When my family and I were in Uganda in July, we were blessed to spend part of a day in the village of Buyala, specifically at a Christian school named the Buyala Children's Home.  After performing for the students and staff, and being blessed with songs from the children we learned from the headmaster that the school has no clean water. Instead, a staff person brings five gallon jugs on his bike to a swamp 1/2 mile away. This water is then boiled to kill the bacteria. But it doesn't clean the water of dirt and plant debris. This is the water the students, many of whom live there, have access to.  While it's hard to wrap our comfortable western minds around, this is still living better than if the kids weren't in school. They would still have no clean water, and would be less likely to eat three meals a day. And, of course, they wouldn't be getting an education. 

But Sue, Rose and I quickly realized we,could make their situation better.  A friend from home, Jamie, had already done,well drilling fund raisers through the CMA denomination, and when she heard of this, she was all over it.  Today we spoke in a church about our trip for the first time since returning home. It was our home church in Casco, Maine. We shared the need for water at Buyala, and our vision to dig them a well.  Jamie was present to answer questions about the fund raising projects, and we had a jar out for donations. Our little,country church gave almost $700 toward the project. Praise God.

The total cost of the well is only $5000 American. While this had always seemed like an impossible goal in the little village of Buyala, Uganda, it is very doable, and we may even be able to get them to at least start the digging by Christmas. I'll keep you in the loop.

To see more, check out this site:  

http://cascoalliancechurch.com/Clean%20Water%20Project.html