The Scent of Water - Grace For Every Kind of Broken
* * * by Naomi Zacharias
The gospel is missing in action.
This book is the story of Naomi Zacharias' work and life with Wellspring International. You could call this an autobiography of her life, sort of, since she talks about some aspect of her personal life, not just her work with Wellspring.
What is Wellspring International? According to the book, Wellspring was set up "to research global needs for women and children at risk and to develop a process of due diligence to evaluate organizations seeking to meet those needs. Our mission is to facilitate financial support to meet such needs by providing donors the confidence that their gifts were managed with integrity and were meeting legitimate purposes." She details some of her work in this book, which is very interesting. This book is an enjoyable read. The work that Wellspring does is truly commendable.
Through the ministry of Wellspring, children who would not have been able to afford liver transplant, get it, prostitutes enslaved in the red light district in Amsterdam (where prostitution is legal), are given hope and opportunity to live a better life and much more. Through her work with Wellspring, Ms Zacharias travels to different countries on different continents to help meet the need of the less fortunate. Wellspring is doing a good job. While talking about her work with Wellspring, she also talks openly and honestly about some areas of her personal life especially her divorce.
While I applaud the work the author does through Wellspring, I do have one major issue with the book - there is no gospel message in it pages! As a Christian author involved in Christian ministry, the book seemed to lack the gospel message. In all the good that was done to the less privilege through Wellspring, there was no mention of ever sharing the good news of the gospel with any of them. Perhaps the gospel was presented, but there is no mention of it in the book. As Christians, we are called not only to minister to the needs of the poor and oppressed but also to preach the gospel to them. In His response to the disciples of John the Baptist who wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah or not, Jesus said to tell John that the "poor have the gospel preached to them." (Luke 7:22). Jesus is the only hope for the poor and the oppressed.
Also, the Scripture is replete with what a Christian woman should look and act like, so I found it very disturbing that the author who professes to be a believer in Christ, encourages women to read Jean Bolen's book "Goddess in every woman" to find out which " goddess archetype is prominent in her person." seriously?! She sees her own goddess archetype as Artemis and "Artemis pursues her own course and appears strong outwardly" Why this would even be in a book about a Christian woman and her work with a Christian ministry is beyond me!
I do not question Ms Zacharias' faith in Christ, I question her wisdom in leaving the gospel message out of her book. While everyone who reads the book will surely commend the work of Wellspring International, we should not forget that as believers, we have been called to preach the gospel in season and out of season.
Reading level: age 18 and up
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