Date: June, 2021

Name of volunteer(s): Entire Congregation

Location: Solomon Islands

Truthfully, it will be a few months until we can personally connect with the villages we are supporting. The COVID pandemic makes travel difficult. This is what we do know: that the deployment of the filters has already started and that the lives of families will be impacted by a group of Christian ambassadors, and therefore Christ himself. As is the case most of the time, the second half of the story is OUR story as a church. God allowed us to be a part of providing international support at a time when it seems most logical for churches to look inward. And our involvement was at a scale not based on our own reasoning, but on God's. He made a way for us to provide over 300% of our initial goal! That is nothing short of a miracle.

Why did we do this?

Pacific Life Church has long partnered with Give Clean Water building water filters that may be used in various parts of the world in the field. We approached the organization to help again. One third of the children in Pacific Island countries do not have access to clean water. Roughly 25% of all people in the Fijian islands also do not have access. While efforts have been underway to change that in many islands, the Solomon Islands have not yet received enough attention. Darrel Larson, their representative, was clear about the current need: funding was needed to bring clean water to three villages in a remote area of the Solomon Islands. Church leadership immediately recognized this as an opportunity to further His work in this area through Giving Clean Water. Also, this opportunity provided the Church a way to reach out into the field financially during a time that COVID restrictions prevented in-person support.

making an impact

The cost to bring water to an entire village through Giving Clean Water (https://givecleanwater.org/) is $3,000. Darrel informed us that Give Clean Water was attempting to support three villages. We started with an initial goal of supporting one of those three villages, at $3,000. Darrel was happy to receive that news, but challenged us to think bigger. After prayer and consultation, Pastor Steve established a goal of raising $10,000 to support all three villages in the Solomon Islands. This money would be raised through a campaign to the church over the month of June. God provided and we were able to meet and surpass that goal! What this means is that hundreds of families will have fresh, safe, and cheap water for most of their lives. This reduces the chances of life-threatening diseases like dysentery and makes it more likely young children will survive diseases such as malaria. By providing clean water, we are drastically changing the standard of living for hundreds of families in the Solomon Islands. These are families that will now more easily cook, clean, and hydrate. Give Clean Water is in the process of deploying these filters now and Pacific Life Church is targeting to send a group there in 2022.

Be encouraged

God will always demand leaps of faith, trusting in His provision. God's plans are often so much bigger than ours and He can bring these plans into action even in the middle of the most challenging of circumstances, such as an international pandemic.