She Could Be My Child

The little girl stood out in the sea of children's faces, and Sara's eyes stopped when she saw her.

"She was just covered in this gray mud. It was layered on her and matted in her hair," Sara says. "I called her the 'Gray Girl' because she was just gray from head to toe."

Sara's heart melted at the sight of this little girl, and then she had a startling thought:
"She could be my child!"

Several years before joining Gospel for Asia's U.S. staff, Sara and her husband, Tom, had adopted their daughter, Ariel, from an orphanage in India. Now they were on a staff "Vision Tour" of their daughter's homeland, visiting the site of a new Jesus Well, when Sara saw the Gray Girl.

"I found out that the other wells in the village give salty water," Sara explains, "and they are not usable most of the time. But the Jesus Well is an artesian well. It's deeper, and the water is pure."

GFA supporters have provided dozens of Jesus Wells throughout India. They bring clean water and improve the overall health of the village by alleviating many diseases such as cholera. And because they are located next to or near GFA-affiliated Believers churches, anyone who comes to the well can hear of Jesus, the Living Water.

When Sara met the Gray Girl near the Jesus Well, her eyes—the only part of her not covered in mud—danced with excitement. Sara reached out her hand to say hello to the girl, but the child was not sure what to make of this visitor in her village.

"She finally got up her courage and reached out to touch my hand. Then she jerked her hand away quickly. An elderly woman scolded her, and she ran away," Sara recalls.

The encounter was brief. She never heard the girl speak or learned her name, but to Sara, this little Gray Girl represents a life that is common to millions of children in India—and one that could have awaited her one daughter, Ariel.

"I still pray for the Gray Girl, that she'll come to know Jesus," Sara says. "I often wonder, does she have a father? Does she get to eat every day? But with the Jesus Well, I know that she at least gets to have a drink of clean, fresh water."

Visit www.gfa.org/jesuswells to learn more about Jesus Wells.

Want to learn more about serving at Gospel for Asia? Visit www.gfa.org/joinstaff.