In response, the European Union has pledged €250,000 in relief funds for Kenya’s drought-impacted communities.

One ministry working on the ground is Kenya Hope, which supports Hope Centers in Narok villages. Each Hope Center has a well for clean drinking water and provides meals and other community resources.

Bryan Haley, executive director of Kenya Hope, says, “This area really missed out on all of the rain and water that they rely on for the entire year. So a lot of…the communities that we serve are really dry and in drought right now.”

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

As the drought drags on, Kenya Hope is pivoting to meet people’s growing needs.

“We’ve increased the water supply that we are providing. Normally, we ask our centers to collect a small fee for water so that they can prepare for ongoing maintenance and things. But we’ve stopped that so that water is free and accessible to everybody,” Haley says.

“We’ve also increased the amount of…meals that we are providing so everyone in the community is still being fed during drought because obviously, without water, that means they can’t sell their livestock. A lot of their sources of income have dried up, literally, because there’s no water. So we want to make sure that people are cared for in the most essential way possible.”

Even as Kenya Hope responds to physical needs, Haley says the ministry’s mission goes deeper.

“The word hope in our Hope Center means so much more than just water. The Gospel is key to that as well…. We want to see the Gospel flourish in every area of life.”

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

As Kenya Hope meets peoples physical and spiritual needs, your prayers are an encouragement. Haley asks, “Pray for rain. The next rain season isn’t really until March, but we are praying for God to deliver water at any time and to sustain people during the drought.”

You can find ways to support Kenya Hope’s mission at kenyahope.org.

Header photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Kenya (MNN)—Kenya Hope exists to change lives in Kenya through the Gospel of Christ with a holistic approach to children, families, and communities. The single most life-changing thing Kenya Hope can do for the communities they serve, apart from preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is providing a reliable and affordable source of fresh water.

“They’re dependent on the rivers,” Kenya Hope’s U.S. Director Steve Holman says. “Right now we’re out of that four-year-long drought, but only God knows how long we are. But what I saw during that period was these rivers are not fit for humans to drink the water, and it means that young girls and women carry loads of water great distances, couple miles or more, to the home, and that they just live with that awful water.”

Kenya Hope can help communities by digging wells, providing electric solar-powered pumps and storage tanks on their Hope Center property, with distribution points to go outside of their Hope centers, as well as building concrete water troughs for animals to come and drink. 

“It means drinkable water, safe water, is accessible to the same girls and women who would carry it from miles away from dirty rivers. It means it’s right there, within walking distance of their house,” says Holman. “It really is life changing.”

It also provides a bridge for Kenya Hope to reach people with the Gospel, by first showing communities that the ministry cares about them as people and about their most basic needs.

“It’s wrong to not proclaim the gospel,” says Holman, “but it’s ineffective to proclaim the gospel and ignore needs. They provide a bridge so that people will be inclined to listen. They will want to listen to the audio Bible put in their hands. They will want to come and see the Jesus Film. They will welcome teachers in their homes and settlements to talk about who Jesus was and what he claimed to be and that really the gospel is about the God of creation, and all those things they need to understand in order to call on the name of the Lord to be saved.” 

Providing water does come with challenges. The technology used needs to be made in a way that will last; it requires people who are familiar enough with the technology to properly operate it; and it requires security to keep parts from being stolen. 

So how can we be praying for Kenya Hope? 

Holman asks for prayers for personnel: “To raise up a person or persons that can be rapid responders, to keep all of our infrastructures going so it fulfills the use, why we spent the money on it. We can have all the money in the world, which we don’t, but we need people, and God always wraps his message in people as they live out and love and are faithful. And I’m speaking particularly and mostly about Kenyan brothers and sisters in Christ, that’d be the right ones to join the team and serve and make all these things happen.”

Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

(Photo courtesy of Mueller family)

The new school will be named in memory of Dave and Joy Mueller, Kenya Hope’s former executive directors who died in a car crash in Kenya eight months ago.

Steve Holman, U.S. Director of Kenya Hope, says the ministry is still searching for new leadership. “We can’t replace Dave and Joy Mueller. They’re very unique. I would say they’re once in a generation. But we’re asking God to raise up other people.

“The Gospel is never advanced without someone somewhere paying a price. That means sacrificing your own culture and your own comfort and going and living close enough so that you have an impact. So that’s very much on our minds.”

In the meantime, additional responsibilities are being expertly handled by the ministry’s local Kenyan staff, such as Neddy Wafula, coordinator of the Widows Might program.

Holman asks, “Pray for Neddy. She’s a godly Kenyan woman. I’ve talked to her many times face-to-face in Kenya, and now it’s laid on her the administrative task of seeing to it that the cohorts of widows in six or seven locations are each moving along in the program, growing in their skills, and coming to know Christ and follow Him wholeheartedly.”

Neddy Wafula, Widows Might program coordinator [front right]. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

These community-boosting projects allow Kenya Hope to begin a Gospel presence there, and they open the doors for audio Bible distributions and JESUS film showings.

Pray that the Lord would guide the right people into leadership at Kenya Hope. Ask God to continue working through this ministry and ultimately lead more Kenyans to the Savior, Jesus Christ.

“We’re just reminding ourselves this is something that God is doing,” says Holman. “We’re asking God to do what only God can do — to provide, to raise up people, and to bear fruit.”

Learn more about Kenya Hope.

Header photo of Kenya Hope’s Emmanuel (Hope Center Representative) and Duncan (Hope Center Caretaker and Jesus Film Evangelist) at their newest Hope Center Oloshaiki. Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Water is critical in managing famine, epidemics, inequalities, and political instability. A recently released report by the Kenya Red Cross warns that “catastrophic” drought and famine will likely begin in five years:

Our analysis reveals that the frequency and severity of droughts and famines in East Africa have increased significantly in recent decades, with a clear cyclic pattern that suggests a looming catastrophic event in 2028-2035.

(Graphic courtesy of Kenya Hope)

In rural Kenya, “we are looking to put in between three and five wells in very needy communities that have no access to clean water,” Kenya Hope’s Joy Mueller says.

Kenya Hope identifies needs and eliminates corruption through an extensive planning process.

“We do have some criteria that communities need to meet because we want to make sure that the wells we put in don’t fall into the hands of the wrong people who might use them for personal gain,” Mueller says.

Besides installing wells, believers introduce villagers to Living Water: Jesus Christ.

“We have an unprecedented amount of audio Bibles that were given this year, and we are so excited to get these into the hands of many illiterate people who otherwise would not be able to read God’s Word for themselves,” Mueller says.

“We are so excited to see how God is blessing remote communities that have yet to hear about Jesus Christ.”

Help relieve physical and spiritual thirst through Kenya Hope.

“People can help by giving,” Mueller says.

“We use the funds to drill the wells and set up a complete system. It’s all done by solar, so [there are] no generators to run or maintain. We also provide a watering top for all their animals since [people here are] pastoralists.”

Header and story images courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Bart Maley says they serve communities in Asia, Africa, South America, and the Pacific islands. “Water is a key factor in all of our lives. It not only helps us to survive because we need water, but all of the things that we eat and survive on are based on a water supply to help them to grow, whether it’s vegetables, animals, or whatever type of things that people eat.”

Asia and Africa

These projects look different by region. In Asia, Wycliffe Associates usually helps capture spring water from the side of mountains. They pipe it down to the villages where people can use it for washing or drinking. Often this will include building a latrine, which many villages have never had.

In Africa, the ministry has to take a different strategy. Maley says, “A lot of that is well drilling or borehole construction. Many areas lack elevation change and the availability of springs in the mountains. Drilling water wells is a better solution.”

Wycliffe Associates often works with contractors to dig wells in the most remote and hard-to-reach villages. They also provide training for basic repairs on the water pumps. Maley says, “The key factor in that is community ownership. And that’s why we don’t just go in and do things for people. Community is part of all this. When the pump breaks down, they’ll feel it’s their pump.”

Living Water

As people get water, pastors often read portions of the Bible newly translated into the local language. People can drink clean water and hear about Jesus, who called Himself the Living Water.

Want to get involved? You can support both clean water and Bible translation here.

Header photo courtesy of Wycliffe Associates. 

“Within the next 20 years, not only will it be the most populated Hindu country in the world, but it will simultaneously be the most populated Muslim country in the world,” Kelley says.

“So, you have this collision of Hinduism and Islam kind of colliding there and it’s a tremendous opportunity for the Body of Christ to engage, share the Gospel because when you have that amount of darkness in one country, all the more opportunity for the light of Jesus Christ to shine.”

Kelley says it’s difficult to engage Hindus in India with the Gospel because there are thousands of villages with no Christian presence.

However, World Mission has established their work by engaging through different projects including starting water projects, giving their solar-powered audio Bibles, the Treasure, and establishing churches in remote communities.

Kelley recently visited national partners and communities in India and shares there are many stories of people coming to Christ through these projects.

Treasure Distribution

For example, World Mission national partners met a woman who had been bed-ridden for ten years due to a disease that had no medical treatment. One of the partners distributed Treasures in her village in the Hindi language and God healed her.

She became passionate about God and continued listening to the Treasure.

As a result of her testimony and witness of God, 300 people in her village were moved and gave their lives to Christ.

Even now, “she is using the Treasure to disciple people and raise people up and this is less than a year that she’s known the Lord,” Kelley says.

Church Planting

Kelley shares another story from when he recently visited India.

He went to a leper community.

(Photo courtesy of World Mission via Facebook)

“They truly are the least of these. They’re outcasts. Society as a whole doesn’t want to associate in any way with them. They are given the worst quarters of these communities, but they live together. There’s a real connectivity that they have with one another, and they have such a tender heart as well, and they’re just like anybody who needs to be loved.”

World Mission distributed Treasures among the community, shared the Gospel, and told them God loves them.

Acting in love toward this community, encouraged listening groups to form, “and World Mission is planning on planting a Church before the end of this year, right in the middle of that leper colony.”

Water Filters and Wells

Finally, World Mission visiting different Indian communities and drilling wells and distributing water filters that last up to three years.

Kelley says there’s plenty of surface water like rivers in India, particularly in the rainy season.

“But it is filled with bacteria and people are getting sick, and it’s killing people literally.”

This opens opportunities for World Mission to address physical and spiritual needs.

Part of World Mission’s strategy is to drill wells, distribute Treasures, and establish a new Church next to the well.

In one village, there is a Hindu priest authority. The only known Christian in the village is his son.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to put a water well in there and to establish a Church because this [son is] being discipled and mentored by our leadership team,” Kelley says.

World Mission is currently bringing Treasures into the community, and they are praying that the Hindu priest would come to know Jesus as his son has.

Right now, World Mission has a vision to drill hundreds of wells in India so they can share the ‘Living Water’ with villagers.

“These water projects are also paving the way and opening up doors for the Gospel to go forward. We just need to get people behind this financially and with their prayers.”

Support World Mission

Help support water projects and Treasure distributions here.

Also, pray for World Mission’s national partners who are facing a rise in persecution.

“There’s a lot of local authorities that are Hindu that have been empowered and emboldened to really persecute Christians and make sharing the Gospel very difficult,” Kelley says.

“We’ve had people physically beaten. We’ve had people that have been detained for periods of time, but the thing that’s amazing is it doesn’t deter people. It doesn’t discourage Christian leaders from sharing the Gospel because they’re motivated by something that goes beyond what this world represents. They’re motivated by eternity.”

Partner with World Mission by supporting their work in India through prayer and giving.

It’s a day that resonates with India Partners, a ministry whose vision is an India rich with hope, justice, and compassion.

Donna Glass of India Partners explains that one of their partners on the ground works in a lot of rural villages that have little to no access to clean water. The people they work with can often be marginalized for a few reasons.

She says, “They might live in a village that they don’t get any government support because they’re internally displaced people so they’re not people native to that particular state. And they might have been living there for 10 to 15 years, and yet their only access to water might be a hand pump that usually, almost always, dries up in during the summertime. And it’s also very laborious to bring water up from a water pump.”

And when the well dries up, they’ll go looking for water elsewhere. Often times alternative waters sources are also contaminated because of animal or human waste.

“So, not only are they having difficulty accessing the water. The water many of them do get ahold of actually ends up making them sick. And so, they lose work time because they’re ill. They lose money because they have to pay to go to the doctor and transportation and medicine.”

It’s just another contributing factor to their impoverished state.

Bringing water to villages

India Partners works with their partner on the ground to bring wells into the village that can go deeper to cope with the dry season and that have a motor to bring the water up. This means people don’t have to travel to get water.

Take Paalagumpu for existence. This village has been around for about 25 years, Glass says.

“Most of the people who work there are agricultural day laborers. Agriculture work isn’t necessarily available 365 days of the year. So, there’s about five months out of the year [where] they don’t have any work to earn anything.”

Paalagumpu (Photo courtesy of India Partners)

The village of thatched roofs and dusty paths has a single hand pump.

“In the summertime it becomes non-functional.  And they have to walk up to two kilometers each way to bring water from the nearby village… This population is closer to 400 people, and half of them are children. And their nutrition is low because of the lack of funding. They don’t have education or healthcare available to them, mostly due to their economic condition.”

Even when there might be opportunities for children to go to school, many of the children have to help out the household, whether it’s helping to collect water or watching their younger siblings while their parents work.

But it’s not just the children who are negatively impacted by the lack of clean water. The elderly also struggle.

In Paalagumpu there’s a man named Babu Rao. While he’s only 55, he’s considered elderly in this population.

“When you’re living in poverty… your body starts aging faster than it would here in the United States,” Glass explains.

So even when the hand pump is working, it presents a significant physical challenge to people who are older. They have to bend over to operate it and pump over and over again just to get a bucket of water.

In the summertime, it’s even worse. Not only do they have to travel a long way to get water, but then they have to carry heavy buckets or jars back home. It makes things considerably more difficult for people like Babu Rao.

Babu Rao (Photo courtesy of India Partners)

“Having a well right there in their village that can operate year-round is really of great need for their village and for him and for others like him in their village.”

India Partners is working to raise funds in order to install a new well in this village. With the motor-operated well, the village will also learn about water hygiene through a program called Water Access Sanitation and Hygiene Training.

“We talk about what is clean water. We talk about how diseases are transmitted through dirty water. Through animals,” Glass explains.

Even when there is clean water, there’s a risk of disease spreading through public water sources if people are using the same cup or not washing their hands.

And while Paalagumpu’s needs are so great, it’s just one of many villages in India in need of access to clean water. This World Water Day, consider contributing to an India rich with hope, justice, and compassion by giving the gift of water.

While a well costs several thousands of dollars to install, the cost usually breaks down to about $53 per family. The well will last as a clean water source for years to come.

To give, click here.

We’re thankful for those of you who prayed with us last month for the monsoons to come. While the rains have brought some relief, such as the drop in temperature, there are both short-term and long-term effects to consider.

Rain and Its Conservation

Photo courtesy of India Partners.

Donna Glass of India Partners says of the rain, “That’s not potable water, that’s not drinking water. That’s going to fill up the reservoirs, that’s going to help raise the groundwater levels so pumps [with] wells that have been dry hopefully won’t be dry any longer. But there are still many villages where they don’t even have a well in their village.”

For these villagers, it’s still necessary to walk miles to water sources. While these sources are being replenished, Glass says people still get sick from the dirty water.

Heavy monsoons long term will help farmers. But, Glass explains it’s not that simple.

“It should be a good year coming up. But that’s in the future. That doesn’t relieve the current issue of higher prices because of scarcity of food.”

And, as BBC explains, while the water brings greater crop potential for farmers, it floods the cities.

Glass says while there is excitement over renewed rainfall, future planning can’t be forgotten. Does the government have a plan for water conservation? Will they restrict certain crops that require ample amounts of water?

Sugarcane is one such water-heavy plant. But according to Glass, farmers continue to plant it because it has a high return.

Other activities are brought into question as well. Glass explains how Cricket, a major national sport and pastime in India, requires green grass fields which demand a lot of water. And even through this recent heat wave, the pitches remain green.

“There’s a whole mindset that needs to be looked at in how to manage the future water sources, even if they have really good rains,” Glass says.

The Water Wells Project

India Partners support the building of water wells in remote villages. Glass says, “When we bring in a water well, we also provide them with some training and water sanitation and hygiene that is Biblically-based training. So it’s a chance to introduce the Gospel into these villages.”

If the villages don’t already have a Christian presence, there’s an opportunity to send a locally trained pastor to minister to them and share about Jesus as well as reinforce sanitation practices.

Glass asks you to pray for clean water. Pray also that as these people take in physical water, they will come to know the Living Water who will not allow their souls to thirst again.

To assist with India Partners’ clean water project, click here.

India’s Water Needs

(Photo courtesy India Partners via Facebook)

Donna Glass with India Partners explains, “What happens in rural areas, especially with the changing weather patterns, sometimes the droughts they have dry up the water sources; and then you have these severe rains.The ground cannot absorb the water.”

The lack of water affects crops, irrigation, hygiene and health, drinking water, and food preparation. Many villages are facing life with no water, and for those able to find water, it’s too dirty to drink.

Sometimes local officials will put in simple bored wells operated by a hand pump. “That’s fine for first thing in the morning. But it doesn’t go deep enough. So the first people who can get to the well in the morning are the ones who get water for their families,” says Glass.

Other times, villagers will go to open wells and pull up buckets of water to carry home.

Either way, these people have to rise as early as 3:00AM to get water for their families, and the water they do find is nearly always too dirty to be used. But it’s all they have.

Thankfully, God has put both the accessibility and sanity of the water available to India’s people on India Partners’ heart.

India Partners Difference

“We have gone in and surveyed different remote villages to find the villages that are in greatest need of water. People are traveling anywhere from three to four kilometers each way to gather water,” explains Glass.

The journey for water isn’t easy. For some the only place to get water is from a river. The trek down to a river involves lots of climbing on steep slopes. It’s a strenuous journey–so strenuous, in fact, that the men have to gather the water. But if the men are spending their time gathering water to survive, then no one is working to bring in an income to pay for food and other needs.

(Photo courtesy India Partners via Facebook)

When India Partners finds these villages facing great need, it brings with it more than just an opportunity for clean water. It brings in a health and hygiene program that is biblically based, taking participants all the way from creation to the fall, to Christ’s death and resurrection, to when Christ returns for His people.

Glass elaborates on the program, saying, “We take them through how not having water kind of destroys our personal health. We get angry. It destroys our relationships with each other and with God. So by having clean water readily available, it helps to restore our body so that we can then focus outside of our body and then thank God for the water He’s brought to us.”

For many, this is their first introduction not only to          clean water, but to the Living Water of Christ. “As the well is put in, we tell them, ‘This isn’t from us. This is from God. God provided this well for you because He wants you to be healthy, to have good water so that you can be open to actually receiving the Living Water. It’s just an amazing transformation,” says Glass.

When India Partners leaves a village with accessible water, it also sends people back into the village to plant a church and disciple new believers.

“There might be one or two people who heard [the Gospel] during the health and hygiene training that gave their hearts to Christ. So that church will start with those one or two people as this pastor has come in…and then they work together,” explained Glass.

“That’s what we go in and what do: we build these foundations, not just for water, but for their lives [in Christ],” affirms Glass.

How You Can Help

(Photo courtesy India Partners via Facebook)

• Pray: Pray for hearts to be opened to Christ, for God to provide clean water, and for the funds for wells to come in.
• Donate: Without funds, it’s hard to provide clean water and the Gospel to people who desperately need both. Click here to donate!
• Go: India Partners is in the process of planning a trip to India’s rural villages later this year. Stay connected for updates. In the meantime, check out other trips India Partners is offering here!

India is ranked #17 on the Open Doors USA World Watch List (WWL). The WWL is a ranking of the top 50 countries where Christians face the most severe persecution for their faith.

John Rouster of Every Child Ministries says that as a result of the 20-year Kony civil war, the villages and infrastructure of Northern Uganda were destroyed.

ECM helps the villages of Uganda resettle and rebuild.
(Photo courtesy of ECM)

Over two million people were living in Internally Displaced People Camps (IDPs) where it was unsafe even to get food.

During this time, ECM helped the IDPs by sponsoring children and providing for basic needs. The UN helped provide food for the people while they waited for the war to end.

“When the government told the people to go resettle after the 2006 peace compact, they went back to villages, but there was no well and no village to go to,” Rouster says. “So we’ve actually helped with building houses and a lot of different aspects of helping the people resettle in the areas where their villages originally were.”

For water, the villagers have to travel many miles for unsafe river water.

In 2011, ECM sought to address this issue. They drilled two wells in Uganda, and this year they’re drilling two more.

It is a humanitarian aid effort, but Rouster explains that it goes much deeper than that.

“When we go into a village to help them with water, it just opens the door [so] that we can present the Gospel, and the people are very receptive.”

As the ministry works alongside villagers, Rouster explains, “We’re able to present the Gospel with the people. They really are very open to hearing about the Christ and salvation message.”

However, it isn’t an easy task to drill wells. “We are drilling the well by hand, and it’ll take one to three days. So far, we have tried five holes and hit stone. So we are on our sixth hole for today, and we’re praying that the Lord will give us a breakthrough,” Rouster said last Friday.

ECM uses hand drills because it provides more interaction with the villagers, and it is more economical.

ECM shared an update about the team on their Facebook page after the first day of drilling when two drilling heads had broken. “Please join us in praying that God will guide them to the right place to drill and give everyone perseverance until the job is done,” the post said.

Over the weekend, God answered in a very special way.

On the seventh try to find water, Rouster suggested they drill by a big anthill. Bugs need water, right?

And he was right. They had finally found water!

Continue to pray for the team as they look to drill the second well for another village.

For Uganda in general, Rouster requests, “Pray that the door would stay open in the North.”

Right now, Uganda is a great mission field. “I’ve not had a place yet where we have worked in Northern Uganda where the people have been unreceptive to the Gospel,” Rouster says.

You can also sponsor a child for a small monthly amount. Rouster says they are looking for sponsors for nearly 150 children. The sponsorship helps pay for the child’s education and reduces the financial strain on the family.