Water of any kind is scarce in Burkina Faso.  The rivers dried up many years ago.

There are no lakes. People get excited when it rains and they see a puddle!

The kids run out to splash and giggle and dance in the rain!

There are not many wells in Burkina Faso.

And many of the ones there are old and crumbling.

Others have never been capped and thus are now contaminated.

Some people walk 1-2 miles to find a well that has not dried up,

fallen in or been contaminated.

In the summer of 2007 a former missionary to Burkina Faso contacted our missionary Lynn Kennedy.  He wanted to know if we were interested in or had need of some wells being drilled...Oh! Yeah!

The next few months Lynn researched and gathered information and statistics.

Once the project proposal was submitted...nothing happened.

(Nothing that was visible that is.)

In the meantime, a well was hand dug at our ministry site in the village of Kpakpara.

A few months later two of our Shattering Darkness Board members contacted Lynn saying a man from their church had donated money for us to dig a well!

On May 21, 2008, we finished capping this hand dug well in the village of Naro.

They had to dig 27 meters (87.75 feet) by hand to hit water!!!!!!

Costs are rising in Burkina Faso just as they are in America. Steel. Cement. Rope.

The well pictured in Naro ended up costing a total of $3,500.00

Nearly 700 people in the village of Naro are benefiting from having a well in their

village. Do the math and you will see that computes to $5.00 a person!  The cost

of a burger, fries and a coke.

Water. Clean, safe water. Something most Americans take for granted.

Something most Americans complain about having to pay for.  Maybe now

you think differently about water. In partnership with the Canadian ministry “Friends In Action”, 3 wells were drilled and 4 pumps installed in the spring of 2009. The cost was $8,000.00 per well. This computes to $13.33 for 600 people to have a safe water source within walking distance. For about the cost of one movie ticket in the United States.

Dr. Cheryl Decker has done medical mission work in West Africa since 2002.  She has treated thousands for malaria and parasites and has seen first-hand the poor health of West Africans from impure drinking water.  Life expectancy in Burkina Faso is age 46 for women and age 49 for men.

Dr. Decker has treated diseases caused by these parasites found in the unsafe water of nearly 5 million people in Burkina Faso:  Shistosomiasis, Lymphatic Filiarasis (causing elephantiasis), Onchocercosis, Trachoma, Intestinal Helmet.

Each well that is built through “Water4Life” provides cool, clean, parasite-free water for an entire village and also employs African well builders, benefiting the local economy.

Please prayerfully consider how God will use you to help us reach the people of West Africa with water – something Americans take for granted.

Thank you for praying for us and partnering with us as we seek to Shatter the Darkness of the lost in West Africa with the Light of Christ.  Everything Shattering Darkness does is bathed in prayer and is in done in the powerful name of Jesus Christ! John 4:13-14

© Copyright 2009 Shattering Darkness, Inc.

RAISING FUNDS TO PROVIDE WELLS AND SAFE DRINKING WATER FOR WEST AFRICA