When I was younger, I saw the commercials on the TV about how bad the water was in Africa. The commercials were 100% correct! But it’s not just in Africa, every place we’ve done mission work has tainted water. Every place!
In America, we take water for granted. We don’t even give it a second thought. Ever!
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to 2013. My first mission trip and we were headed to Malawi, Africa. I am going to tell you about the training I received from Dr. Gregg Zachery, the Sr. Assoc. Pastor at Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, Tx., at that time. He was our team leader.
What I’m about to tell you is not an exaggeration although you might think it is. Our bodies are used to chlorine in the water, a healthy dose of chlorine. According to Dr. Ross Collier, the former missionary to Malawi, Africa for 33 years, Malawi’s “city” water had 1 part per trillion in chlorine on a good day. That was the water in the green tanks on top of the houses and such. He told us this water was for our translators, their bodies were used to it. If we drank it, we would get dysentery or worse.
During the training from Gregg while still in Longview, we could eat any food on an American flight and have ice with our sodas. Once we left an American flight and boarded a Kenya Airways flight for example, we could only drink cold drinks with NO ICE. The water they used for ice was tainted, or possibly tainted. No uncooked foods could be consumed. No peeled fresh fruit could be eaten since it had been rinsed off in that very same water. Bananas could be eaten since they could be peeled by yourself. Oranges as well. Get the idea?
No ice in country during meals. Only bottled cokes. No salads, since they were washed in tainted water. ALL drinking water must be purchased locally in plastic bottles. NEVER refill any bottle. This makes for a long week. But wait, there’s more.
Take a travel size bottle of Listerine with you to the bathroom and leave it by the sink and your toothbrush. Carry a bottle of water to the restroom to brush your teeth and rinse your toothbrush with. Every makes a mistake and runs their toothbrush under the faucet. That’s what the Listerine is for since it has a high alcohol content. Stick your contaminated toothbrush into the Listerine and leave it till the next time you brush!
When taking a shower, CLOSE your mouth when rinsing the soap off your face or head so as to not get tainted water in your mouth and accidentally ingest some.
Some might think these rules are absurd. But every single team has had someone come down with dysentery or worse on each trip. How do I know? That’s been me about 5 times now by not paying attention. It’s always too late when you realize it.
Don’t wash your hands before you eat and if you do, use a healthy dose of hand sanitizer to eliminate the water born bacteria from the residue of washing. Always, always use hand sanitizer!!!
Always, always use hand sanitizer!!!
Get the BIG picture? When they say, “Don’t drink the water,” it’s not an exaggeration. Don’t!
If the villagers have wells, they generally have a good water source. The wells are deep enough to get past the 1st water which is always tainted.
My first trip on about the 3rd day as we were doing hut to hut evangelism, we would walk through villages as a team, then walk to the next village which might be a couple miles down the road. On that day we passed a “ghost” village. No one was there. Mud brick homes were everywhere but not a soul in sight.
I asked my translator, Dave, “Where are all the people?” Dave replied, “ They are all dead.” I asked how many had died and how. He said, “About 500 people had died at 2 different times. They died from Cholera in the water.” I asked how did that happen. His response has never left me.
He showed me a water well in the center of the village. That’s what caused the first half to die before the WHO (World Health Organization) showed up. They tested everything and found out that water was poisonous. They told the villagers not to drink from this well or it would kill the rest of them. So they threw some boards over the hole.
The WHO didn’t give them specific directions. They left and the villagers dug another well about 100 yards from the 1st well. What they did not realize was that they had tapped into the same water source as the original well. They should have dug a well at least a mile or more from the village.
A short time later, the rest of the village was dead. The WHO showed back up and determined that the same water that had killed half the villagers the 1st time was responsible for killing the rest of the villagers.
When you dig a well by hand, once you hit water you stop. Sometimes that water is good and sometimes it gets tainted or even deadly after a while. You see, there are no sewage lines, just holes for people to do what must be done daily. That leeches into the soil. Chickens and dogs and cows do what they do wherever they are at. It’s a free range system in Africa for the most part. When it rains, some of that debris washes into the well.
When you drill a well with equipment, you must find the right type of sand to filter the water. Roger Perkins, pastor of Memorial Baptist in Marshall, Tx., raised $5000 US to dig a well in Bwemba. They hit water at 30 meters, again at 60 but the sand wasn’t right (see the pics). Finally with one drill bit left at 93 meters, they hit water and the right sand! That well will run for many, many years. Maybe even decades. And it will never get tainted.
Water is the most important resource in all of Africa. People cannot live without water. But let me tell you what Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well-
John 4:13-14 says, “ 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Without Jesus, you will die twice. With Jesus, you shall pass from this lifetime into eternity with Him. All that is required is repentance and faith. Just believe!
