Transforming the communities we serve starts with helping them meet their needs. No need is more basic or important than clean water. By helping provide villages with water, we have started new conversations with them about the Living Water of Jesus Christ.
It started in Barkurkha, where we asked local church leaders and community members what would make the biggest impact in the village. Their answer was clear: clean drinking water.
What the village needed was a tube well: a pipe that connects to underground water sources to bring the fresh water to the surface. The community agreed the best place for the tube well was at the center of the village, near the school. We collaborated with local leaders to raise funds for the project, then helped them dig and install the well.
Today, every time we walk through the village we see the difference this well has made. People young and old stoop over the well to quench their thirst or fill their buckets. To them, visiting the well is a chance to gather, to talk about their families and catch up on the latest news around the village.
Showing the community how we cared for their needs helped us build trust with local leaders, not just here but in surrounding communities. We were surprised when Muslim leaders from other villages approached us to help them with their own tube well projects. We followed the same process to raise the funds and dig the wells, and each one has become a focal point for these villages.
Gathering around the well has opened so many doors for us. What we tell people is that we care about water because we serve a Savior who is the Living Water. We share Christ’s words: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” Drinking from a tube well quenches your throat, but meeting Christ quenches the soul.