THE LIFE-CHANGING IMPACT OF CLEAN WATER

How would your day look if it began with collecting water miles away from your home?  For many in Nigeria, it is normal to walk several miles a day to collect water.  During the dry months, people may reach a water source only to find it is dried up and most often full of harmful bacteria.  This is a common job for women and girls, often leaving the girls unable to receive an education.

The Chapel of Resurrection in Nigeria was started by university students.  It sits between a student campus of more than 30,000 students and two other Muslim communities of more than 20,000 each.  During a typical dry season (when there is no rainfall), everyone in these communities depends on water hawkers on donkey backs.  Students leave their classes to walk the streets looking for water to cook and wash with and to drink, and people in the other communities do the same. During the dry season, even a typical well dries up.  Many will purchase water during this time, which can be a costly expense.

In 2022, the church had a desire to drill a borehole on its property as an outreach to the three surrounding communities, including the university.  A borehole would guarantee consistent water, even during the dry season.  Through a partnership with Living Springs Fellowship, a North American Mission Board Send Network church plant in Puyallup, Washington, and a grant from Pure Water, Pure Love, this borehole became a reality.

The impact this borehole will have on the community is significant, and it goes much further than everyday drinking water.  In communities where there is clean drinking water, it is easier for developments like local health clinics and schools to take place because the potential staff for those developments know they would have safe, accessible water.  Above all, lives will be reached for Christ through sharing the gospel, and many will learn of the Living Water, Jesus Christ.

Pray for members of The Chapel of Resurrection as they share about the Living Water with many who will come to the church to receive water.  Pray the people who come would hear and accept the gospel.

World Water Day is March 22.  Visit wmu.com/pwpl to learn how you can be involved in the WMU Compassion Ministry Pure Water, Pure Love.

*Today 771 million people, one in ten, lacks access to safe water.

*Women and girls spend 200 million hours each day collecting water.

*Each year, 1 million people die from water-, sanitation-, and hygiene-related diseases.

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Water facts taken from water.org.

Reprinted from the March 2023 issue of Missions Mosaic, Woman’s Missionary Union, Birmingham, Alabama.  Article written by Lena Kappen. Used by permission. To receive this issue, or subscribe to Missions Mosaic, call 1-800-968-7301.