(Oct. 26, 2017 - by Martin*)  Just getting to the remote valley* in Central Asia is a feat of endurance and fervent prayer. In June our journey there took us more than 16 hours across roads riddled with potholes and deep ruts. Rock falls were a constant threat. At times the road became a river, and sometimes the river became the road!

Multiple times we ascended to 11,000 feet to cross treacherous, snow-covered mountain passes. We prayerfully drove across precarious snow bridges with thundering torrents of snowmelt beneath. This valley is really only accessible in the summer months since. The rest of the year it’s frequently cut off by snow. What a wild introduction to rural Central Asia for the three young engineers who accompanied me.

Enveloped in a cloud of dust, we finally arrived at our destination just after sunset. We had come to engage with this Muslim community of 1,500 people that is unreached with the gospel. Working with a partner mission organization, we were responding to the residents’ request for assistance in improving access to safe drinking water.

The need for potable water there was urgent. The residents depended on the contaminated river, muddy water in irrigation ditches or an unprotected spring (shared with livestock) for their drinking water. Women and children had the rigorous task of hauling heavy containers of unsafe water long distances back to their homes.

I had made the perilous journey to this isolated village the year before with our national partner to plan the project. Now our team of four was here to fulfill our promise of helping the locals build a new water system.

As a team, we were eager to get started, working alongside the townspeople in an effort to improve the situation. The three young engineers had spent several months studying and learning the local language. Now they were anxious to finally get out of the classroom and put their training into practice.

But even as our first day of work began, we quickly realized that there were going to be new mountains to climb if we were to see this project completed. It became immediately apparent that local politics had reduced community cohesion in the 12 months since my last visit. Due to a change in village leadership, some members of the community were not even aware that a project to provide clean water was about to start. Nevertheless, a handful of men arrived, committed to help, and the hard work got underway.

Living in the village allowed us to get a glimpse of what life in an isolated Muslim agricultural community is truly like. We stayed in the home of a Muslim “person of peace” who was our original doorway into this community. We enjoyed cooking and eating the local food, playing games with his children and getting to know his family.

We also experienced the difficulties of life in rural Central Asia. Nearly all of the team members got sick at least once. At times drunken men offered to “help” us, but instead got into brawls with each other. The commander of the border military guards was also suspicious of our presence, at times making life difficult for us and our hosts.

All of this served to illustrate that our battle was a spiritual one. The weapons of the enemy are discouragement, fear, division and confusion, and we faced all of these. Despite the onslaught, the project progressed.

By the end of our time there, together with the community, we had hygienically captured and protected a large spring. As a result, the water is now safe to drink. We also put in a pipeline through the center of the village and installed water collection points that significantly reduce the time it takes villagers to fetch water. As a result, the health and lives of the whole village, especially the women and children, have improved substantially.

Our partner is committed to an ongoing outreach among these unreached people and will continue to work in the community. If the local leaders can overcome internal divisions, we hope to extend the water system to other parts of the village. Meanwhile, we have an open invitation to work on a water system in a nearby village, again with strong contacts made through a “person of peace” who is open to our involvement.

Join us in praying the words in Isaiah 41:18, that God would make springs flow in the desert valleys, that His Spirit would be poured out on the unreached people in this faraway corner of the world.

*Names and locations omitted for security reasons.

Source: Reach Beyond