Yesterday, I wrote about the amazing conversion of (former) atheist Richard Kagel whose journey to faith began with Pastor Dave telling him that God wouldn’t mind if he prayed to him. As I said, I met Richard when he came to down on his way to take Dave on a mission trip. And notice the order: Richard wasn’t joining his former pastor on the pastor’s mission trip. The pastor was joining Richard on Richard’s mission trip.

Richard told us that shortly after he came to faith God spoke to him in the middle of the night:

I want you to go to Guinea-Bissau.

My first question would have been who, what, or where is Guinea-Bissau?

Guinea-Bissau is a TINY country on Africa’s west coast. Its total area is less than 14,000 square miles, just a bit bigger than Maryland, our 42nd largest state. It took him 69 hours to get there (a LOT of plane changes!) and what did he find? Here’s how it’s described in a post from Richard’s local Rotary Club:

He arrived in the country and was immediately confronted with unanticipated and truly frightening conditions of lives lived in extreme poverty.  The capital city, Bissau, has approximately 600,000 people. There is no electricity, no running water, and no sewage system.  Waterborne diseases cause early deaths among the entire population and are especially prevalent in children and pregnant mothers.  Following a church service, where he was warmly welcomed, he visited the national hospital, a three-story building that had been built by the Portuguese in the 1940s. Every bed in the hospital was occupied with 1-3 patients. Many slept in the hallways or wherever there was floor space.  There were no doctors or nurses or other staff.  Families provided all of the care and food for ill relatives. There was no sanitation. It was clear that the sick came to the hospital to die. The magnitude of the poverty was immeasurable and was too significant to ignore. Right then and there, Dr. Kagel  made up his mind that he would do something to help the people of this forgotten country. – From a Rotary Club post

Richard decided he would use his expertise as an analytical chemist to solve the problem of contaminated water. The Rotary Club post continues:

Clean water is a basic need to be addressed.   Dr. Kagel has made a total of 5 trips to the country in order to create partnerships with leaders in Bissau.  After investigating feasible means of water purification, he came upon the Canadian branch of Potters for Peace. This organization assists local citizens in building their own plants to manufacture water filtering units.

Richard has made multiple trips to Guinea-Bissau, met with the head of the government, and helped them build the factory that makes the water filtering units. Here’s what Richard told me by email this week:

On the filter factory project, I just got word that the last of the 1,500 spigots I carried over in two of my trips for the water filter was used and they are asking for more – that’s 1,500 filters in people’s hands.  And I’ve seen that every home with a filter that I’ve visited has a line of kids out the door waiting to get the “good water.”  Many of the filters are in schools and orphanages.  So, that’s a lot of kids getting safe water, made from deadly water from a product built by local people, and controlled by locals (the Central Evangelical Church of Guinea-Bissau), from nearly all local materials (except the spigots!).  I’m headed back in February and will bring another 1,000 spigots with me (I wish they had told me before they ran out but that’s not a thing there, not yet anyway 🙂).

It’s another God story not unlike The Man in Seat 12B except in this case, God chose an atheist to help solve the clean water problem for an impoverished nation. And he used a pastor (not a famous pastor!) to get things started.

God once chose an anti-Jesus terrorist to be his most productive missionary:

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel…” (Acts 9.10 – 15, ESV)