A woman in a rural village in Ethiopia stares in amazement as water flows from the pipe of a new well, constructed through the efforts of church members in this East African country. For years she and her fellow villagers have used a contaminated pond as their primary water source. “I am tired of going to funerals,” Ethiopian minister Behailu Abebe said the woman told him. “I have been getting water from this dirty pond for so many years and getting sick. This is the first time for me to see clean water coming out of a pipe. Thank God that I am able to see this before I die.” In Ghana, church members have worked on well-drilling projects since 1987, said Josiah Tilton of Searcy, Ark.-based Ghana West Africa Missions. Since then, about 700 churches have been planted in northern Ghana — more than 45 of them in villages that were formerly all Muslim, Tilton said.

August 1, 2006