The Gibsons online blog

As I sat talking to the village chief I couldn't help but notice the feet of his friend who was at the time mending a puncture on his bicycle.  Now I don't often make a habit of observing peoples feet, but this man's feet were kind of unusual, full of character, well used and I don't think he had recently had a pedicure.   I don't know if you have ever seen a dried up river bed who's mud base has been so baked by the sun that it looked like a miniature version of the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim, Ireland.  Well this man's feet were so badly cracked I couldn't help but stare at them for what must have been about 5 minutes.   I don't think this action was too offensive. 

As I headed home that afternoon I passed by where, in wet season, there is usually a small watering hole for the animals.  Today, however, it was as dry as the chief's friend's feet with it's all too familiar deep cracks.  The north of Burkina hasn't seen a rainfall now for about eight months, and still there is probably another month to go before the rains come.  As I chatted to the chief that day he was telling me how desperate the people were in his area for drinking water.  Many of the people from his village have had to move away, some have headed to the capital in order to find work, and others have gone with their animals in search of some form of water supply and grazing land, enough to keep their animals alive.

Generally speaking water is something that most of us continue to take for granted, and very few of us, if any, have ever had to face a serious water crisis such as this group of Fulanies.  Although one is not able to solve all these people's problems we may be able to aid in some of them.  One area I would like to try and make a difference in situations such as this chief's is to help fund and organise the repairing of broken pumps (of which there are many) or sinking new wells where there are inadequate water supplies.  There is still a lot of home work to do on this, but I believe it is possible to achieve in the not to distant future once funding is raised.

One of the exciting results to my visit to this village is that the chief gave us an open invitation to share the gospel with them once harvest time has come and gone.  This seems to be a fantastic opportunity to show the love of God in a very practical way in order to introduce them to the one who is able to offer them the living water.