This week, as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and as I
walk around the beautiful Geneva Lake in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, I know that I
have much to be thankful for. My family, my friends, this beautiful home that
God miraculously provided for us and, based on a recent trip to Zambia, the
abundance of water that we have available to us here in Wisconsin.Reflecting back on my recent trip to Zambia, God presented to me something that I wasn’t completely prepared for. It seemed that the main theme of this trip was water. I have always known that water was an issue. On previous trips, I’ve seen the wells that are dug into the ground with used tires around them to announce their location and to keep debris from blowing into them. Sure, the water wasn’t the cleanest and safety was certainly a concern as many of them are not covered but there has always been water in them so the people of Chibolya at least had something. They may get sick from drinking it but maybe not, dirty water is no good but it isn’t necessarily a death sentence.
As I walked around with Issac, the headman of this
community, he took me to 4 or 5 of these wells that I’ve seen many times
before. This time, however, the wells were empty. No water for the community at
all. In November, Zambia is in the tail end of their winter. There has been no
rain since April or May, nothing to replenish the water table that has been
falling since the last time it rained. I never really appreciated the value of
water until I witnessed this first hand. Until I saw the wells, and the tanker
trucks delivering water from the capital city which, for whatever reason, delivered
the water to the communities across the road but not to the shanty community in
which we have been called.
God showed this to me for, what I believe, a very specific
purpose. Not necessarily to fix the problem but to show me that the problem is really
much greater than water itself. Why has nothing been done about this? This
isn’t a new problem for this community. Why hasn’t the Chieftainess done
anything? Why hasn’t the Zambian government addressed this issue? Maybe the
issue is too big for any of them to make any significant progress. Maybe their
resources are already spread so thin that they just can’t afford to do
anything. Whatever the case, something needs to be done. Or maybe, God wants so
much more for this community.
John 4:13-14 states, “Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks
this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will
never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.” NIV
This is my prayer for the community of Chibolya. That they
may thirst for the water of eternal life. That God would seek them out and call
them to repentance and to Himself so they may never thirst again. God is big
enough to meet the physical needs of these people and we will continue to work
toward solutions to ensure everyone has access to their most basic needs of
food (water) and freedom while also focusing on their greatest need of all,
forgiveness.
