Thirst and Light and Kindness

Japan remains in our prayers …

“Offerings to the Unknown Dead”

photograph by Brian Brake
1964

Brian Brake (1927–1988)

photographer, New Zealand

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

John 4:5-42

Samaritan Woman

GLANZMAN, Louis S.

from Women of the New Testament

by Louis S. Glanzman

http://www.louisglanzman.com/samaritanwoman.html

You should not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain.
There are many forms of thirst.
~ William Langewiesche

I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,

the astonishing Light of your own Being.

~ Hafiz

Vicki had another birthday celebration with her Exercise Group (and me).

Tokyo, Japan

Friday, March 18, 2011

One week after the earthquake and tsunami

(Of course, they continue to have many BIG aftershocks.)

Front: Reina, Kei, and Junna Sakamoto

Back: Robin Alexander Sakamoto (their mother), Dottie and Jack Alexander

Celebrating Reina’s and Kei’s graduation from high school and junior high school respectively,

Kei’s arrival in Tokyo from Morioka, Iwate, and Dottie’s and Jack’s last night in Japan.

Kiyokazu (their father) and Goro-san Sakamoto are still in Morioka, Iwate.

Meet the Authors

Mount Vernon Country Club

Golden, Colorado

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Speakers:

Helen Thorpe: Just Like Us

Connie Willis: Blackout and All Clear,

Doomsday, and many other books

Marian, Lurlie

Rebecca, Sharron

Wild Animal Sanctuary

Our speaker at Rotary this week was Bonnie Mandell-Rice, the volunteer coordinator of the Wild Animal Sanctuary's speaker bureau. She has been volunteering in a number of capacities for the Sanctuary since 2003.  A retired attorney, she has been volunteering with wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and sanctuaries since 1976.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary has been in the news lately for rescuing 25 lions from circuses in Bolivia.

Below are some photos I took at the Sanctuary several years ago.

A wonderful sanctuary!!!

http://www.wildanimalsanctuary.org/news/bolivianlionrescue/bolivianlionrescue.html

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
~ Mahatma Gandhi

March 27, 2011 Third Sunday of Lent

Previous OPQs may be found at:      

http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

John 4:5-42

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

Exodus 17:1-7

Psalm 95:1-11

Romans 5:1-11

John 4:5-42