The 410 Bridge & H204K

Can you imagine walking several hours just to fetch water? How about with a three-year old child on your back? This has been a common daily chore for the women and children of Ngaamba.... until now.

As of November last year, one of the subvillages of Ngaamba has a brand new holding tank at the Itumbule Primary School, giving the people access to running water for the first time. This is the first phase of a project that will install water tanks throughout the other five subvillages in this community.

"Due to a five-year drought, the hearts and minds of the people were as dry as the land. Meeting the basic need of water has brought new life to our community both physically and spiritually," expressed Pastor Leonard, chair of the leadership council.

With Ngaamba being in a semi-arid region, their access to water is extremely limited. Hence, clean running water has always been a distant dream they never believed would come true. Through the H2O4K project, that dream is becoming a reality, and it has motivated the entire community to work towards continued growth and transformation.

As the leadership council worked to establish a plan for transformation, the only need they stressed is "Water! Water! Water!" They could not see past this desperate need for water.

In order to make a solid impact and build our working relationship in Ngaamba, a water project was initiated. Word that water was coming spread through the community like wildfire, and the people of Ngaamba were overjoyed.

They were so motivated to see this project through, that they immediately began digging trenches for the piping. The people dug two miles of trenches in two days!

These trenches would house the piping that would pull water from the existing boreholes that accessed the water underground to a holding tank placed in the town center.

This tank is one of six that will be strategically placed throughout the six sub-villages of Ngaamba for more convenient community access. There will be two more tanks installed in the second phase of the project, and will begin this Spring.

After much prayer and months of hard manual labor by two cultures united together in service, water is now flowing in the Karogoto Community.

"May I take this opportunity to share the joy to all those who took part and worked hard to make this project a reality. May God reward you in your abundant work," shares Pastor Harrison Wabiru, chairman of the leadership council.

The Karogoto River, which the community is named for, runs nearby this village at the bottom of a very steep landscape. For years, water has been taken from the river to meet the needs of the community. One of the first priorities the community identified was getting the water up out of the ravine to a central location that could be more easily accessed.

This vision resulted in a water project that would install a traditional Kenyan pump that draws the water from the river by the pressure of the river’s flow. Trenches were dug and piping laid to carry the water to a stone and cement water tank in the town center.

This water project relieves many of the women and children who made the challenging trek down to the river and back up carrying the heavy buckets of water each day. This is only a first step in implementing water solutions in the community. There are plans for filtration and treatment of the water being pumped from the river to the holding tank. After treatment, the water may be distributed to other areas of the community.

The efforts of many working together brought this project to completion. A service team from Parker Hill Community Church, a Community Partner to Karogoto; as well as, a service team from Buckhead Church traveled to Karogoto last fall to work with the Kenyan community digging trenches uphill to lay the piping.

"This was an eye-opening experience for our team. The work was challenging, but at the end of the day, we realized that it wasn’t about the task itself. It was about interacting with the people," said Matt Showers, Parker Hill Community Church.

On this side of the bridge, students from Parker Hill did a 30-hr. fast to raise funds for the water project. This fundraiser brought in $15,000, which was what got the project started.

"Karogoto is blessed in so many ways because of the part everyone is playing in our community. Bless you all!" expresses Pastor Harrison.

Ethos is a second venue at City Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was started in January 2007 and averages 90 to 100 people on Sunday mornings. Ethos has been called “City Church for an emerging culture.” When it began, it was a desire for it to be more than just another church service. The leaders of Ethos wanted it to be a place where anyone could come, despite their background, and feel welcome and safe. It has become a community of all kinds of people with many different backgrounds and ways of thinking. And, for some reason, it works. Whether someone has been a Christ follower for many years, has just recently begun following the teachings of Christ, or doesn’t believe at all, Ethos has become a place where we can all come together without compromising the message of the greatest story ever written.

In October 2007 we began a series titled Heroes...Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things. This series looked at five different characters from the Bible...Joseph, Esther, Caleb, Ruth, and Abraham...and how they used their ordinary circumstances to do something extraordinary. When planning for this series we began to think of what we could do to get people jump started on doing something extraordinary. Several of the leadership team had been to a Big Stuf Camp in the summer of 2007 and heard about the 410 Bridge and the H2O4K project. So it was decided we wanted to challenge the people of Ethos to build one well in Africa over the course of five weeks. It seemed like an enormous undertaking, but we had confidence this is what we needed to do.

So on October 21st the initial challenge was set. We showed the video from the Big Stuf Camps and asked everyone to step out of their ordinary box to do something beyond themselves. When the day was over we had $285. A rather slow start, but a start nonetheless. As the weeks progressed we raised more money, but nothing remarkable. Week 2 = $547. Week 3 = $396. Week 4 = $570. So at week 5 we still need to raise over $1500....in one day! We asked people to give up a meal, to give up two or three meals if that was what it took! If every person in the room on November 18th could give $10-$20 we would have enough! We had prayed. We had sought God’s voice and we knew this was where we needed to be and what we needed to do with everything He had given us. When we counted the money that day we had over $4000!!!!!! We had built a well in one day!! And with the money from the other weeks our grand total was $6096.13!

It was quite an experience to say the least! We challenged the people of Ethos not to let the extraordinary acts to end there. We strive to live life in any way but ordinary. So that in everything we do and say, and every place we go, we shine the light of Christ to all we come in contact with.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be extraordinary for Christ!!!

Sincerely,
Shannon Chapman
Ethos Pastor