Stories From Beyond the Well: In The Beginning

Need to catch up on Stories from Beyond the Well? Read The Prologue first.

Traveling on Faith

Everyone said I was crazy. My wife thought I would end up kidnapped and held for ransom. They could have been right. But I had faith.

You see I was on a plane, flying halfway around the world, to meet a man I had only spoken with through Facebook. A man on a mission from God. He had a group of pastors who were working tirelessly to spread the gospel around India.

Sadly, in almost every village they went to, the people were in desperate need of clean water. He knew that bringing clean water to the people he served would pave the way for the gospel of Christ to resonate in these villages. He reached out to every water organization he could find online, including Set Free. Only one person answered - me - and I told him no. He didn’t accept that as an answer. So, after months of correspondence, I found myself on this plane.

Meeting Our Partner

After landing in India and making my way to the hotel, I finally got to meet the man I had traveled all this way to get to know. He was understandably nervous. We both had a lot on the line. I was seeking to determine if God was calling Set Free to begin work in India. He was desperately seeking a water ministry partner to help further his evangelism work.

Over the coming days, we spent many hours in conversations. He took me to see several villages. We met with a driller who could do the well drilling work. And I spent countless hours in prayer. Lord, please show me the way. From there, the answer seemed clear. So I turned to him and asked him, “Who do you say Jesus is?” In his broken English with the help of pointing out scripture references he replied, “Jesus is Lord and Savior.”

From that moment, I knew. The journey would certainly not be easy, and I still had absolutely no desire to spend more time in India. But being in India and working with Praveen’s team of pastors, was exactly where God was calling Set Free to be. The next morning he and I returned to that initial village with the driller, and Set Free drilled our very first well in India. The joy filling the air was palpable and was further confirmation this was God’s leading.

The Results

Four hundred forty-two wells later resulting in nearly two million baptisms and well over six hundred villages who have become Christ villages by throwing out their Hindu priests in exchange for worshiping the risen son of God - I have to say God knew exactly what He was doing when He sent me to India.

-Roland Bergeron

Want to read even more of the Set Free story? Check out Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, and Chapter 6.