Merry Christmas Church!

You have already heard that almost one billion people in the world do not have access to safe, clean water. But let me tell you about one person. Her name is Aylito Binayo and she lives in a small village called Foro in Ethiopia. Binayo wakes up at four in the morning every day to draw water and climbs the steep mountain back to her village with 50 pounds of water on her back. She has made this journey three times a day for 25 years. She spends eight hours a day fetching water.

Which is easier to say? That one billion people in the world live without safe drinking water or that Aylito Binayo has to spend 1\3 of her life fetching water? I really don't know...

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul urges the wealthy Corinthian church to make a relief offering to the Christians in Jerusalem. He writes, “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity... Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little” (v. 2, 13-15).

This chasm between the rich and poor today is greater than it has every been in all of history. I pray that our church will work to see the hope in what Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, that there may be equality. It’s a right to have clean water because without it, we can’t survive. I pray that this would be the heart of GCC: to celebrate this Christmas by giving sacrificially, not out of guilt or obligation but because we remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He died so that we could live.

As daunting as the water crisis is when 3,900 children die daily from water-borne diseases, let’s not lose hope. Remember Binayo? This past March a well was dug 400 feet deep and if all went well (hopefully) it will only be a three-minute walk from her door to a faucet with safe water.

Let’s remember the words of Jesus as we give this year: "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40)

Happy Birthday Jesus!
Merry Christmas GCC!