Every day Ham Sokim would send her twelve year-old daughter, Srey Mom, to collect water. This was no easy task. Srey Mom would take two empty buckets and begin the walk along the long and dusty road towards the only water source—a hand-dug open well. The round trip would take an hour, made all the more difficult on the home journey when she would carry forty liters of water across her back.
“Even though I would often go three times a day, we still wouldn’t have enough water for my mother for cooking and my three brothers and sisters for drinking.”
A Willing Heart
Ham Sokim and her family are one of the 159 families who live in Anlong Chhrey, an isolated village in rural Cambodia located over nine hours from the capital city, Phnom Penh. The access road to the village is poor and there are no nearby school or health facilities.
God has a way of bringing people together, and it often begins with a willing heart to go and love the people in far away locations.
Pastor Sun Art was this man, who together with his wife and children relocated the family to Anlong Chhrey five years ago: “Before we came there was no one here to share the gospel; that’s why we came. When we arrived we saw the people believe in evil spirits, so we started to teach the good news of the gospel and teach them to follow Jesus instead.”
This is the kind of work that we get to be a part of at Neverthirst, a nonprofit Christian organization that brings clean and living water to many of the poorest regions of the world. One of the joys of this work is getting to see the body of Christ in action.
Our supporters generously fund the water projects and then we work alongside our implementing partners to research the most needy locations, both physically and spiritually.
Pastor Sun Art shares, “We were praying for water for a long time, and then one day God answered my prayer when Neverthirst’s local partner (Mr Samai) came to survey our village.”
A Rewarding Effort
Our local partner trained Pastor Sun Art in the project and he was able to work with the families in the village to raise the repair fund, allocate the land, and monitor the quality of the construction. Ham Sokhim shared,
I used to worry about my daughters safety when she would collect the water. There were often very big snakes, plus I would worry about the men in our village, as my daughter would walk alone. Now the new hand pump is so close to our home and this saves us a lot of time, plus the water is clean and we don’t get sick like we used to.
Pastor Sun Art and our local partner coordinated the project, which recently completed six new hand pumps, providing water to all the families in Anlong Chhrey. With a big grin he shared with us,
The water projects have been really good to help grow the ministry. We’ve been able to share the gospel at the hand pumps, and the answer to our prayers for clean water has made it so much easier to tell people about God’s love. My church has grown since we received the new hand pumps and it makes us happy to see people coming to church through the water project here. I thank Neverthirst for helping my Church and the community with clean water. We want to see every person know God’s love and the good news.
Joy in Discipleship
The joy expressed from Ham Sokhim is not just for clean water:
I’ve been a Christian since Pastor Sun Art shared the gospel with me through this water well project. I’m very thankful for what God has done in my life. I love God so much, I like to spend time reading the Bible so I can be a good example for others here to follow God’s Word.
Pastor Sun Art has continued to help local people in Anlong Chhrey and neighboring villages, and has now completed six additional water projects. He also disciples new believers, like Mr. Long, who has also now planted a home church. The journey of multiplication continues.
