Living Water

So the Brook is doing this thing called Advent Conspiracy in December. I’ve been blogging like a mad man on this topic because I’m passionate about it. Why? Just read the email string below from a friend of mine who lives in Sierra Leone. He and I met in the D.C. area. Our church sent some mailers out to promote a series and Ayodele showed up at church. The next night Amy and I sat down with him and heard his story. When he left I looked at Amy and said, “now there is a man who has truly walked by faith”. Read his notes below and I think you will draw the same conclusion…


--- On Wed, 11/19/08, Richard G. Buckley wrote:
From: Richard G. Buckley
Subject: Greetings from your former pastor!
To: "Ayodele Warburton"
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 3:51 PM
Hello Ayodele,

I hope this is still a good address for you. How are you doing my friend?

I thought of you this week because our church is going to be taking up a special offering for people in Africa who live in places where the drinking water is very bad. This Christmas season we are challenging our church to step up and give above and beyond to help people have safe, clean drinking water.

We are working with an organization called Living Water International. You can read all about the project at
www.adventconspiracy.org

I noticed on the website that one of the countries LWI was focusing was Sierra Leone! Our church will be adopting this country to help. Since you are from there I was wondering if we could talk or get a short video of you telling our church what life is like in Sierra Leone. Let me know if you are interested in working with me on this project.

Where are you working now? Have you passed the BAR exam? I hope to hear from you soon!

Your friend,


Richard Buckley

Hi Pastor,
I am presently in Sierra Leone as i lost my only brother. He was buried yesterday. I am very much interested in doing the video or talk to you about the condition in Sierra Leone. I can be reached at 011 232 33 31 10 46.

I have not yet taken the bar exams as in February i had to bring my dad back to Sierra Leone as he was serious sick and my younger and only brother was the one taking care of him. But Pastor, it is well.


LIFE IS A JOURNEY

In the end, each of us will be judged by our standard of life, not by our standard of living;
by our measure of giving, not by our measure of wealth; by our simple goodness, not by
our seeming greatness.


Good day Pastor:

I want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I will try to get a short video from a camcorder and send it to you but let me but first let me answer the questions.

1. To God be the glory, my family went unscratched throughout the 10 years civil war. On the other hand, i lost some friends from college especially during the student demonstration when members of the military regime in collaboration with the rebels fired gun shots at students from close range.

There was also the economic hardship, when the rebels took over the city in January 1997 together with the military, there was hardly anything to eat, no form of transportation and no electricity at all.

2. The quality of drinking water is abysmal. There is water shortage in the capital city let alone the provincial areas and villages. In the area that my mum lives, water does not come to the house at all. Around midnight, my cousins will have to get up and to the public tap and queue for water. When the water is brought back to the house they have to fill out containers and barrels which they will use for the rest of the day. This is in the capital Freetown. The water that they will have to drink, will be put in a strainer to get rid of any dirt. I have been drinking bottled water since i arrived.

3. The people of Sierra Leone will welcome access to clean water. If wells are drilled and clean access to cleaning water is made available, it will go a long way to prevent diseases and sickness due to lack of clean water.

4. Please pray for those in power to have the fear of the Lord, as corruption is the order of the day. It is only when you have leaders that fear the Lord that they will be afraid to do certain things.

May God bless you.