Rag Pickers Of Juarez
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series IV, Cycle A
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." (v. 10)
In a December 1995 Guidepost devotional, John Sherrill tells of the struggle to survive by some of the most impoverished people in Mexico. In the dumps outside of Juarez, Mexico, some of the destitute would scavenge through the garbage looking for anything of value. The value didn't have to be great; it only needed to be enough to bring in a little income. The Mexicans who scavenged the dumps were known as the "rag pickers of Juarez." Most rag pickers live in cardboard houses with no running water. In the sweltering heat of summer, it is not unusual for people to die of dehydration.
Across the border in the desert just outside El Paso, Texas, is a ministry called The Lord's Ranch. In an attempt to keep the rag pickers from dehydrating, they provide water to them. The ranch sits on an aquifer that supplies abundant water. At the ranch, the rag pickers could take two showers a week.
Mary Ann Halloran works with the rag pickers at The Lord's Ranch. One day several years ago, a young man with cracked, parched lips came to the back door. He asked for a glass of water, and Mary Ann obliged. The man drank the water, and with an intense look, he told her, "Never, never forget that water is a gift." Then he walked away.
Many Ann was stunned by the man's words. She stood immobilized by their significance. As she awakened from the trance, she realized that she should have offered the man something to eat. She ran outside to find him. She looked ahead and to her left and to her right. The desert was vast but open. The man was nowhere in sight. She went to her car, got in, and drove down the road looking for the stranger. He was still nowhere to be found. He had vanished.
Mary Ann pulled the car to the side of the road. She thought, "The man with the parched lips had come to bring a message. Not just to The Lord's Ranch, but to everyone. Water is precious ... it is a gift of God."
In a December 1995 Guidepost devotional, John Sherrill tells of the struggle to survive by some of the most impoverished people in Mexico. In the dumps outside of Juarez, Mexico, some of the destitute would scavenge through the garbage looking for anything of value. The value didn't have to be great; it only needed to be enough to bring in a little income. The Mexicans who scavenged the dumps were known as the "rag pickers of Juarez." Most rag pickers live in cardboard houses with no running water. In the sweltering heat of summer, it is not unusual for people to die of dehydration.
Across the border in the desert just outside El Paso, Texas, is a ministry called The Lord's Ranch. In an attempt to keep the rag pickers from dehydrating, they provide water to them. The ranch sits on an aquifer that supplies abundant water. At the ranch, the rag pickers could take two showers a week.
Mary Ann Halloran works with the rag pickers at The Lord's Ranch. One day several years ago, a young man with cracked, parched lips came to the back door. He asked for a glass of water, and Mary Ann obliged. The man drank the water, and with an intense look, he told her, "Never, never forget that water is a gift." Then he walked away.
Many Ann was stunned by the man's words. She stood immobilized by their significance. As she awakened from the trance, she realized that she should have offered the man something to eat. She ran outside to find him. She looked ahead and to her left and to her right. The desert was vast but open. The man was nowhere in sight. She went to her car, got in, and drove down the road looking for the stranger. He was still nowhere to be found. He had vanished.
Mary Ann pulled the car to the side of the road. She thought, "The man with the parched lips had come to bring a message. Not just to The Lord's Ranch, but to everyone. Water is precious ... it is a gift of God."
