Their life passed unseen by most people. Their children grew up. Life quietly continued, but then Samara began experiencing health problems. Persistent headaches, body pain and dizziness afflicted her. Her blood pressure often dropped to dangerously low levels. Sometimes it dropped so low she lost consciousness.
She tried to find help outside her village, seeking relief through extensive medical treatments. But nothing worked. For a year and a half, she suffered, unable to find a solution. Finally, desperate, Samara decided to try something different. Her relative, Shai, was a GFA pastor in a village about an hour and a half away. She knew that Christians prayed for God to heal ailments. Perhaps, if she asked Pastor Shai to pray for her, God would intervene in her life, too.
Hope at the Pastor’s House
Samara traveled to Pastor Shai’s home, where he and his wife welcomed her warmly. She stayed with them for several days, and while she was there, Pastor Shai prayed for her healing. He also shared Jesus’ teachings with her. During her time at Pastor Shai’s house, Samara had complete relief from all her symptoms—no dizziness, headaches or pain. After a year and a half of suffering, Samara knew this was a miracle. Jesus was truly God and the Healer! He was her Healer. Samara embraced Christ’s love wholeheartedly.
When it was time for her to leave Pastor Shai’s house, she went home with newfound joy. Not only had she been healed, but she had also come alive. She started making the hour-and-a-half bus ride to Pastor Shai’s church every week so that she could worship and fellowship with other believers.
Samara’s family couldn’t help but notice both her healing and her transformation. Nothing could stop Samara’s love for Christ. Even when the rainy season came, cutting off the bus service and forcing her to worship at home, Samara continued seeking Jesus. Inspired by Christ’s work in her life, Samara’s family also embraced His love.
Hidden Need Comes to Light
The year after Samara was healed, Pastor Shai started a fellowship in Samara’s home so she and her family could grow in Christ without having to travel so far to church. This small worship gathering grew as other villagers heard Samara’s story and also found hope in Christ. Eventually, six other families worshiped alongside Samara and her family!
Yet, despite their joy in Christ, there was one daily struggle that Samara and Keenan could not overcome: the struggle for water. For 17 years, Samara and her family had fetched their water from a stream about a quarter of a mile away from their house. The stream, connected to a larger river, was their best option for water—but it was far from reliable. During the rainy season, the stream’s water became contaminated as the main river overflowed its banks. And during the summer months, the stream dried up.
For nearly two decades, Samara and Keenan had suffered as two of the approximately 4 billion people who face water scarcity for at least part of every year. 1 Sadly, poorer communities like theirs often suffer the most from water shortage. In a 2019 report on the state of the world’s water, WaterAid reported: “The availability of water … is also affected by wealth, creating a vicious circle for the poorest and most marginalised people. Spending hours collecting water from an unsafe source that will make you and your family sick makes it much harder to earn a good living.” 2 These impoverished communities often do not have the influence they need to convince utility companies to serve their areas 3 or the resources to provide a solution themselves.
For marginalized communities, water scarcity turns a daily need into a daily burden, and the struggle wears on families. 4 In Samara and Keenan’s case, a well could have provided clean, reliable water and solved their problem, but the income they made from farming and raising animals wasn’t enough to pay for such a thing. And their village was too isolated to receive help from the outside.
Too isolated, that is, until their new church family came along. As Pastor Shai shepherded the growing church in Samara’s village, he discovered this family’s dire need for drinking water. Concerned, he and other church leaders arranged for a Jesus Well to be installed near the family’s house.
An End to the Struggle
On November 20, 2024, Samara, Keenan and their friends and family gathered with Pastor Shai and other church leaders to inaugurate the new well.
“Drinking water is essential for life,” one of the leaders remarked during the inauguration. “It not only quenches thirst, but also maintains our body’s health. It prevents diseases, supports bodily functions and keeps us energized. So, use it as a blessing of God.”
Samara and Keenan could only wholeheartedly agree. After prayer, they took turns pumping water, rejoicing together as the clear water flowed readily from the spout.
I am grateful to [the pastors], who were concerned about us and … [arranged] to help us install this hand water pump.
“For 17 years, we had been enduring this hardship of fetching drinking water from a river stream to sustain our lives,” Keenan said. “Till today, no one has come and asked us where we fetch drinking water or how we manage our family. I am grateful to [the pastors], who were concerned about us and … [arranged] to help us install this hand water pump.”
You Can Give Water to Suffering Families!
Across Africa and Asia, hard-to-reach communities like Samara’s suffer from the lack of accessible clean water. Often, they feel no hope for their water problems to be resolved—their community is too small, too poor or too isolated for anyone to see and help. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Together, with national missionaries like Pastor Shai, we can reach these suffering communities with the water—and the hope—they so desperately need.
Since 2007, GFA World has partnered with people like you to drill 40,000 Jesus Wells that help families like Samara’s. Costing on average $1,400 to install and placed wherever there’s a need, some Jesus Wells serve smaller groups of people—like Samara and her family—and some serve an entire village.
When you give toward a Jesus Well, you’re meeting a daily need, but you’re also providing a constant reminder that Christ cares for each person—no matter how isolated or poor they are. And it’s that hope that makes all the difference. Here’s how Samara explained it: “We struggled to fetch water for years. But now, the church and leaders have changed our struggle into joy and happiness. This hand pump has brought us not just water, but hope and comfort. My words may not be enough to express our gratitude for this gift, but I thank you!”
You can help provide that same hope and joy for others suffering from water scarcity and hopelessness.