On June 28 howFar was awarded a $4500 grant from Pure Water, Pure Love.
The grant wil be used to supply water to the village of Kagina, Rwanda. It will also supply the Crimson Academy and howFar Ministries compound.
Kagina is a large village comprised of Batwa Pygmies relocated from their ancestral mountain top lands. It’s inhabitants, approximately 20 %, Christian, 30% Muslim and 50 % Animists, live on tiny plots of land, many as squatters, working land belonging to others and making crude pottery to survive.
We first engaged the Batwa of Kagina in December of 2008 with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Although we were told to leave the village and to never return, we persevered and within only seven months God had called many to Himself. A thriving and growing Evangelical Baptist Church was born. Since the first day the work in Kagina has miraculously advanced.
On January 14, we dedicated a new building that is the home to Kagina Baptist Church and Crimson Academy. The growing church of approximately 100 meets in the building. The school, four classrooms, is educating 150 Batwa Pygmy children in Primary 1 through 4. For the Twa, this was a monumental moment. They have had only several children from their entire village of over 1500 ever attend primary school and there are only two known Batwa in the region who have made it to secondary school.
Currently the Batwa, mainly children and women, walk about one mile down an incredibly steep hillside to a pool of water in a deep ravine. Then they carry the 30 to 40 pound jerry cans, filled with water, up the hill to their homes. It is an arduous chore, repeated daily, which takes hours. And, it is a reason that the parents use to keep their children from attending school. “Who will do their work if they are not here?”, one man asked.
Our plan is to run a water pipe down the hill to the natural spring water source. A gas generator will power a high velocity water pump to draw water up the hill. Water will be stored in a 15,000 liter water tank for community use and refilled once each day or as necessary.
The introduction of clean, easily accessible, free water to the Kagina Batwa Pygmy Village will be an incredible evangelism tool. As the villagers - Christian, irreligious, Muslim and Animists - draw water from the new tank, they will hear the life-saving message of the “Living Water”.
Pure Water, Pure Love is a ministry of Woman's Missionary Union and provides clean drinking water to missionaries and the people they serve at no cost to them.
