A Coincidence?

In February of 2012 I came to Burkina Faso on a vision trip.  We traveled the country visiting villages where Clay Church had been instrumental in digging wells.  Needless to say, when I returned I was ready to return and on fire to bring as many others on board with the work as possible.  One day I was in the café of the building where I work at the University of Notre Dame and ran into a very dear friend.  She asked about my trip and then told me she knew someone I should talk to about the possibility of Notre Dame working in Burkina Faso.  She scheduled a meeting for me to meet with Michael Sweikar, Associate Director, Institute for Global Development.  We met the day before I was to leave for a year’s stay in Burkina.  At that time, I was hoping Notre Dame would bring forms of solar energy into the country as most villages do not have electricity.  As we were talking, Michael mentioned that he knew about the well digging Clay Church was doing because he attended there – and so do I!  As I left, he promised he would do everything he could to tie funding with a professor to work in the country. 

Michael held true to his promise, and our dream is coming true!  In the near future the University of Notre Dame will join the effort in Burkina Faso not only to provide support to dig a number of wells, but Juan Carlos Guzman and other Professors at Notre Dame will oversee a research project to study the impact of the wells on the villages.  Amazing, isn’t it?  Dr. Guzman will be working with Accedes, the same organization that built Tabitha Center!  I don’t know about you, but it is hard to believe that this is all just a series of coincidences.