Villagers dancing ahead of well drilling equipment

The Clean Water Came

by World Hope International | Mar 20, 2024 | Clean Water and Energy, Sierra Leone

In February while on a trip to West Africa, we had the honour of watching our World Hope Sierra Leone Water & Sanitation team drill a deep borehole well for a village that had no access to nearby clean water. This well, funded by Canadian donors, has changed thousands of lives for generations to come.

As we watched the faces of the villagers observing the drilling team hit water and then insert the well piping, we knew they were processing this life-changing day as a historic moment for their village. We imagined if they were thinking:

The clean water has come and now our children will no longer die from preventable water borne illnesses.
The clean water has come and now we can grow a healthy crop.
The clean water has come and now we can send our daughters to a full school day rather than having them walk miles to fetch dirty water.
The clean water has come and now we can stay in the village to fetch water and avoid physical and sexual attacks on long, lonely roads.

Access to clean water, or the lack thereof, affects every aspect of people’s lives: education, safety, economic stability, health. Today we can testify that we met a village who are now dancing with hope that the clean water has finally come! Because water is life.

Members of a village celebrating as a well is being drilled for the first time.

Village members playing music and celebrating as a well was being drilled

The Jesus Film Brings Hope

In the villages that receive a deep borehole well, Wesleyan pastors visit and meet with the local chiefs and leaders and offer to bring The Jesus Film to the community. If community leaders agree, the team returns with the equipment and sets up. For many villagers, this is the only film they will ever see, and in it they encounter the Living God. At the end of the viewing, there is an invitation for anyone present to choose to become a follower of Christ.

The team does not leave it there, but they return and continue to have conversations with the people who responded and offer baptism and discipleship. New believers are also encouraged to become part of a local Wesleyan Church.

Jesus meets people in their needs, whether it is a physical, spiritual, or emotional need. The work of World Hope International is all about this kind of transformative, holistic work. Jesus says in Matthew 16:26, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” In villages that lack clean water, a well where clean, safe water is available feels like they have gained the entire world. But there is more.

We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to hear and make a choice to follow Jesus, the living water. Giving people clean water is so important to their physical need and offering them Jesus meets them in their spiritual need. Water: it is life.

“…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.” John 4:14 NIV