Notes:

--The different kinds of waters need a visual aid to identify them throughout the skit-perhaps signs that the actors can hold-reading "Living Water," "Stagnant Water," "Contaminated Water" and "Flood Water".

--Player One should be female. Player Two should be male.

--If you would like to use more people, you can add more "players." Instead of just Players 1 and 2, you could have as many as 6 players. If you use additional players, be mindful that some of the Player roles are gender specific.

--The different kinds of water should speak in a tone and voice that help portray their character:

Living Water speaks with enthusiasm and compassion.

Stagnant Water speaks with a snarling, petulant voice.

Contaminated Water speaks with a sneering, threatening voice.

Flood Water speaks with a blustery, over-enthusiastic voice, like a person who never lets anyone else get a word in.

Narrator: (The narrator always speaks to the congregation as a whole.) The prophet Isaiah said, "You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail." Jesus said, "Those who drink of the water that I will give will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." God gives us living water and asks us to become living water. There are different kinds of water-water that brings life and water that brings harm. What kind of water are you? Are you living water? Babbling brook, singing stream, running river, deep cool well water?

Living Water: (Speaking to the congregation as a whole) Here, have a cup of nice cool water.

Narrator: Are you stagnant water? Scum on the top, just sitting there rotting, smelly water?

Stagnant Water: (To the congregation.) Hey, don't disturb me! I'm growing a nice, thick, greenish-brown coat.

Narrator: Are you contaminated water? Poisoned, harmful, polluted, toxic water?

Contaminated Water: (To the congregation.) I'll get you one way or another-you can drink me now, or I'll seep into your river or well when you're not looking.

Narrator: Are you a raging flood or a surging hurricane, overwhelming everything in your path?

Flood Water: (To the congregation.) Out of my way, I'm coming through. Like it or not, I'm taking over.

Narrator: God calls us to be living water, helping things to grow, helping people to live. What kind of water are you?

(Note: Throughout the rest of the skit, the Players and Waters may interact with each other or address the congregation-whichever feels most appropriate for the particular line.)

Player 1: I'm a woman in Togo trying to feed my children and pay their school fees. I could make beautiful dresses if I just had a little money to buy fabric and thread.

Flood Water: Here, we have a much better way of making clothes. Instead of money, let me ship you my old sewing machine. I need a new one anyway.

Player 1: But I can't use your machine. There's no electricity in my house or my village. If I could get a small loan with fair interest, I could buy fabric and thread. When I sell my dresses, I'll be able to pay the loan back and still have money to care for my children.

Living Water: Because of the Week of Compassion offering, we can give you a loan. In fact, we can help you and the other women in your village start a credit program.

Player 2: I'm a teen-age boy living on the streets in Brazil. If I had a way to make some money, I wouldn't have to steal to buy food.

Stagnant Water: He should get a job; he's perfectly able to work, he's just lazy.

Player 2: No one will hire me. I'm not very clean; I don't have any shoes; and people don't trust me.

Contaminated Water: They need to hire more police to control these kids. Let them spend a few nights in jail. That'll teach them.

Player 2: What I really need is a place to go-a center where I can get a good lunch and clean clothes. My friends and I could shine shoes for money, if someone would help us get organized and get the materials we need. If there was a place where I could learn new skills, I could start to earn money for my family and myself.

Living Water: Because of the Week of Compassion offering, we can do that. We'll start the kind of center you want.

Player 1: Hurricane Mitch destroyed my whole village in Honduras; the rains washed it down the mountainside. We are trying to rebuild with stronger houses.

Flood Water: We have cleaned out our closets and our kitchen shelves and our toy boxes and we are sending you a whole container shipment full of our used clothes and food and toys. Won't that be nice?

Player 1: But I don't need your kind of clothes or the kinds of food you eat. I only need a few lightweight clothes. We need large shipments of beans and rice. We need seeds and tools so we can replant our gardens and fields. We need simple things like soap, a toothbrush, a comb and brush. And our children would rather have a new stuffed animal, or new supplies for school. We need materials and volunteers to help us rebuild. The most helpful thing of all would be money to use as we need it.

Living Water: Because of the Week of Compassion offering, we can send you the things you need, people to work alongside of you, and money to help you recover.

Player 2: This is the second time our house has been flooded. All of our furniture is ruined, and the walls must be torn out and rebuilt. We can't afford insurance; we can't afford to fix our house; and we can't afford to move.

Stagnant Water: Why do people live in flood plains anyway? Serves them right for living there; they should know better.

Player 2: This is the only place we can afford to live. You have to have more money to live on higher ground. Besides, this was my grandmother's house, and I don't want to leave it. What I really need is materials to repair my house. I need people to help me make my property and my house more flood-proof and help me make repairs.

Living Water: Because of the Week of Compassion offering, we can do that-we can help you stay in your house.

Player 1: I am a young woman in Nepal, and I am expecting my second baby. The first baby died because she was too weak, and I didn't have anyone to help me when she was born. I want this baby to live and be healthy.

Stagnant Water: People shouldn't have babies if they can't afford them and don't know how to take care of them.

Contaminated Water: There are too many people in the world anyway.

Flood Water: We need to build those people hospitals and send them doctors and nurses.

Player 1: First, I just need to know how to stay healthy. What kind of foods should I eat when I'm pregnant that I can grow or get locally? Can you train some of the women in our village to be mid-wives? Can you help me learn what I need to do to keep my baby healthy after it is born?

Living Water: Yes, because of the Week of Compassion we can do all of that. We can help mothers and babies survive and be healthy.

Player 2: I'm a hungry child in North Korea. I'm 10 years old, but I look like I am 6. I stopped growing because my body doesn't have enough food. Sometimes all we have to eat are roots we dig up and leaves we boil to make soup. It makes my stomach hurt even more.

Stagnant Water: Why should I send money over there, when there are hungry children right here at home?

Contaminated Water: North Korea is a communist country. If I help feed them, it will only keep their government in power.

Player 2: I don't know much about our different governments. All I know is that my family, my friends and I need food. With rice, meat, seeds, fertilizer and tools we will be able to survive and start to grow our own food again.

Living Water: Because of the Week of Compassion offering we can help you survive the famine. We can send you food and help you grow gardens .

Narrator: (Note: During the narrator's last speech, the players and Living Water can encircle Stagnant, Contaminated, and Flood Water, symbolically transforming them into Living Water. This should be done without too much sound or movement, so as not to take attention away from the narrator. Stagnant, Contaminated, and Flood Water can be given new signs at this point that read "Living Water", or turn the signs they have around so that "Living Water" is printed on the back. They should stayed in a huddle until the narrator finishes.)

Jesus said, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink . . . . Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water."

Through the Week of Compassion offering we join with millions of other Christians to offer gifts of living water to people throughout the world who are striving for a better life for themselves, their families and their communities.

What kind of water are we? May the love of God fill our hearts to overflowing so we all may be living water.

(Come out of the huddle so that everyone is visible, and the congregation can see that the "bad" waters have been transformed.)

All: (Joyfully, with arms reaching out to congregation) Here, have a cup of nice, cool water!