miles from Chennai and they donated a piece of ancestral land there for a church building. I was asked to break ground for the laying of the foundation stone and so rather early one morning, last week, Pam and I drove to the village for the ceremony. A goodly crowd had gathered indcluding Hindus. I turned the earth with a shovel; bricks were laid in a shallow pit over which the memorial stone would be placed, and water poured in to settle the bricks. Then appeared the Jordan water. I had no idea that she had brougnt this water from Israel and had a purpose for it. But with great ceremony I poured the water into the pit with appropriate comments and then


threw the pebbles from Jerusalem in. But what would the Hindus think? Invoking magic or claiming a miracle? So in my little exhortation I spoke of how the Jordan water was mingled with India water from the village well - in the way that Jesus the Son of God mingled with humanity becoming thereby the Savior of all mankind, regarless of who they were. The non-Christians were wide-eyed as they listened. We prayed for the project to proceed well and dedicated

the plot and the building to come to the Glory of God and to the extension of His Kingdom in that village. I emphasised that that place would be for the village a center of love - the love of Jesus radiating to all the inhabitants there through the Christians who would serve Him in that place.

So that is how River Jordan water came to an Indian village.

- Leonard