T WAS A HOT FRIDAY MORNING IN JUNE, and Rosalind Akins had already distributed more than 200 bottles of water to homeless men and women in central Phoenix. For nearly two years, once a week, she had been passing out free bottled water to the thirsty souls who live in this inner-city neighborhood.

Tired and feeling the effects of the heat, Rosalind thought about her air-conditioned home and longed to be there. She packed the remaining six plastic bottles back into her vehicle and started for home.

“At first I thought it was guilt because I kept thinking about how good it would feel to be home,” she recalls. “Then I was struck with the thought of those last few bottles of water and how there must be someone on the streets who needed them.

“Now I know it was the Holy Spirit who led me to go back and give away those last six bottles,” she concludes.

A Providential Opening
One of those bottles of cold water went to a man who was thirsting for more than just a drink. The young man with the dark sunglasses was panting and perspiring as he reached for the small plastic bottle. As Rosalind handed him the bottle, he asked her which church had sent her to distribute water.

“You don’t have to be sent by a church to be kind to someone,” she replied.

Again he asked if a church had sent her to do this work. She ignored his question. But the thirsty man would not be put off, and pressed his question by asking, “What church do you go to?”

No longer able to deflect his inquiries, Rosalind replied by saying that her church was located near Seventh Street and Thomas, but she still did not give the name of her church.

After talking more with those who were willing to listen, and giving her cell phone number to those who might later need someone to talk to, Rosalind returned home.

Early the next morning the cell phone rang, and a man on the other end said that he would like to go to church with Rosalind sometime. After a short conversation she realized it was the young man with the sunglasses from the previous morning. She explained that because her church met on Saturdays, she was getting ready for church right then. She asked if he was still interested in going. The young man said yes. So Rosalind and her teenaged son went to pick him up and give him a ride to the church on the corner of Seventh and Thomas streets.

“I’m in charge of personal ministries this week, and I was wondering if I could use you today,” Rosalind asked as they arrived at the Beacon Light Seventh-day Adventist Church. “I’d like to put a paper bag over your head and lead you up front. Would you mind?”

The young man seemed shocked by the idea of being led around with a sack over his head, but he decided to trust the woman who had given him water.

A Real Live Object Lesson
Once in front of the congregation, Rosalind asked if anyone knew who the man was; if they knew anything about him. With his identity disguised no one could identify the man, let alone tell much about him.

“That’s the way we should always look at people, because that’s the way God sees us,” she told the congregation. “The Bible says that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart, and that’s the way we should always look at people.”

When she concluded her remarks Rosalind realized her new friend was still standing next to her with the paper bag over his head. When she removed the bag there was a gasp from the pews.

“That’s my son!” exclaimed church member Stella Liggins. She and her son, Ted, had been estranged and separated for years. Stella came up, and mother and son embraced right there in front of the congregation. Ted testified how he had received the bottled water from Rosalind and how it had helped him to decide that he was ready for a change in his life.

Since then Ted has moved into a transitional house for men, begun working, attended church services every week, and shared his story at several other Phoenix area churches.

Rosalind Akins’ “water ministry,” which began in 1998 with a 12-pack of bottled water distributed to people waiting for the bus, has flourished. Friends from several area churches, Rosalind’s children, and even a grandchild have joined her in helping to bring water to thirsty, wandering souls. About six months ago the ministry expanded by making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and giving them to the homeless in addition to the water. Since then donations of water, as well as bread, fruit, and sandwich items, have been received from those who hear about the ministry.

The Greater Good
Centuries ago Jesus sat with one of the castoffs of His society and said, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13, 14).

Last summer a group of dedicated Christians met at Rosalind’s home to organize for a more effective outreach to the marginalized inhabitants of their community. The group, ranging in age from 18 to 70, included male, female, Black, White, and Asian members from four Phoenix area Adventist churches. Organized under the name The Potter’s Hands, the group members are praying that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide them so they can be used by the Master to reach the wandering souls who are thirsting for the Water of Life.

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S. R. Morris is a public middle school teacher who lives in Glendale, Arizona. He and his wife attend the Maricopa Village Seventh-day Adventist Church on the Gila River Indian Reservation.