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Wachara is a village in western Kenya, just south of the equator, not far from the Tanzanian border and halfway around the world from Gardendale UMC in Alabama. Wachara normally has two rainy seasons each year, and can grow corn, potatoes, pineapples, and cabbage. Rain and shallow groundwater from the pond that has provided residents drinking water for years. The residents share the pond with livestock and wildlife. Michael Agwanda, missionary and founder of Life for Children Ministry (LCM), grew up in Wachara and carried water from the pond to his house.

In 2007, Michael attended Gardendale’s Global Impact Celebration. He and LCM board member Dick Weber presented LCM’s program of caring for AIDS/HIV orphans in Kenya to the Faith Journey Sunday school class, which consisted mostly of 30-something married couples with children. They related easily to Michael and the children-based ministry. The members of Faith Journey asked him to identify the most immediate need for the ministry. Michael made a compelling case of the need for clean water in Wachara. Galvanized into action, the class raised $15,000 in six weeks. Gardendale sent the $15,000 to LCM, which contracted with a well drilling team to complete one or two wells in Wachara in 2008.

A driller began to install a well close to Michael’s childhood home, where public access was assured. As the well was nearing completion, unrest broke out after the 2008 elections. The fear of violence drove the well drilling crew out of Wachara. The wells were left incomplete, and there was still no clean water for the people of Wachara.

In 2010, a joint team primarily from St. John’s UMC (Aiken, South Carolina) and Wesley UMC (Evans, Georgia), sponsored a Bible camp and medical evaluation for LCM’s orphans in Wachara and Kisumu. They also visited the pond in Wachara and saw for themselves the terrible condition of the water. As they stood listening to Michael talk about the problem, God spoke to one of the team members from St. John’s. He said, “You wanted to know why I brought you to Africa. This is why. You can bring my people clean water.” Shaken but committed, she told her story to others, and within six months St. John’s and Wesley had raised $30,000 to renew the drilling effort.

Plans were made to drill in July 2011. A well site was chosen near the LCM-sponsored church in Wachara. With funds from St. John’s and Wesley in hand, LCM contracted with a driller. A joint team from St. John’s and Gardendale went to Wachara to help oversee the drilling. Arriving at the site this past July, the team was grateful to see a professional and well-equipped drilling crew ready to work. Drilling progress was rapid. Water was struck at a depth of about 40 meters (132 feet). The water is good and the well is highly productive. Now people line up at 7:00 a.m. to begin getting water, and the hand pump installed by the team is in constant use until 7:00 p.m. at night. Then the drillers moved a mile up the road to St. Mary’s school and drilled a second well. The second well is deeper and somewhat less productive than the first, but it will provide water to a school which had none. The team arranged for a second pump to arrive in Wachara in time for the August Bible Camp team to install it.

Water for Wachara has been a dream and a goal for many years, and now through God’s grace it is a reality.