Last week, my friend Reed Hoppe wrote a great article about me for The Mission Society's news feed. I hope you read it through my Facebook or Twitter feeds. If not, you can read it here. I thought you would like to see the next installment of the story.
Today was the big day in Buiyilli. The activity started early at the Pure Home Water office, as our staff assembled and prepared to take 58 filters to the village of Buiyilli in the Tolon District of Northern Ghana. We picked up Jason Von Behren, the American missionary who had identified the need for clean water in Buiyilli and raised the funds for the filters, and set off to the village. Over an hour later, driving down a VERY dusty and bumpy dirt road, we arrived in Buiyilli.
Upon arriving, the PHW staff set things up. This is what 58 filters look like all lined up:
The women started gathering as well. We had asked them to bring soap and basins of water for washing the buckets. We were expecting about 50 women, but had many more than that gather. You can see how poor the water quality in Buiyilli is - and I saw many women and children drink this water during the course of the day. When you are thirsty, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!
Peter (in the blue shirt) and Abraham (with the microphone) did a great job of demonstrating how to clean and put the filter together and how to take care of it properly. The village children were restless, of course, but the women listened attentively.
After the demonstration, I gave a small message on Psalm 115 and God's love for the village and Jesus the Living Water. I stressed to the villagers that it was not me or Jason that brought the filters to the village, but God who had heard their pleas for safe water to drink. I also told them that just as they will be proud to share the water from these filters with their visitors as a gesture of hospitality, so too they should share the Living Water of Jesus with their friends and visitors. Everyone that drinks the water should know that it comes from a God who loves the people of Buiyilli and give thanks to Him!
Afterward the women collected their filters, cleaned them and got them ready for use.
The women of Buiyilli wanted to say a big THANK YOU to the donors in Atlanta, Jason, Pure Home Water, and most of all to Jesus for the gift of safe water for themselves and their children!
It was a long, hot day, but finally we had all the filters cleaned and ready to be used. The villagers started heading for their homes, the women carefully carrying their new filters on their heads. And we climbed back in the trucks and started the long, dusty trip back to town.
But I intentionally didn't say I would tell you "the rest of the story" in the first paragraph. I don't know the plans God has for Buiyilli, but I do know that amazing things are happening here, as God brings His Light to a formerly dark corner of the planet. I am grateful that I got to be a little part of Buiyilli's story today.
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