Do you ever feel like crying when you get water in your house. I do. Right now water is weakly coming through our pipes so that we can quickly wash dishes and take showers, and I feel a little bit of a lump in my throat. It is only the third time in the last two weeks to hear the sweet sound of water in the tubes. It is really hard to live without water. We felt like we had a Thanksgiving miracle this past Thursday, because all of a sudden in the middle of the day when we never get water, we received 1 1/2 hours of precious agua. Thanksgiving was going to happen anyway, but it was a relief to have water to clean with afterward. Not having water is a form of suffering. It is not persecution, but it is suffering, especially for a person from the United States who is accustomed to water on demand. It is something we have to deal with because of the decision we made to do medical mission work in this poor community, and therefore it is a consequence of our faith. And so this morning as I read my Bible wondering when water would come again, I turned to Romans 5:3-4 where it says “we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.” So I am trying during this Thanksgiving and Christmas season to embrace the formation of character in my life in hope that who I am on the other side of the suffering is a better reflection of Christ in me.