(An account of a short-term missionary’s adventures installing wells in Africa. Six of eight parts.)
Meeting the needs of these fine Malawians for a near source of clean water, something most have never had, is agreed by all to be a critical and monumentally significant priority. But it’s not the highest one. The highest is showing the reality of the love of God and drawing people to Him. When Jesus urged his followers to ‘give a cup of cold water to a child’ (Matt. 10:42), he wasn’t doing so for the sole purpose of hydration. He wanted his children to know he ‘loved them and delivered himself up for them.’ (Gal. 2:20). When Marion Medical Mission volunteers show the villagers we love them enough to raise money, endure hardship, separate from our families and travel more than 8000 miles to help them with nothing expected in return, the prayer is that they respond by loving Christ and surrendering to Him.
So could the same spiritual effect occur if the wells were made to flow solely by the local workers? Of course. God works out his purposes with whoever he chooses. But I’m convinced Marion Medical Mission’s display of selfless giving in sending God’s people from a faraway land is a powerful example of His love and draws many to Him who would not have been drawn otherwise.
There is ample scriptural support for this. Peter, Paul and others didn’t just contract out to others the early church’s evangelical outreach and its distribution of alms. Sure, they trained and equipped distant preachers and reliable surrogates, but they themselves also went and endured unimaginable hardships - flogging, prison, hunger and cold - as well. This willingness to suffer put on full display the missionaries’ own belief in the power of God and His love. Jesus’s personal suffering for us without regard for himself is mirrored when MMM volunteers do the same for others. The two methods - personal participation and delegating responsibility to local people in faraway lands - are not mutually exclusive. MMM uses both to bring clean water to thirsty people. Both are effective uses of limited resources.
Further, there are practical reasons for using American volunteers to participate in this vital ministry. First, although the cost of each well is staggeringly reasonable - $450 brings pure water to 100+ people so that ‘their babies won’t die’ – the cost of doing many such wells is considerable. This year MMM will install 4025 wells. Do the math. That’s 1.8 million bucks which must be raised to pay for them all. We volunteers return to our prosperous American congregations and give our brothers and sisters a chance to dig deep to support this ministry.
Next, we volunteers help with many critical tasks involved in well installation. We aren’t just riding around in trucks like tourists on safari. Here are a few:
• We roll up our sleeves and labor elbow to elbow with the well-workers, loading and carrying supplies, measuring and cutting pipe, cleaning wellheads and helping to install pipes and pumps.
• We drive the workers and materials to the well sites. That may seem like a plebeian task but the wells are often a 2-hour drive apart on bad roads. You ask, “Can’t they drive themselves?” The answer is “No, too few of them can drive.” I worked with 25 Malawians – only one knew how to drive.
• We inspect and evaluate the wells, carefully monitoring just how MMM’s precious resources are used. Each well visit includes the use of advanced technology and analytics to make sure the wells are built to high standards. In the off season that data is analyzed to make sure existing wells will pump for years to come and to help determine future well locations. Closely read the letters of Paul and you’ll see that he eagerly sought similar news from his distant missionaries. We volunteers represent MMM’s similar interest in resource accountability. A responsible ministry strictly counts God’s pennies.
This mission trip was not a cake walk. The hotels were primitive and most lacked reliable running water and working toilets. Rolling blackouts often left us in the dark. Meals consisted of sandy rice, beans and stringy chicken. Driving was flat out dangerous. Medical care was nonexistent. All that hardly constituted the privations of St. Paul in his day, but the trip was a hard three weeks in the bush.
Next week: Life in rural Malawi
Jeff Weill is a senior status judge living in Jackson.
