From Brook Hill's elder, Dale Kendrick and his team in India. His team is serving in a village in Northeast India with our Neverthirst partner. The team is helping to establish the "adopt a village" program among women in this village. Through the installment of a clean water well by the local church, discipleship is taking place with each woman in the program. Read why we are working with Neverthirst to share not only clean water but living water to a village in India.

 

Tuberculosis. Malaria. Chronic pain. Mental illness. Skin diseases. Vision problems. Alcoholism. Inability to speak. Malnutrition.

These are just some of the things for which our team has been asked to pray for as we have visited some of the villages adopted by Neverthirst here in Northeast India. Our visits each day start with a two to three hour drive out from the city in which we are staying, to then be greeted by the entire village with singing, dancing, and gifts of flowers…and more flowers…and more flowers. The tribes in these villages definitely know how to execute a welcoming ceremony.

While our plan has been to primarily teach the women of the village, we have had opportunity at every stop to engage the entire village…men, women, children, newborn, and a variety of animals…with the story of Ruth. The women in these villages can easily identify with Ruth’s initial sense of loss, loneliness, helplessness, and hopelessness. We pray each time we tell Ruth’s story that the women would also come to know the joy, hope, and redemption that Ruth experienced, through a relationship with Jesus. While we have met several believers, most of the villagers are animists with little to no knowledge of Jesus.

After Ruth, the team teaches a lesson on basic sanitation and hygiene. Ideas like washing your hands before you handle food, washing your hands after using the bathroom, keeping clean water clean…ideas most in the West learn as children…are new concepts for most in the villages. This area is in a severe drought, and any type of water is a luxury…clean water is a mystery. One of the beautiful things about our partnership with Neverthirst here is that through the local churches, we are able to help sponsor an entire training program for women in the village to participate in for the next two to three years. Our prayer is that the provision of a clean water well, along with the training provided, will transform these villages for generations, and for the Kingdom.

There is still much work to do. After a presentation yesterday in a village with no access to water or electricity, and far from any type of marketplace, one elderly man stood and said, “This was a great presentation. But we are all already sick and desperately need medicine.”

Pray that the Father would overwhelm these villages with an awareness of His presence, provision, power, goodness, and joy. Pray for the social workers working alongside Neverthirst as they work through the daily tasks of teaching and training in the villages. Ask Him to do all this in a way that only He gets the glory.