.jpg)
In the largest slum in Africa, there is a ministry shining the light of Jesus and bringing hope through clean water.
In Kenya, there is a place known as Kibera. It is known as one of the "darkest, filthiest, and most hopeless places in the world." Not only does this slum not have the basic necessities like clean water or sanitation, it's overrun with gang violence.
The 'houses' in Kibera are usually eight feet by eight feet, created out of mud, used for sleeping and sitting.
The Bucket Ministry, based out of Texas in the U.S.A., has been shining a light of hope in Kibera since 2017.
"There wasn't one home that had access to clean, safe drinking water," the founder of The Bucket Ministry, Chris Beth, said in an interview with CBN.
Finding Solutions
The issue is the lack of proper sanitation. For 400,000 people living in Kibera, there is only 78 proper latrines. This means much of the human waste is just tossed anywhere, therefore getting into the water supply, making it dangerous to drink. Beth's staff of 60 spent four months researching in Kibera to see the needs.
"And all they did for four months was knock on every single one of the doors in this place and we found out that there were 81,077 homes," said Beth. "We found out that there's about 408,000 people created in God's image that are sequestered to live in this place."
Knowing the problem was bigger than himself or even just his ministry, Beth partnered with the Sawyer filter company. Together, they started to provide the people living in these slums with buckets that had a filtration system in it, changing the contaminated water to safe, clean drinking water.
"There's these straws, these membranes and the contaminants, the dirty water getting caught on the outside of these membranes," described Beth. "And then the clean water comes through the inside of the membrane."
The Bucket Ministry team have distributed 81,777 filters, providing clean water to all 408,478 residents of the slum.
Sharing the Good News of Jesus
A local pastor in the area shared that he has never seen an NGO help with basic needs to this large of a scale, as well as share the gospel.
"When The Bucket Ministry came in, and they recruited the missionaries, going and supplying the filters and the buckets, people started accepting the gospel," said Raphael Dihanda, pastor of Grace Revival Church in Kibera. "And we can see now the great harvest is coming in the Kingdom of God."
The crime has gone down, as has the prostitution in the area that many used as a survival mechanism.
"People are testifying, people are leaving crime, they are changing their ways and they have reformed," said a local elder in the region, named Owegi.
To top it all off, discipleship classes are being taught throughout the slums and 1,500 people have chosen to be baptized.
"I was a very bad person before today, I was untrustworthy, I was a thief, a drug addict, but God healed me," said a resident from Kibera, Samuel Mwang, after being baptized. "Missionaries visited my home and told me about Jesus Christ, and I accepted Him into my life."