A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, are two pictures worth two thousand words? 

 

I’m not sure, but during my recent trip to Africa, I was fortunate enough to take a picture that, when juxtaposed with another photo might combine to be worth a few hundred thousand words.

 

One picture is an image of joy and hope. The other is of despair and pain.

 

One is flowing with beauty; the other is stagnant with mud and dirt.

 

Two boys are drinking water. One from a new clean water well. The other from a brown puddle of sludge.

 

Both were taken in Mozambique.

 

In early August, I was in the rural Mozambican village of Nhangulo along with a team from my church (that included my wife and stepson). Our American missionaries Alex and Melanie Viana accompanied us, and our Mozambican Covenant Church leaders, pastors John and Maria Jone led the way. We were there to provide a hot meal, lead a VBS with the children, and inaugurate a recently installed clean water well. After all of the above was done, including serving heaping bowls of rice and beans to approximately 800 people, we were able to take a break and sit down for our own lunch. Serving hundreds of meals to people who struggle to eat that much food in a week was emotionally powerful. But seeing the new water well brought me the most joy. A main purpose of this trip was to capture photos of the well and video interviews with local Mozambicans about the water crisis they face.

 

The ministry I help lead, Life for Mozambique, has formed a new branch of focus called Water for Mozambique. WFM has been working, and more importantly, asking God for wells in Mozambique. We have a presence in nearly 600 Mozambican communities, and it is our desire to see each one have its own well. This was my first opportunity to see a water well in action, up close, and in person. I couldn’t have been more pumped. 

 

John kicked off the well’s inauguration ceremony by talking about how our goal isn’t to just take care of spiritual needs, but to also care of physical needs. Alex encouraged the community members to receive the well as a gift from God and to pause and express thanks to Him for remembering their physical needs. I then issued a charge for the people of the community to take good care of the well and to make sure it is in fine working order for a long, long time.

 

We were relaxing after our team lunch when I noticed some community women at the well washing dishes. This was my chance for some epic photos. I got some great close ups of beautiful hands under the clean water doing an everyday task in a now easier-than-before manner. I was excited for my photos. But then, shortly after returning to our table, I saw some children at the well. 

Photo op number 2, I thought.

Click. Images of little boys and girls filling buckets and washing dishes instantly saved to my phone. I was about to turn away, when a little boy of about four, sauntered up to the spigot like an old western cowboy bellying up to a bar. We locked eyes. 

 

He placed his left hand on the horizontal pipe. He bent at the waist, still staring at me. His bright pink shower shoes wet with the dripping water. Looking down, he cupped his right hand under the faucet and then he bent over even lower to drink directly from the water well. As he drank, he smiled, and he looked up at me again.

 

And I snapped his picture.

 

It reminded me of being kid myself, drinking from the garden hose after a fun day of sports and bike riding around the neighborhood. I thought about the millions of kids, not just in Mozambique, but worldwide who don’t have that privilege. But this little boy and the hundreds of others in Nhangulo now do. I thought he’s why we’re asking God for as many water wells as possible.

 

“Thank you,” the look in his eyes said. 

 

“No, thank you,” I whispered back.

 

On the bumpy ride back to town, I reflected on the photo of the boy and instantly thought of another picture, taken months ago by Pastor John. In it, another young boy, skinny and filthy, surrounded by dirt, is squatting before an orange-brown mud hole of a liquid that’s a stretch to call water. He’s in the process of bringing a white container to his lips. His hopeless stare is fixed on the distance, not at the camera or even at John. He looks lonely and afraid.

 

It's hard to look at. 

 

I thought, no, he’s why we need God to provide as many water wells as possible. 

Two pictures. One is a call for gratitude; the other is a call to action.

 

Seeing the water well in person was monumental, but it gets even better. The well is strategically placed next to our Covenant Church in Nhangulo. And what we learned from being there is that people are coming to the church because of the water well. To me this was completely unexpected. We just wanted to bring physical water to the thirsty people of Mozambique and God is using it to bring them to the living water of Jesus. Meeting physical needs is leading to opportunities to satisfy spiritual needs.

 

The day in Ngangulo was fantastic, but it was just one highlight of our trip. Another highlight was visiting a second community called Ceramica, which is next up to receive a well. I got to stand on the ground where the well is going to sit. We served another hot lunch and took some great videos of community members talking about how hard life is without water.

 

God has continued to provide in the seven weeks since returning from Africa. A well that was funded last year was installed in mid-August. The well for Ceramica is now funded. Another, slated for a community called Messica is also funded. And just this past weekend, a church in Duluth, MN held a one-day fundraiser for a well to celebrate its 135^th anniversary. Not surprisingly, because we have such a good God, the church gave enough to fully fund a well. 

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s two wells installed this year, and three more ready to break ground.

 

Lord willing, I’ll be able to visit these wells in 2027. 

 

Because I’ve got a lot of pictures to take.