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Day Six: Visiting Zowe and Euthini Villages

Since 2007, I have found sponsors for and facilitated 7 village well projects through CitiHope and WorldHope Corps. The mission team was able to visit five of these and hear a report on the difference fresh water has made.

Zowe Village: In 2007, Copeland had taken the mission team out to a remote village called Zowe where he had a UMC preaching point and mission. It was his number one priority for a village well, right next to the plot of land given to the church by the village on which to build a church. What a joy to re-visit the village and see that the borehole was installed and the well working beautifully. Half the group decided to stay overnight in Zowe and had purchased wool blankets for the camping experience. We were given space on the floor of a house and it worked out fine. We had time to play with the kids, visit a nearby village that did not have a well, and hike to the top of a mountain where the 360 panoramic view was breathtaking at sunset. Copeland’s missionary evangelist friend, McDonald, and his wife, fixed us a good dinner. A roaring camp fire outside the house kept us warm until bedtime.

Several of us also got up at 4:30am to make the climb again to see the bright and majestic sunrise. After breakfast we enjoyed a children’s program during which we presented our blankets to the ‘most vulnerable’ as determined by McDonald. Also presented over-the-counter meds to help replenish their clinic closet/pharmacy. Next year, I hope to return to Zowe for an overnight visit. We will need to bring more medical supplies.

Euthini Village: Last year, our mission team visited Euthini village with the hope of installing a well there. It is a very poor and primitive village largely forgotten by the world. And most deserving of their own borehole. Their only source of water is a shallow well that is contaminated. And a stream 1km away during the rainy season which is shared by all the animals (and thus contaminated). The nearest well is 4km away. Euthini is surrounded by four other small villages where Copeland’s pastoral assistant, Felix, does evangelism. They have a nursery school for 38 children in two half built brick buildings already serving as classrooms. A total of 500 men, women and children will benefit from a new well near the nursery school and proposed church site. A plot of land has been given to the UMC on which to build a church near the anticipated borehole. The village headmen (and one headwomen!) agreed to donate the sand, bricks and labor force for the project. And to collect a fee from every family for a maintenance fund for any future breakdown. They also plan to grow a community garden near the spillover from the well.

One of our mission team members agreed to fund the long-awaited Well in Euthin within the next few weeks.
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