ADRA

A True Sheik

As an ADRA worker, I spent many years as a country director in Somalia, Africa. Somalia is a dominantly Muslim country, and most of my colleagues were Muslims, as well as the communities and beneficiaries we served. Over the years I learned a lot about Islam, their culture and daily life from the people I lived with. Sometimes we started theological discussions but I realized that this was not leading to a fruitful end. Sharing arguments did not bring us together.

Our daily work, however, built a relationship of trust and respect for each other. This included respect to the Islamic culture from our side as Adventist workers, but we also experienced respect from our Muslim colleagues towards our Adventist beliefs. They saw us reading the Bible and worshipping every morning, praying at meals and keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest. They watched us and realized that we didn't eat pork or drink any alcohol. We dressed appropriately and had a clear moral conduct towards the other gender. They also saw our love and compassion for the humanitarian work that helped their Muslim brothers and sisters with food aid, water, building schools or providing them with a kick-start for their own business. Although we were Christians we assisted them as though we were one. In those places our lives were the only Bible the people read.

Several times our Muslim colleagues told us: "You ADRA are different than other organizations!" They compared us with other humanitarian organizations operating in the same area. Most of them were working on pure humanitarian grounds without any religious attachment. Their workers had a secular lifestyle. By observing them they found confirmation of what they believed about Christians: Christians are unclean because they eat pork and drink alcohol, they are unbelievers because they don't believe in creation, they don't pray, and often demonstrate a questionable moral life.

One day I received an urgent request for a water-well from a very distant community. Their well had collapsed and the next water source was more than 30 miles away. The villagers started a water pipeline with camels. They put water containers on their camels and walked for a day and a half to collect water from the neighbors well and then came back the same way. When the caravan reached home after three days the next family member started the same trip again. It took us two days by car to reach this remote community from our field office. There was no road, just sandy trails through bush and desert.

When we arrived we met with the community elders and started an assessment to collect all the necessary data. Afterwards we met with Sheik Ibrahim of that community. As a religious leader he was a very influential man and highly respected even beyond his community. My Muslim colleagues introduced us as ADRA and emphasized that ADRA is very different than the other organizations; in fact we were like good Muslims. Than he introduced me as the Director of that organization and said: "By the way he is also like a Sheik!" I was a bit surprised, but that reference was made, because I told them some time ago that I was a Church Pastor before I joined ADRA. His understanding was that I too was a religious leader and therefore he put me on the same level with as the Sheik.

We talked about the many needs of this community, and the most urgent need for water. Without water there is no life and therefore it had to be addressed first. I explained to him the procedure of writing a proposal, submitting it to a donor, waiting for approval, and hopefully getting the funds. This process can take six months or longer. I promised him that I would start the process and if we were successful we would return and tell him. He understood and agreed. Before we left he asked me for a business card. I wondered why he would need it, because in this remote area there was no electricity, telephone, email or any postal service to contact me. But I gave him one and we left.

Back at our office we started to prepare the assessment report, contacted several donors and wrote a proposal. It took us about six months until we got the funding for this project. But when I had the contract in my hands I told my colleagues: "This is a good day for this community. We should prepare for another two day trip to inform them and to start with the preparations for this project."

When we returned to this community there was great joy and happiness. We met with Sheik Ibrahim in his compound. While we were sitting on a mat, he went into his hut and came back with a Koran. He opened it and I saw that my business card was being used as a bookmark. He told us that he was praying every day that we would come back to bring water to his community. Then he said: "If this white man was a true Sheik, he will come back; because a true Sheik will always keep his promise!" I was deeply moved by his faith and that ADRA was the answer to his prayers.

Soon we began the project and had to drill a replacement borehole, since the old one was no longer good. When we reached 590 feet deep there was just a little aquifer with poor water quality. Our geological survey revealed that there was a better aquifer under a basalt layer. So we continued drilling deeper until we reached the good aquifer in 820 feet. Then something unexpected happened. The pressure of this water was so great that it came up to the surface without using any motor pump. We had an artesian well and the water was flowing day and night. This was an extra blessing for this community that had suffered so long from a lack of water. Suddenly they had excess water.

Immediately the community members began to dig trenches to irrigate their fields and we also constructed tanks and troughs for people and their livestock. God answered the prayers of this Sheik by providing them with the water of life. And life returned to this community. They could grow and produce enough food and could water their livestock. After a short time they developed a market place, because nomads and neighbors were coming for water and began trading with this community. Suddenly this community attracted many people and the village grew and prospered. The ADRA well became the center of the village and the big water tank with the ADRA logo has become a landmark!