Clean Water

So, I said I would elaborate on the bore hole...so here goes. The group from the Vineyard Church in Cincinnati that has been here with us all week is connected to both Back2Back and our partner ministry Self Sustaining Enterprises (SSE). SSE has many different aspects to it, like helping create businesses, jobs, etc...but one of the parts is drilling bore holes so that the people of Nigeria have clean water. On Thursday we were able to witness one of these drillings. It is a process to get to the depth that they need for clean water, and while we were there we never actually got that far, but we did get down to the final meters. As of today, the village has clean water.
A lot of the disease in Africa comes from the fact that there is not always clean water to drink. There are tons of parasites and other diseases that people get because they have to drink from an unclean well. Their food is washed in it. They cook with it. And the result is exactly what you can imagine. So, clean water is a necessity if the people here are ever going to be healthy. For the past few days we've been doing a medical outreach and we saw first hand the result of poor sanitation and the consumption of unclean water. It is overwhelming.
But...there is hope. The hope is that with this bore hole, (and it is the 50th charity bore hole that SSE has facilitated!!) this village will have the water that leads to life. Not only that, but recognizing it as God's provision for them, they are able to share about the living water that God brings us through Jesus Christ. So it is not only for their physical needs, but it also translates to their spiritual needs.
While we were there that day supporting the drilling process, hundreds of people from the village came out to celebrate with us. There were children running everywhere, having the time of their lives. One of my friends, Mark, was walking toward the bus when one of the men we work with stopped him. This man told Mark that these children will remember this day for the rest of their lives. Then he said that he wished that he would have had a day like this growing up. It broke my heart. These kids...these amazing kids...will remember the day that the church group from Cincinnati came to spend the day with them. They will remember the games, the singing, the laughing...for the rest of their lives.
I was also able to visit a neighboring village that got a bore hole last fall. We got to taste the water and talk to the people about how it's changed their lives. People just kept saying over and over again how great it is to be able to be healthy...and that their kids are growing up strong. I am excited for this new village...that they too will have the opportunity to be healthy. What an awesome experience!! And I think about how Jesus offers us all living water...what an amazing visual for me now of what that looks like in our lives. What an amazing God we have to want us to be healthy (physically, spiritually and emotionally). I want to drink more of this water. I want to experience more of the abundant life that God has offered. It is truly amaing!