Sitting by the Well - Paul Crichlow

Paul Crichlow, pictured on the right, is the Team Leader in Barbados at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. UWI Cave Hill is now getting ready to host some practice games for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2007 which the West Indies will host. Barbados will also be hosting the final.

Paul found out back in September that his co-leader was not going to STINT leaving him with a two-man team. So while its not Paul and Barnabas or Paul and Silas, it is Paul and Michael… Michael Toppin, another Barbadian, pictured with him.

While Paul and Michael are like the disciples sent out two by two, there are also some very dedicated female student leaders in the ministry. Paul writes, "At UWI Cave Hill, the Servant Leadership Team has really done a lot of work. They help organize and execute prayer meetings, and limes (get together) two Fridays a month at an apartment."

From January 5-8, a group of 8 students went along with them to a Leadership Training Institute in Trinidad & Tobago. Earlier this month for Valentines Day they had a promotion called "I Did It for You" where they gave out 90 hand made cards telling of Jesus' love for us. They also recently started an Ultimate Frisbee outreach. Paul asks us to please pray that it will grow and be successful.

Leading this year has been a faith-stretcher for Paul. He writes, "God is definitely teaching me the importance of relying on him for every need. I have seen my faith grow so much in the last few months."

Moses was another man of faith who found leading forced him into dependence. He was humble, a shepherd, called a friend of God, and a man who stood in the gap for others. I believe he also played a little Ultimate and a mean game of cricket in his day too. I have heard that as long as he held his cricket bat in the air, his team, the Wandering Jews, never lost. In Hebrews 11: 24-26 we see learn that the critical point in his life of faith was an identification issue; he choose the eternal unseen reward over the temporal seen treasures.

In Exodus 2:15-17, we find Moses in Midian after he fled Pharaoh and those treasures. He sat down by a well where he saw the seven daughters of Jethro drawing water for their father’s flock. When some shepherds came to drive the shepherdesses away, Moses did something that is worth a closer look as it relates to leading. (He also gained a wife out of this but that’s another story for another day.)

He sat by the well. > The Lord is called the Spring of Living Water. Sure it may be a symbolic stretch but his dependence on God is definitely different than when he took matters in his own hand in the preceding verses. Moses means 'drawn from water', so maybe this is where he should have been all along. Are you hanging out by the well? When you drink deeply from the well daily, you have something to give away and still have something left for yourself. What will you to make sure you are sitting by the well?

He got up. > He took action. He took a risk. Are you taking risks? Are you confronting injustice, sin and the enemy? Are speaking truth in love? Are you giving grace, extending mercy; and demonstrating love? Are you leading you team out? Are you leading them back to Him?

He rescued them. > There is an enemy who wants to drive you and your team from the well. If your team and disciples can’t draw from the well, they will have nothing to water their sheep by. Are you rescuing your team, your disciples and the lost from the enemy?

He watered their flock. > Notice they are the father’s sheep. You have been called to be the shepherd or shepherdess. If the Father's sheep aren’t getting watered, it’s your responsibility. Are you helping water the flock entrusted to your team? Are you making sure the sheep are cared for? (Like a horse, you can lead them to the water but its their responsibility to drink.)

Have a good Lent hanging out by the well, choosing the eternal over the temporal.