What if...?

 Oh the things we take for granted...water.  In North America, when we are thirsty, we turn on the tap and put our glass underneath and drink.  When we are dirty, we go to the shower, turn on the tap and shower ourselves clean.  When we brush our teeth, we turn on the tap to let the clean water flow and brush our teeth, without giving it a second thought.  When our clothes are dirty, we put them in the washer and turn on the tap and a machine washes our clothes for us. 
What if....we had to collect rain water from our roofs and that was our only source of water.  What if we had to walk an hour to a lagoon to wash our clothes and then carry them back, wet.  What if we had to walk deep within a slippery, muddy cave to get water for our family.  These are the realities of the people we are serving. 

Last week we went to Sequachil, where we are working on a water reservoir to collect rain water for the school.  As part of our experience, we walked up to and into the cave, the only water source for this community of 60 families during the dry season.  The longer the dry season, the further back into the cave they have to go to find water.  We watched as men, women, children and the elderly walked with candles 15 minutes into the cave to reach a pool of dirty water. 

The path was not easy to traverse, as the rocks underfoot were covered with mud and stalactites hung from the roof of the cave.  We watched as they carefully filled their water containers, trying hard not to overly disturb the water and make it muddier than it already was, all the while holding their candle or flashlight so they could see.  It was a steady stream of people in and out. 

For the people of Seguachil, this is a part of their daily living.  They need water to survive, yet because it is so difficult and time consuming to get, they live on the edge of dehydration.

What if...we could help?   What if...we could make a difference? 

We are in the process of partnering with this community to learn from them the best way to help them have access to fresh, clean water.  At the end of May two engineers from EMI are coming out to help us do a study of both Sequachil and Sepalau, two of the communities we are working in, so that they can have access to water. 
What better way to demonstrate the love of Christ to these wonderful people than by helping them with a very real, practical need...that of water.  We are so blessed that God has opened up an opportunity to connect North American donors with the communities of Seguachil and Sepalau.

Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.  John 4: 13