Past Letters

The Little Metal Thing (a true story)
    Sango, the trade language of the Central Africa Republic (CAR), is a very simple language with no technical terms; often the words coming out in a conversation tickle our fancies. Recently our boss, Jim, was in the northern part of CAR with some of our donors, watching a hand pump being installed in one of the poorest villages in that area.
    As the team was working on the newly poured cement foundation he overheard two grandmothers talking. They had been present 10 days previously, when the ICDI drilling rig had been drilling the bore hole for clean fresh water such as this small village had never seen before. (Their water came from a dug 20 ft. wide hole only about 15 feet in depth. Water would seep slowly into this brackish puddle and they would take turns gathering it. Often people would wait all night around the edge of that pool for a 2 gallon bucket of water.)
    As these ladies were discussing what the team was doing they were totally frustrated because it was obvious the men who were installing this “little metal thing” had no idea what it took to get water out of that hole! “Why,” the one grandmother said, “it took that huge truck with a huge tower on it all day of tremendous noise to get any water to come out of that hole. We sat right here all day that day and waited for the water those men had promised! When it finally came they let us all fill our pans and buckets with the most beautiful water we have ever seen in our lives but then they pulled up their machine and left, and we have not seen any water out of that hole since then!”
    “Now look - these men think that little bit of black plastic pipe and that metal thing are going to be able to bring water out of that hole. They obviously have never seen what it really takes to get water out of our hole!”
    The other lady was trying to defend the team and the white people along with the team, saying, “They really should know what they are doing and maybe we should wait to pass judgment.” But basically both ladies were totally dismayed with what was happening.
    About two hours later when the pump was pumping water out of the hole in the ground Jim took a pan of fresh, cool, clean drinking water over to them and told them in their own language, “Here is some water out of your hole from the little metal thing that should not have been able to get water out of that deep hole.” The look of shock and realization told it all as they realized he had overheard their previous conversation and understood it!   Where did this white man learn our language? Slowly and politely they asked how Jim had learned their language and soon realized that he had come to this country soon after they were born.
    They also soon realized that there were absolutely no hard feelings and Jim simply wanted to serve them, and share why ICDI came to give them fresh, cool, clean drinking water. He told them about another type of water: the Living Water that could dwell in them – Jesus, the source of our abundant life here and of eternal life forever. That was the reason the ICDI team was traveling in one of the most insecure countries in the world: to provide for them a chance to have potable water and an opportunity to understand who Jesus is and what He wants for them.
    “Thank you, mister for coming to our village. We hope never to have to go back to that hole in the ground for water because so many of our children and grandchildren have died because of that water.”
    PLEASE PRAY THAT THESE LADIES, AND THE OTHER AFRICAN VILLAGERS TOUCHED BY THE GIFT OF CLEAN WATER, WILL UNDERSTAND THE TRUE SOURCE OF ABUNDANT LIFE AND WILL ASK JESUS INTO THEIR LIVES.
    Thank you for your many prayers and encouragements for the work of ICDI in the Central African Republic.