TV Program

Current Episode

Streams of Living Water (Kalahari Update)

2008-12-28

PRODUCTION #: 1140

SPEAKER: Shawn Boonstra

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It’s one of the harshest environments on earth. Summer temperatures exceed 100 degrees. In winter it often freezes. Months will pass in the dry season without a drop of rainfall. Survival here is a daily ordeal for animals as well as humans, and yet, in this remote corner of southwest Africa known as the Kalahari, the San people—or Bushmen—have managed to exist for hundreds of years in a place where there are no rivers or spring-fed lakes. Water is equal to food for survival. For the Bushmen it is a thing to be treasured, cherished and preserved. But today the long battle with thirst in the Kalahari is coming to a close.

You know, even the toughest of circumstances in North America can seem like a life of luxury to people living in other parts of the world. We complain about water bills here in Southern California, for example, but the fact remains that we can still turn on the tap and have a drink of water anytime we want. In fact, while there are people all over the world who struggle to find enough to drink, in the United States, we water the desert so we can have green grass in our backyard.

Now, I'm not saying that to make anybody feel guilty, because, frankly, I water my lawn, too. But what I want you to think about is how far removed we are from the day-to-day suffering that some people live with in the harshest climates on earth. So, today on It Is Written, we are taking you on a journey. Not a little hike, but a trip halfway across the world to the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. There we met up with someone who is not removed from those circumstances.

Sebastian Tirtirau, director of the Pilgrim Relief Society, coordinates It Is Written’s work among the remote people of planet Earth and, as you’ve seen on other episodes of this show, he has dedicated a significant portion of his life to working with the San people of the Kalahari Desert.

SHAWN BOONSTRA: Sebastian, why don’t you tell us a little background regarding how you ended up in the Kalahari.

SEBASTIAN TIRTIRAU: I originally came in 1996 as student. I had no idea about what this place was all about. I read some books about the Kalahari. I fell in love quickly with the idea of the Kalahari. So when I came here, potentially, I had very little to do with the place.

But something happened when I came here the first time. It was the kindness of the people, their hearts, their friendliness, their gentleness toward me as a stranger—their way of acceptance really broke my heart, and I fell in love with them. When I left in my first year, I never thought I was ever going to come back, and here in 2007 I have now made almost 30 trips to the Kalahari.

During those years, I became part of the culture of the tribe. They adopted me. They gave me names. They treated me as their brother, and even though I couldn’t really do too much for them. They considered me one of their best friends, and everywhere I go in the villages they treat me very kindly and very gently.

So, I’ve been in many places around the world as a missionary, but my heart is in the Kalahari Desert. I am of the San tribe of the Kalahari Desert. Actually, my tribe is called the “Jul ‘hoansi,” one of the oldest tribes of people in Africa, and I feel very proud and privileged to be part of this tribe.

Announcer: Few of the advances of modern technology have made their way to the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Aside from the clothes they wear and a few modern utensils, life here goes on the way it always has, a people up against the land, using traditional methods not only to live but to survive.

If there was such a thing as a time machine, you could take a Bushman who was born 200 years ago, transport him to the Kalahari of the present, and he would find little he wouldn’t recognize. The land is just as tough. The struggle is pretty much the same, and the challenges, as always, are staggering.

ST: Life in the Kalahari is both free and hard, if you can put them both together. People here suffer of thirst, of hunger, of diseases such as malaria, TB…and yet the freedom they have makes them feel for this place.

For example, every village you go to you will see huts, but they sleep outside. The people in the Kalahari want to sleep outside to see the stars above their heads. It is something in this place. There was somebody who said that you can take a man out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of a man. But the Kalahari has a double portion of that power over the soul.

In my case, I love these people and the life they have here. But the more you improve it from a thirst point of view and a hunger point of view, which are the greatest sufferings here, then the better we can help them enjoy this life in the Kalahari.

It is hot during the day. It is cold during the night. Malaria and the rainy season come in December, generally. So they have different stages of their suffering.

But in all of this, if you ask a San person, “Would you like to move out of the Kalahari?” his complete and definite answer is always, “No, I will never leave from this place.”

I have San people, friends of mine, that I’ve taken with me to Cape Town or to the sea, and after three or four days they told me, “Please, take me back. I want to see my place.”

SB: The work among the indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert is by no means a flash in the pan. Sebastian has already been working there for more than a decade, befriending these beautiful people, bringing in supplies, helping them with tools for survival, sharing the good news about what Christ has done for them, and, perhaps most important in the immediate sense, helping them to tap into the fresh water that sits only 200 feet below the surface.

ST: If you look around, the Kalahari doesn’t look like a desert. It has bushes and trees, but because is has no surface water, it is considered a desert. Now, this makes it extremely hard for the nation or a culture to survive here. But the Bushmen over the past hundreds of years have developed a tremendous survival way of finding water and storing it. They will take a tuber in the ground. They will shave small shavings from the tuber and squeeze, and then they will drop water in an ostrich eggshell and store it for weeks at a time. In the rainy season, of course, they have the rain.

But now, because under the Kalahari lies the greatest underground lake on the planet—it’s called the Dragon’s Breath—these people have a chance. There’s a tremendous possibility with our water systems to have pure water without filtration, without purification, straight from underground, 60 meters, 50 meters, 40 meters, and straight into their buckets, or in their faucets, so they can drink pure, clean water from underground.

ST: It’s hard to explain, but it transforms lives. You walk to a water system, to a village that two months ago didn’t have water—they were walking 20 miles in the bush, three to four young people with small cans, or small canisters for water, to pick up a little water from a different village from a hand pump and walk back to their village.

Suddenly, they have excess water that they can wash with, which they never had before. They cook. They wash themselves. One time I walked into a village and the kids were washing their bodies with the water from the water system, which is for me a tremendous miracle, because I know what these people have been through these past years.

But now, with this excess water, they plant gardens. We are not only giving them water to drink, we are giving them water to wash and water to eat, because it provides food for them. So we take care of their starvation, and of their thirst, and of their health problems. Water here is truly giving them new life, because these people look better, they are happier, and they live longer because they have a better chance because of this water.

ST: Kalahari means “great thirst.” And, initially when I came here and I found out about this beautiful name in the language, I asked them, “Are you thirsty all the time? Is that why it’s called the great thirst?”

And the chief of the village told me, “No, no, we have two kinds of thirst. We have a small thirst, which is the thirst for water, and we have a great thirst—Kalahari—the thirst for meaning.”

It’s the thirst for finding God, and they want to find Him but they don’t know how. And for me, this was a great spiritual lesson that these people…not only are they searching, but they are very close to God. In the Bible, God says that “you will find Me if you will seek for Me with all your heart,” and the great thirst is a great symbol of what these people are doing.

SB: This is an MP3 player. Now, I know it looks a little bit more like a walkie-talkie, and an older model at that, but it’s really not much different from the music players you find at your local electronics store, except for a couple of important differences.

First of all, this is designed for use in harsh desert conditions where you can’t just plug it into a power outlet every night to charge it up. This has no need for batteries; it is completely solar-powered. As long as the sun comes up, this machine will work, and if there is one thing you can count on in the Kalahari, the sun is going to come up!

Now, the second difference is that the Bushmen aren’t using these to download the latest “top 10” hits. In fact, these little machines come pre-programmed with a complete edition of the Bible in the San language. Around the world, some people are calling these “Godpods,” and let me tell you right now, this is about the hottest thing out there in the bush.

ST: The response has been tremendous from every village that I’ve been to with the Godpod. First of all, the Bushmen people are not that emotional in many ways. The only emotion is shown toward their children. However, when the Godpods are put on and we play the Bible, or the book that we gave them, or the Bible studies, their faces light up.

I have had literal experiences in which they jump up and down from happiness, and they start shouting something that translates to, “Very, very nice, thank you very much!” They love it to a point where if I give 10 per village, for every family, they are pretty sad that they don’t have one each, because they want to walk in the bush and listen to the Bible.

You see, Bushmen land—the so-called territory of the San people—covers an area of about 200 miles, all the way from the first barrier to Botswana’s border, and it’s about 80 miles north to south.

Now, I have had entire villages of people who have walked 90 to 100 kilometers, about 60 miles, by foot through the bush when they found out I had some Godpods. They walked all the way through the bush to my camp to ask for it. Maybe I give them a blanket or some food as well, but if they leave just with the Godpod, they are very happy.

The Bible itself predicted that the words encoded on the Godpods would find their way to the remotest people on earth before Christ returns. The good news of the Gospel is being proclaimed in the Kalahari Desert in a way that few people could have imagined when the Bible was first written.

A small microchip carries God’s voice in the San language to villages of people who do not read or write, and it’s having a profound impact. Today, more than 2,400 San people profess the name of Christ, and a new church stands in the Kalahari Desert as a tangible testament to the reliability of God’s Word.

With increasing frequency, the San people are found following Christ into the waters of baptism, claiming their place in the kingdom of God where both physical and spiritual thirst will be a thing of the past.

ST: In 1998, when they adopted me, the chief of my village gave me a special tribe name, and then he looked at me and said, “You are the voice of the Jul ‘hoansi people in the world from now on.”

So, I would like for people around the world to know about these people of mine. But one thing they don’t know out there is that these people suffer innocently, without choice—not because they are lazy, not because they don’t want to develop, and not because they don’t want to improve their lives. They suffer because they live in a place that keeps them slaves to this poverty, and hunger, and thirst, because they’ve been pushed around for hundreds of years and suddenly they have a place called Kalahari. They manage to survive here and they would like to keep on surviving, and they want their kids to have a better future.

SB: There’s a remarkable passage found in the last book of the Bible. It’s found in Revelation, chapter 7, where God describes a group of people who have passed through a terrible time of tribulation before they finally stand in the presence of God. Now, this passage has a specific application to a particular group of people, but it’s still a pretty good description of God’s intention to deal with human suffering. And the more you read it, the more you see what the promise of God would mean to the people of the Kalahari Desert.

Listen to this now from Revelation, chapter 7, verses 15-17: (Revelation 7:15-17)

“Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the lamb who in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Have you ever wondered whether or not God notices our human suffering? I know that in today’s world there are people who openly mock the existence of God and they point a finger to human suffering as proof that He can’t possibly exist. But in the Bible, God’s intention is crystal clear. It shows us He’s not satisfied with the way things are. God is not happy to see the San people crawling out of their huts early in the morning to lick the dew off the grass because that’s all the moisture they’re going to get that day. God fully intends to do something about it. It’s a point the Bible makes over and over again.

But, of course, that promise deals with the end of time when we’re finally safe in God’s kingdom. So what about the here and now? Does God just say, “tough luck, you’re on your own until I get back?” Well of course not.

As we wait for history to resolve, God has given his followers a couple of tasks to perform. One of them, very clearly, is to carry the good news about the cross of Calvary to every people group on earth.

But there’s another one found in that stunning sermon Jesus gives in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. In this passage, we find ourselves again at the end of human history, about to inherit the kingdom, and Jesus makes a very important distinction between those who are in the kingdom and those who are not.

Here’s what it says: (Matthew 25:32-36)

“All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.’”

Now the point is pretty simple and I hope you’ve caught it. God isn’t waiting for the end of the world to alleviate human suffering. As we wait for Christ to return, God expects us to show people the kingdom even before it arrives. The Bible shows us that those who know God spend their time caring for the needs of other people: the hungry are fed, the thirsty have water, and it’s all done in the name of Christ.

I believe that what’s happening in the Kalahari Desert right now is the will of God. As we wait for Jesus to return, He’s asking us to bring a little bit of heaven on earth to people who desperately need some hope. And right now in the desert, people are drinking water, they’re planting gardens for the first time in their lives, and they’re hearing the words of God Himself, finally spoken in one of the oldest languages on earth.

ST: I will keep coming here as long as Jesus gives me life and strength to come and help them. If I come just to preach, I’ll come just to preach. If I have no money to give them, food or blankets or water, I’ll come just to preach. These people love when I just come with my tent, by myself, put my tent in their village and every morning and every evening we spend time together around the fire. They don’t need much. They just need a friend, a close friend.

SB: Let me share just a little more of that passage from Matthew 25 with you, because that passage isn’t just important for the people of the Kalahari, it’s important for all of us. Listen carefully to what happens as human history comes to a close, in Matthew 25, beginning of verse 35: (Matthew 25:35-40)

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’ And the king will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.’”

You know, so many times I’ve wished there were something I could do, not to earn my salvation, because you know that’s impossible, but something simply to say “thank you” to Christ for the gift of the cross.

There’s nothing I can do, of course, that would equal what God has given to me, but still, just to say “thank you.” I know that’s important to God, because He took the time to record that story in the Bible of the 10 lepers who were healed and only one came back to say “thank you.” God notices that only one expresses gratitude. So what in the world could you possibly do that would mean something to Christ?

Well, here it is in Matthew chapter 25. As human history comes to a close, you find God himself taking note of all the times somebody did something for Him. And, of course, when people hear that news, they’re a little bit puzzled. Lord, when did we ever do anything for you? And it’s amazing how God answers: when you did something for those who were hurting, when you fed the hungry, when you gave water to the thirsty, when you visited those who were stuck in prison, when you put clothes on people’s back, you did that for Me. When you gave out blankets in the Kalahari, when you put in those water wells, I took that as a favor to Me, God says.

Remarkable, isn’t it? Because God doesn’t really need our help. It’s just that He likes our help because He’s a God of relationships and He’s trying to give us a little of that joy that Jesus felt as He gave His life so that we could live.

Why don’t we pray together?

PRAYER:
Father in heaven, we are so thankful that as you work for the salvation of the world, as you work to bring hope and comfort to people, you ask us to be involved. You long to share the joy of bringing hope to people with us, and we thank you. Today we covenant with you, Lord, and as you call us to minister to the needs of others, we will answer. And we give you our lives in Jesus’ name, Amen.

HOW YOU CAN BECOME INVOLVED
We have a lot of dreams to help the people of the Kalahari Desert and one day we dream of a mission station out there. But you know, I have an immediate need. Something I need your help with right now.

The needs in the Kalahari Desert are far from met and today I’d like to offer you a chance to get involved. It Is Written is bringing a number of very important things to the San people: A chance to hear the story of Jesus, a chance to pump fresh water up out of the ground, a chance to grow vegetables, a chance, well, a chance, really, just to live, and I need your help.

Right now we’re committed to giving the gift of water to every village and for about $4,500, you can bring water to a whole village for life. Now, I know that in the past we said we could do it for $3,000. This is why I really need your help at this moment. The U.S. dollar has gone down, the economy is Europe has changed, and now it costs us $4,500 to bring water to a village, but still, for $4,500, a whole village has water for life.

In some parts of this country, $4,500 is the water bill just for your street, your neighborhood, for a year. I know somebody watching today could afford to give a well. Others could afford to share part of a well with a village. But we can all be involved in doing something for the least of these. So I'm asking today, please help.

If you would like to help It Is Written provide solar-powered water systems for the people of the Kalahari Desert, please call our toll-free number at 1-800-253-3000. Just say you’d like to help with the Water Project. Lines are open 24 hours daily. They may be busy, so keep trying.

You may also participate by sending your gift to It Is Written, Box O, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359.

You can also make a gift online.

Scriptures Used in “Streams of Living Water (Kalahari Update)”

“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
—Jeremiah 29:13

“Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the lamb who in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
—Revelation 7:15-17

“All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.’"
— Matthew 25:32-36

“‘For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’ And the king will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.’”
—Matthew 25:35-40