village.

nico came one day and told me about a village that he had spent time at

with a staff member of his orphanage.  he told me that he wanted to 'serve his bicycle'

there.  he wanted to gift it to someone.  i asked that man to travel back out there

with us to do that.  he told me of the time he spent there with nico.

how the people living in the village had brought out a special mattress,

but when nico saw that the children only sleep on some leaves laid out on a dirt floor,

he insisted he do that, too.  he left without clothes as he met many who had none.

i've seen his kind, compassionate heart over and over again and it makes this

mama quite weepy--and proud, too.

so, we made the drive to visit this special, little village.  

i'm so glad we did.

nicolas was able to serve his bike and the whole family shouted with joy.

a bicycle is such an asset here.  for transportation, for school, for income.

what a gift.

the people of the village wanted to show me their well.  i was so happy that

they had a clean water well & i was excited to make the trek with them to visit it.

it is amazing what we take for granted every time we turn our tap on.  our shower on.

our hose on.  every time we go to the fridge and beautiful, clear, safe water comes out.

i wanted to see how they got their clean water.

 

 and then?  they showed me this.

their 'well.'

this is what this village bathes with.  cooks with.  drinks.

this is the only source of water for the ~550 people in this village.

this is their water.

 

 Lord, forgive me.  forgive us.

i can hear every excuse in the book.  oh, honestly, i could even give a good number of them.

but, there is no excuse that could reconcile us living the way we do

and these precious people drinking that.

there's just no excuse.

update: if you'd like to join in to help these precious people, click here.