“There is no single technology or ministry that can meet every water need in Africa. We must work together,” said Dr. Spencer Bogle from The Water Project. Stephen Peacock from SonSet Solutions, Rich Arthur from Design Outreach, and a team of five mission groups gathered together to distribute 2,000 Gideon Bibles and install two new LifePumps™ at two Kenyan schools. The team’s first job was to replace an old Afridev pump with a LifePump next to an elementary school in the slum area of Kakamega. As the curious eyes of young onlookers watched, Rich and Stephen trained the Kenyan missionaries on the installation of LifePumps.
During the second pump’s installation, Stephen and Rich became overseers and watched the Kenyans work by themselves to get the second pump up and running. Everything was going smoothly until the pump hit an unexpected layer of silt. Unsure of what to do, Stephen and Rich were reliant on a South Sudanese team member, who had specialized in drilling wells as a private contractor. This African missionary gave instructions to the group and, within two days, the well was cleared and ready to serve the community. Stephen said, “Here was something that we were completely stuck on, but God provided a guy who was trained and knew exactly what to do.”
Stephen has consistently felt a strong sense of love and godliness in the African missionaries of Kenya. Many Christians in Kenya sacrifice their contentment and their own lives to spread the gospel both near and far. The missionaries’ hunger for God’s word and desire to place the Bible into the hands of their people have deeply impacted Stephen. “Our relationship goes further than just an engineering project,” Stephen said, “I was thinking about what sums up [our relationship with] these good folks in Kenya, and Romans 1:11-12 probably states it best: ‘I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong — that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.’”
Written by Kyela Seals