Clean water and Living Water needed in rural Kenya - Mission Network News

Source: Mission Network News
Author: Katey Hearth

Kenya (MNN) -- Today is World Water Day, designed by the United Nations to raise awareness of the global need for clean drinking water.

Roughly half of the world's population experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year. Kenya Hope's Steve Holman says in remote Kenya, "They have to depend on the rains - or lack thereof - and go great distances, sometimes two or three miles down to the rivers, and bring back in plastic jugs what is pretty horrific stuff."

Kenya Hope installs community water systems to help alleviate the need. More about that here. Each system "includes a deep well, an electric pump powered by solar panels, a way to store it, and distribution points," Holman says.

"As many as 300 families could come to this water spot; we put this valuable resource inside the Hope Center."

By meeting urgent physical needs, Kenya Hope gains an opportunity to speak into people's lives long-term. Believers discuss the most important relationship anyone could have - a saving covenant with Christ.

"Nationally, Kenya has widely accepted Christianity, but in Maasai land, they're still steeped in the ancient tribal ways, and there's still a lot of oppression," Holman says.

Occasionally, sharing the Gospel looks like "placing audio Bibles in the hands of people that missed the opportunity to learn to read," Holman says.

"Sometimes, up to 300 people can watch the JESUS film, and then our pastors can go back again and again to home after home and teach the Gospel that way."

Providing a reliable and affordable source of fresh water is the single most life-changing thing that Kenya Hope can do, apart from preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Help Kenya Hope install more water systems here.

Pray for wisdom and discernment as Kenya Hope seeks to fill leadership voids and make future plans. Kenya Hope lost its executive directors, Dave and Joy Mueller, as well as Holman's daughter, Julie, in a tragic car accident last October.

"God's people have been generous, and we have funding for several more wells. Our challenge right now is determining the most strategic locations," Holman says.

"We'll never run out of community settlements that need and deserve a water system like this. But we want to put the resources in places where we also have an opportunity to build a long-lasting ministry."