Quench the Thirst

Fabi De Souza, ’03 graduated from Cedar Crest College in May 2007 with a B.A. in Business Administration & Communications. Like most college students Fabi struggled to determine what career path she should follow. As a missionary kid she vowed not to live the life of a full-time missionary. In high school and her early college years she decided that making money was the most important career criteria.

However, during her junior year in college that began to change. During that year she obtained a greater understanding of the devastating AIDS crisis that is wracking the African continent. She felt the tug of God on her heart to do something to help the people of that continent, so she decided to get to the heart of the problem. She wanted to help meet their physical needs and, more importantly, their spiritual needs. Quench the Thirst ’08 was the result of this desire.

Quench the Thirst was started by Fabi in August 2007. It is supported by Fellowship International Mission (FIM), and is run by Fabi and some of her friends. The project’s goal is to provide access to clean drinking water to people who live in places where water is scarce. Water is the lifeblood of any civilization. It is the group’s hope that they can use that metaphor to introduce people to Jesus Christ, who is the provider of living water.

The Mutulu Tribe

Before the project could really get off the ground, in fact before it even had a name or a group of workers, Fabi needed to pick a tribe or village for whom the future group could provide water. The story of how she did so shows God’s great provision and is one that sticks vividly in Fabi’s mind.

The day Fabi introduced her idea to her father was the same day her dad needed to make a phone call to Shane Gauthier, a FIM missionary who works with Special Ministries in Kenya. It seemed that Shane would be the perfect contact since the goal of Special Ministries in Kenya is to spread the Gospel by engaging in community development projects. However, the prospects of reaching Shane on his cell phone while he was thousands of miles away in the jungles of Kenya seemed a sketchy proposition. In fact, Mr. De Souza had tried numerous times over the previous days to contact Shane, and he had not had any success.

On this day, though, Shane answered the De Souza’s call. After introductions Mr. De Souza handed the phone to Fabi.

“Awkwardly and shyly I said, ‘Hi, do you need any water?’” Fabi recalls. “His response was laughter.”

Though, as Shane stayed on the line and related to Fabi the horrors of everyday life for the seven Kenyan tribes he works with, Fabi knew she had found her calling.

Fabi says, “After he spoke a bit of his ministry and briefly described the needs of the people I immediately knew that this was something I wanted to pour my energy into. Hearing about the conditions of these women and children was a confirmation that I was in the right place, hearing the right thing, at the right time.”

Fabi decided to serve the Mutulu tribe, one of the seven with which Shane works. The Mutulu tribe is a community of 5,000 people who live in southeastern Kenya. During the best times the Mutulu people have very limited access to water.

Fabi says, “Thirsty and desperate, women and children walk for miles to fetch water. They oftentimes find only hand-dug springs, which are contaminated with all kinds of parasites and bacteria.”

The women and children fill up their one liter jugs with this sickness-causing liquid and trudge back to town. They repeat this process until the community water tank is full. The tank is just big enough to provide each member of the Mutulu tribe with a half cup of water…per day.

“The water situation there is heart breaking,” Fabi laments.

She continues, “It wasn’t long before I started to sketch out thoughts and ideas and began recruiting people who would play key roles in the process.” Quench the Thirst ’08 was born.

Roadblocks

In the early stages of the project, Fabi has spent considerable time traveling up and down the East Coast speaking at churches and on college campuses to raise awareness about the problem and to solicit financial support for the Quench the Thirst solution.

After the team was able to raise a few thousand dollars, they paid a group to survey the Mutulu land to find the best place to drill for water. The group could not find the water table anywhere in the region! The team’s plans for drilling a well were squashed. This was disappointing, but looking back Fabi said, “God had other plans. Better plans.”

After much prayer and some wise counsel the Quench the Thirst team decided to switch their efforts from drilling a well to constructing a water harvesting system. The system will collect water during the rainy season and will store it so the Mutulu people can use it during the dry season.

With this struggle behind them, the team decided to travel to Kenya themselves. The departure date was set for January 1, 2008. Again God had other plans.

“With bags packed we anxiously awaited confirmation that it was safe for us to travel after turmoil broke out in Kenya two days before,” Fabi remembers.

However, the tensions in Kenya escalated over the coming weeks and the team was forced to cancel their plans. Despite the cancellation and with the conflict in Kenya mostly resolved, the team still hopes to travel to Kenya in the coming months.

Prepared by LVCHS

Starting and organizing the Quench the Thirst project was already physically, emotionally, and mentally draining enough, so when the tough times came it was even harder. LVCHS prepared Fabi to deal with these struggles. Fabi relates how she was too comfortable in her faith in high school and that it was not until after graduation from LVCHS that she really made her faith her own. However, Bible classes with Mr. VanDuzer really prepared her for her life ahead, even if she did not fully appreciate it while she was in high school. The biblical passages Mr. VanDuzer had her memorize guided her through. Fabi says, “When I struggle to see things God’s way or try to figure out His will I immediately remember Psalm 139.” This solid grounding in Christ gave Fabi the strength to carry on.

By carrying on despite the hard times, Fabi has learned some amazing lessons from God. She says, “As humans it’s in our nature to want to take care of matters in our own hands, but it wasn’t until I fully surrendered this ministry to God that He truly began working and moving. To my surprise He’s been working more in my life than in anything else.”

How You Can Help

There is still much to do. The Quench the Thirst team needs to raise another $23,000 before they can install the water harvesting system. There is much you can do.

Fabi says, “Put yourself in their shoes: you just hiked ten miles through the Kenyan bush to get a drink of water. What you see before you is a trace of liquid trickling through a dirty hand-dug spring. Your desperate thirst pushes you past the risk of diseases and parasites. You make this journey everyday, twice a day. The truth is many Africans lack access to safe, clean drinking water.”

This is the situation that Quench the Thirst is trying to erase. They are trying to impact the Mutulu people in a powerful way. Fabi encourages all to, “Be a part of this impact.”

There are three specific ways you can help: pray, give, and go.

1) Prayer is something everyone can give. Fabi asks that you pray specifically for: the love of God to become a tangible reality to those whose lives will be affected by this work, God to provide all the funds to accomplish this work, suitable sources of water to be found in the team’s desired locations, and the people of the Mutulu tribe and the local vendors who participate in this project to be blessed beyond what they could have ever imagined.

2) Some of you may be able to do more. If God has put it on your heart to donate money to the cause, checks can be sent to:

NOTE: Please put “Quench the Thirst” in the memo line of the check, and remember that all donations are tax deductible. Fabi says, “Any bit helps, and I say this honestly.”

3) There are also a number of volunteer opportunities for those who are interested. If you are interested contact the team at Quenchthethirst08@gmail.com.

Fabi joyously remarks, “As the Lord so often reminds me, ‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’- Philippians 1:6. The workers in Africa are ready and we can’t wait to go in to help and minister among this tribe.”