“So he came to a Samaritan city….”  Thus begins our lesson for today. Jesus, having left the Galilee on his way to Jerusalem, is on foreign soil.  And since he has not made the required advance provision, he is alone, he is hungry, and he is thirsty.  Then Jesus meets a Samaritan woman.  She becomes, according to John, a disciple and the first evangelist, bringing others to Jesus.

I see some similarities in this story about Jesus to our trip this past week to Nicaragua.  We, like Jesus, were in a foreign country.  We, like Jesus, found unexpected hospitality, especially from the women of the place.  We, like Jesus, spoke to those who brought others to the Lord.  We, like Jesus, were hungry and thirsty, but found a deep kind of community.  We, with Jesus, gained as much as we gave – and then some.

As most of you know, 11 of us from here on the East Coast flew to Nicaragua early in the morning of February 15, just hours after Valentine’s Day, having celebrated the love of Christ for the world so fondly remembered in the life of the patron saint of love.  As we began the journey, our passion was not for loving partners, but for the children, for the women, and for the men of Nicaragua.  We were not disappointed: it was a life-giving trip for us, for our Nicaraguan neighbors, and, I believe, for our church.

Certainly our group members were revitalized.  Charles Morelli proved both compassionate surgeon and gifted evangelist, recruiting a Philadelphia podiatrist, Jeff Siegel, to join us. Jeff’s gentle spirit lifted our group as well as his patients.  Kerry Goodacre, the lone teen of the group, exhibited divine hospitality, interacting with generations above and below. Carol Cauley quietly nurtured all, especially including her daughter, Jillian. Jillian used her budding nursing school skills to assist medical teams headed by doctors Morelli and Siegel as well as nurse practitioners Susan Orand and Carole Smyth.  And, not incidentally, Susan and Carole started their own clinic in our barrio on Thursday.  Cathy Sullivan luxuriated in her role as grandmother to a village and sagacious elder to our group.  Amy Brelia managed logistics, transportation, and a thousand details.  Bruce Meighan brought both human compassion and a working knowledge of construction.  I was able to listen to our group members, take hundreds of photographs (to be shared later, and on the website), enjoy the smiles of children, and rejoice with Silvio, a guard at El Ayudante and pastor of a house church in the neighborhood where many of us spent most of our time, Carlos Fonseca.

You’ll be hearing more about Carlos Fonseca, for it is the place where we intend to invest time, energy and funds in building relationships with our Nicaraguan neighbors and building a school for the barrio’s children.  The school, and its adjacent community center and kitchen, are central to our calling to love God and our neighbors. Over coming months and years, Carlos Fonseca will be a ministry focus.  We intend to build holy relationships with God and with our brothers and sisters there. With this year’s trip, we have begun the journey together, and we have now laid the foundation, both literally and spiritually, for a new school for Carlos Fonseca’s children. Silvio’s wife, Esmara, will be the lead teacher in the preschool we are building to replace the shack she is now using as a volunteer.  You will hear more about Silvio and Esmara and their neighbors in coming days.

But today, Carole Smyth, Susan Orand, and Amy Brelia are going to tell you about their experience in Nicaragua over this past week.  It was an amazing journey for them, for us, and for the people we met.  We intend to honor God’s call to share that journey for some time.  Thank you, Carole, Amy, and Susan, for sharing your stories now.

[At this point one or more lay persons (Carole Smyth, Amy Brelia, or Susan Orand) from our Nicaragua trip gave a witness.]

Thanks, Susan and Amy, for your witness.  And thanks to each of you who made this trip possible, and whose gifts bought building materials and land and 76 school uniforms and so much more.  There is more to be said about our trip, of course – much more.  This morning I will add only a theological footnote.

The gospel for today tells the story of a rejected woman whom Jesus meets and with whom he interacts.  As often happens, the meeting means profound changes in her life.  In Jesus, this foreigner meets the living God, drinks of the living water, and enters a new life in her own village.  She becomes immediately and eternally different; so do we, when we accept God’s invitation to community – with the holy and with our neighbors.

Near the end of our time in the barrio of Carols Fonseca, Silvio, our host, brought Jose Alejandro to meet me.  Silvio said, “Pray for him and his family.  Just yesterday they became Christians.”  I promised that I would pray.  And I commit that we will remember Jose Alejandro and his family.  We will remember Silvio and Esmara.  They are no longer strangers, but the new neighbors we are beginning to know.  God willing, we will be strengthened, as will they, by the Christ we serve together.  Though we are separated by miles, in the love of Christ, we are bound eternally.

As you come to the communion table this day, remember Christ, and remember your new community of faith. Pray that Christ may be living water for you, for your family, and for our new neighbors in Carlos Fonseca.

Amen.