We had a team come here from KY Baptist
to dig a well in a village in our region.
When I first heard of this team I questioned in my head how impactful on
the Kingdom of God a well being dug would be.
After being approached by a woman in Nigeria years ago with the statement,
"We will all become Christians if you did us a well." I had a tainted
view of humanitarian efforts like well digging mainly because the lady in
Nigeria had a wrong view of Christian mission efforts in previous villages.
(Missions is not a game of number of converts, but a quest to chase darkness
with light, offer hope in the place of fear, and bring the God of the harvest
glory!)
I looked forward to God showing me how
He would use a well and clean water to reach a people with His gospel message.
We went to the village on Friday and
very quickly began digging. A man
donated a piece of his property in the middle of the village to put the
well. The team's plan was to manage the
well project and help the people dig the well themselves. Quickly there was a line of men waiting for
their turn to dig and within a few hours we hit water. A few hundred people gathered throughout the
day to watch the process and see what the foreigners were doing. As we would explain our purpose there we said
we were there because God sent us to them and the well is a gift from God. That night we showed them the Jesus
film. Hundreds of people watched in
amazement at the miracles of Jesus. They laughed, chattered about what they
were seeing, and became silent when they saw the Christ hanging on a cross. We
told them that in the morning we would meet to share more about Jesus.
Sleeping in a village is
interesting. My hammock was hung in some
mango trees with huge centipedes and monster spiders(but I had a bug net), and
next to the trees was a few zebu tied up and a chicken coop. There was a radio
that played till about 2 AM (probably when the solar charged batteries went
out), crickets, dogs, roosters, babies, snoring, and buzzing bugs are all apart
of village noises at night.
On
Saturday we ate breakfast and began the day in the community shelter teaching
about creation, Jesus, and the woman at the well. We made it clear this morning
that humans have a decision to turn from sin and follow Jesus or believe in
other things and live in sin which is all under the devil's reign.
All of the men were still very eager to
help and we dug to 28 ft. before hitting a rock we could not get past. We also started teaching the women and
children Bible stories on Saturday. I
was playing soccer with some kids and they thought my mannerisms for encouragement
(clapping) and celebration (arms raised and shouting) was hilarious enough to
mimic. Later during our second time of teaching Bible stories I was asked to
lead a song. Seeing as how the children were already good at mimicking me I led
a song with motions. "My God is so
big, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do. The mountains
are his, the valleys are his, the stars in the sky are too." After we sung it a few times I asked for the
song to be translated into their language by our Malagasy friend that came on
the trip. I told the kids that my God is bigger, stronger, and mightier than
any other thing or spirit. He created everything and he owns everything. I kept speaking of "my God" when
one of the children said through translation "your God is our God too."
Wow! God is at work! Later we heard a
woman singing the song because she had been listening from behind the children.
An English song sung by children that don't speak 2 words of English can make
an impact on their lives and the Kingdom.
We thought the children were probably tired after our team had shared
several Bible stories with them so we were about to dismiss them when our
Malagasy friend asked if they were ready to stop and the children said they
wanted to learn some more stories! They are eager for education and for God's
word. When we told the story we'd ask
them to retell it and one little girl stood up and retold the whole story word
for word. I was so glad the lady from the KY team came ready to do things with
and teach the children.
At the close of Saturday we put a pipe
into the well hole and were discouraged by what we found. The water was very dirty and it was not
replenishing near as fast as it needed to in order to have a sufficient well. When we explained the situation to the
people, the man who donated the land suggested we put honey into the well (this
village believes that if you put honey in the well the ancestors will make it
produce clean water). Our Malagasy friends
who came with us are new believers. They
told the man that this well is a gift from God and we will trust Him to make
the water clean, not the ancestors. The
team, and many other people, gathered around the well and we prayed that God
would make the water replenish and make the well clean. My prayer was that God would show that this
well was a gift from Him by making the water clean and replenish it. I prayed that the people would see His
miraculous power and that this story of God providing would be one they tell
for generations. Oh, that He would be solely
glorified for His gift, not a team from the USA or the ancestors. My heart was heavy for the people and their
deeply rooted faith in their ancestors (the devil's schemes). We prayed throughout the night.
Sunday morning we had a church service and
the two Malagasy men that came on our trip shared their testimony about God's
work in their life. These men are a part of the Bible study that meets at our
supervisors house twice a week. We were all encouraged as we watched and
listened to these two new believers be missionaries to their own people! Now it
was time to see if the well was producing enough clean water. We all gathered around and began to pull
tubes of Clean water from the well. Tube
after tube we discovered that the water level stayed the same and was
sustaining its clean water level.
Immediately without prompting the two new believing Malagasy men, they
went to the president (chief) and the man who owned the land and said, "We
didn't put honey in the well, and God answered our prayer for clean,
replenishing water." Praise the
Lord!
We filled in around the pipe with cement
and assembled the pump. We also taught
the children and women about keeping the well area clean and how to wash their
hands properly. Leah, me, and a KY team
member acted out a skit to show the importance of hand washing. When it was time to finally pump water from the
well we had a few hundred people gathered around and we prayed and thanked God
for the well. When the water came out of
the well we all clapped and praised the Lord.
We packed up our campsite and the tools
and said good bye. The president
formally thanked us with some other men and asked us to come back and teach the
Bible there.
God is at work, and I can't wait to see
even more fruit from this trip to the village!
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| Leading the song |
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| Brothers sharing their testimony |
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| Boys in the village |
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| Praise the Lord for answered prayers and clean water for this village! |
