We were preparing to leave the village after collecting our photos and videos of the development and ministry going on there, when a boy in a patterned frock caught my eye. I beckoned to him to come over so I could take his picture, and he acquiesced. As he drew nearer I noticed he was sucking on a collapsed plastic cup he must have found among our gear. As I asked him to move it away from his mouth, my colleague Daniel told me to pass the cup to him. He then proceeded to un-crumple it and fill it from our bottle of water.

I hope I never forget the look on the child’s face when he received the cup. Joy and amazement lit up his features as he realized it was full of cool, clean water, and I could not help but bring to mind Jesus’ words to his disciples: “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…” (Matt. 10.42).

This little boy, surrounded as he is by evidence of malnutrition and the hard life of the village, is nonetheless capable of experiencing the “abundant life” Jesus desires for all people (John 10.10). That abundant life is slowly coming to his village through the work of our partners there, in the form of clean water projects, nutrition programs, animal husbandry, and newfound faith in Jesus himself.

This is one example of the many wonderful ways God’s kingdom is being established in Senegal.