The dedication of Brian’s well was one of the most emotional experiences of my life but it was what took place after the well dedication that had the greatest impact on me. As Joelene and I were led from the well and into the village for a tour of the homes, Joelene looked at me and said, “I feel like we’ve just had another memorial service for Brian!” I looked back at her and replied, “Yes, but there’s something different about this one.” Joelene just looked at me with her confused look she gets after most things I say…so I tried to explain. “Last year we stood in a church and remembered the life of Brian. We spoke of things like hope and life; and while we believe these things to be true we found them very difficult to embrace in the midst of our grief and due to the fact that hope and life can be extremely abstract realities…now, a year later, as we speak of life and hope we discover that life and hope are looking back at us, we are hearing the voices of life and hope, we are feeling the touch of life and hope…those things that were once abstract are now quite tangible."

I have yet to meet a person that does not desire life that is truly life and have yet to meet an individual that did not value hope. Unfortunately, few people consistently experience life and hope…why? At Brian’s memorial service I quoted a line from the movie Braveheart: “Every man dies, not every man really lives.” I quoted that line because I felt it described Brain well…he truly lived. A year later, on a trip to Africa I began to understand what a life that is truly alive looks like…I began to understand hope.

One week before the well dedication I had the opportunity to meet Tumaini. Tumaini is a 13 year old girl from Northern Tanzania that my family has supported through Compassion International for close to seven years. In one of her letters to our family she told us that her family goat had just had babies. For a family as poor as hers this was a tremendous gift. She went on to write that she took the baby that was hers and gave it to the church she was attending. To tithe is to give 10%...Tumaini was giving an equivalent of at least 75%...if not more. I have served at Harbor Covenant Church for almost 9 years and at Community Presbyterian Church of Ventura for 7 years before that and yet it was not until a little girl in Tanzania held my hand that I began to understand what God meant when he told Abraham that he would be blessed so that he could be a blessing. Tumaini understood that she had been cared for so that she could care for others…she had been loved so that she could love…she had been blessed so that she could bless. The pastor of the church she attends told me that the day she brought her baby goat to the church as an offering sparked a season of generosity among the people. Hope was restored by a 13 year old girl. Could it be that a life that is truly life is a life that understands that we have been blessed in order to bless others?

As we prepared to leave Brian’s well an elderly man stood up and looked Bill and Joelene in the eye and tenderly stated, “You will be leaving soon but Brian will remain here…we will drink his water.” I doubt there was a dry eye among us...but the tears were different from the tears shed at the first memorial service. The tears shed then were tears of great pain and grief…these tears were tears of hope. People were provided an opportunity to live as a result of the generosity of people that were responding to the example of a seventeen year old that longed to be a blessing to others. You see, blessing is more circular than it is linear. As we care for others we end up being cared for…as we recognize how we have been loved we are spurred to love others.

As we drove away I glanced back and saw two women at the well filling up buckets with clean water and I smiled at how the economy of God works and I remembered a beautiful line from the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”:

“Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”