This is my fourth journal entry as part of the OCC Volunteer Discovery Trip. The material relates to the fourth day of actual journalling but publication here will not align to that actual day/date.

The other articles available for this series are:

1. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #1: Introduction
2. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #2: God First
3. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #3: 7 Days Before You Depart
4. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #4: 6 Days Before You Go 
5. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #5: 5 Days and Counting 
6. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #6: 4 Days – Not Long Now
7. Samaritan’s Purse Discovery Trip #7: 3 Days Left [this article]

Journal Guide

Start today reading back what thing you have written down in your journal the last few days. What have you learned during the last few days of writing in your journal, devotional time and prayer time? Hint: you may want to journal your thoughts on this.

READ JOHN 4:4-26, 39-42

4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”

16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.

17 “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.

Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— 18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”

 

Many Samaritans Believe

39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

In addition to making new friends for this Discovery Trip, I hope it has been somewhat educational for you. Not in the school kind of way, but learning that God is not just the God of your hometown. You see, just because you are going on a Discovery Trip, there are people around you – even before you go to “help in Jesus Name”, that need to hear of God’s love. God is the creator of all the people you are in contact with. They may not look like you, dress like you, act like you or speak like you, but God loves them as much as He loves you. He paid the same price for them that He paid for you, in the death of His son on the cross.

READ PROVERBS 14:31

Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but helping the poor honors him.

Close your personal devotion time in prayer by thanking God for creating you and all people and thanking Him for Jesus and His death. Ask God to help you remember that His love is for all people and help you to show His love to all with whom you come into contact with.

Write in your journal a list of 5 names of people you know that do not know Christ as their personal Saviour. Pray for them every day!

Journal Write-Up

It is interesting that as part of writing this day’s journal (late, mind you!) I had tested out a print run of these online XBOP journal entries. What I found was that directly printing out the webpages wasted a lot of space. To solve this, I have had to already go back and copy/paste all previous days’ journal entries into the Word document version. What I have decided as a result, is that I want to have a hard-copy print-out of all journal entries available during my 10-11 days of travel. So, while I may use the online medium to write up the original journal entry, up until Sunday (article #9), transferring a copy of the text into the Word document ensures my off-line version has a complete record. Also, while documenting a bit about these journal idiosyncrasies I will also mention that the seven days of travel will see me manage my journal write-ups completely offline in the good old fashion way of pen and paper! I will only transcribe these hard copies into the online format once I return, which is also why there will be a “gap” of one day’s journaling which will be published first without the write-up.

The journey of the last week has already been thought about on Wednesday evening when my life-group met up to hear about the two Cambodia missions team trips and pray for each other. Already, I had the opportunity to reflect on the three days of journaling. Being immersed in the experience of journal write-ups on a daily basis has been a good discipline. When you connect the dots between each day’s topic, you can start to appreciate a bit of the theme designed into the Journal Guide content. I have also found it encouraging and inspiring that outside and external to the journal experience/content, other materials that I have been reading and exposed to somehow all connects together. Today’s bible reading from John reminds me of recent news, emails and books that I have been reading. I have been trying to finish one book that I commenced reading over the Christmas – called Wind in the House of Islam. It contains lots of stories of where Jesus has been encountering people outside of the faith, demonstrating His divine miraculous nature. It is a good reminder, that we are powerless to “convert” or convince people of our belief/faith. Instead, it is God who changes the hearts of people.

Realising that God loves everyone and wants us all to turn back to Him can sometimes be a difficult concept for us to appreciate. God loves those we find hard to love. Even our enemies are people that deserve God’s love. When we start to realise that we have all fallen short of the glory of God and are sinners, deserving the penalty of death, do we begin to truly appreciate the immensity of God’s grace and love for every single one of us. Truly, God’s love is amazing, steady and unchanging. His love is indescribable, uncontainable and beyond our human understanding.

Whilst I have five people in mind, and some of them have in the past called themselves believers, I will withhold sharing their names here. It is my prayer that they will develop a deep faith and personal relationship with God our Father. Sometimes I hear of people who call themselves Christians but their faith and belief remains in the infant stage of development. I pray that these people will encounter God/Jesus and He will show them that He is real, and that He wants to journey with them. In this way, I find the wording highly appropriate that sometimes there can be people who claim to be Christian but, through their actions, words and lives do not show the fruits of the spirit growing within them. As Jesus has taught – “by their fruits you will recognise them” (Matthew 7:16).