Water from a Chinese Rock ("X" marks the well!)

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"He opened the rock and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places like a river." Psalm 105:41

"The wise find pleasure in water" (知者楽水) Confucius

True Story of the "The Prayer Well"
This miraculous true story about a Chinese Christian College during the 1930s underscores the need today for faith, as well as hard work and perseverance as we press forward with a "Millionaire's Heart" (Adapted from "24 Missionary Stories from China," by Basil Miller, 1948):

During the Japanese invasion of China, both Christian and secular colleges retreated west into the mountains. Waves of students and faculty marched thousands of miles into remote areas, literally carrying their college on their backs--books, clothes, even furniture. During the trek many were reduced to eating leaves, or bark off of trees. The sites they chose were often the poorest available (Xiamen University moved into an old temple in Changting).

Principal Hsiung moved his Christian college to the west of China in a village near Chungking (Chongqing). The conditions were appalling but they made too. But one serious problem was the lack of clean water; all of the water was filthy and contaminated, even by local standards. He tried many times to dig a well, without success. But as he later told a friend, Rev. E.P. Ashcraft, "I felt that God had the key to our need, and after much prayer I was led to go out in the schoolyard to a certain sport and draw a circle several feet in diamter. In the center of this I made a cross to mark the place for the well."

Locals laughed and mocked him, because it was well known that below the surface there was nothing but rock. Several people dug for four weeks, with no water; more and more people mocked, but no one encouraged Hsiung. Finally, after 4 months, the people complained that it was useless. But Hsiung said "No, I believe this is the place God told me to dig. In faith let us keep digging. Dig on until we strike the water."

By the end of the 7th month they'd gone down another 30 feet, but not even a hint of moisture. As the people complained, Hsiung knelt in prayer, begged God for water--and felt confident his prayer would soon be answered. And one morning, just as they were gathering for worship, a workman accidentally struck the side of the well up some distance from where he'd been working. So much water gushed out that the workers had to abandon their tools and be hauled out rapidly lest they drown.

This well provided not only enough pure water for the school but for the entire village. No matter how much was drawn out, it never lowered. When drought his the area and other wells dried up, this well continued to flow, and locals called it "The Prayer Well."

The "Prayer Well" suggests several lessons for today's troubled times:

1. Pray--but also plow. We should confirm everything with prayer, but sometimes the answer is just common sense. When the Japanese started bombing, Christian colleges headed for the mountains, just like the secular colleges. They did not stay put, bare their chests, and say "God will protect us." This would have been testing God, which even Jesus refused to do when tempted in the wilderness. We have to pray, but we also have to use our own brains, and our feet and hands.

2. Plow, but with direction. While the Christians beat a strategic retreat like everyone else, they did not do so blindly. Their Father led them to a specific village. But angels did not carry them; they walked every painful mile.

Once in the village, they were thirsty. They didn't just pray for God to give them water, and a cup, and to pour it down their throat. They looked for water. But when they realized there was no good water, and they had done all they could, they prayed to their Father for water, and He led them to mark an "X" right in the middle of the schoolyard, where all the locals knew there was nothing but rock! So why did God let them dig for seven months?

3. Delay is not Denial but Testing The villagers mocked Hsiu, but had he found water quickly, they may have dismissed it with, "Well, so there was water after all." But there wasn't water and Hsiu dug anyway, in faith. He didn't dig a month and move elsewhere, but kept digging in that one impossible spot--and the derision and mockery grew louder and louder. And this made it all more amazing when Hsiu not only found water, but found enough to care for the very villagers who had mocked him!

One of Hsiu's first sermons was of course about the water of life. I'm sure he also preached on Luke 11:11-13: "What father among you, if his son asks for bread, would give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, would give him a snake instead of the fish?...So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who keep asking him!"
4, Delay proves character. After Hsiu found water, the villagers saw that not only was Hsiu right all along but also that he was a man not just of faith but of character and determination. He believed firmly in his God, and after dirtying his knees in prayer he dirtied his hands with the shovel until the water flowed.

5. Delay brings delight. Had they found water right off the bat, even Hsiu might have taken it for granted. But water is sweetest to the thirstiest, and by the seventh month even the Christians rejoiced in finally finding water. The delay tested them, taught them, and eventually delighted them. This is a good lesson for today, when we demand instant gratification (which is the biggest reason for family debt).

Today we are in economic turmoil, but at least we are not being strafed by foreign bombers, as Hsiu was. We don't have to flee for the hills as Hsiu did. We are not, at least yet, struggling for even water. We are far better off than Hsiu and his little Christian college. If God could meet his needs, He can meet ours.

Thirsty? Then pray, mark an "X", and trust our Father, whom Isaiah quoted in 41:18 (NAS), "I will open rivers on the bare heights And springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water And the dry land fountains of water."

Related Blog: "A Millionaire's Heart"
The Chinese painting of Jesus is from: "The Life of Christ by Chinese Artists," The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 15 Tufton Street, Westminster, S.W.1 1940 Distributing Agents for the U.S.A., Krug Chinese Imports, 2227 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
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