Baskets and Blessings

Beautiful and practical baskets, handcrafted in sisal and other natural fibers by Kenyan artisans through the generations, have traditionally carried goods and stored food. Today the decorative baskets in colors bright or neutral are popular tourist souvenirs that represent the diverse continent of Africa.

At General Council (GC) 2025, the Assemblies of God World Missions Africa booth displayed hundreds of the baskets to raise awareness of a health crisis in the countries where its workers minister: the need for clean water.

Africa Oasis, a compassion ministry and water-solutions resource of AGWM Africa, equips local pastors with simple inexpensive water filters that local churches distribute to households in need. A current outreach across Cameroon is distributing these filters to hundreds of families, providing clean water while offering villagers a chance to receive the living water of Jesus.

At the GC Africa booth, the message was simple: Give towards a filter and get a great Kenyan basket.

“All over Africa, water is a problem,” says Carol Schmidt, 62, who with her husband David has served with AGWM 22 years in Cameroon and three in Central African Republic. The Schmidts were among 40 AGWM Africa workers manning the booth during the Aug. 4-8 event in Orlando, Florida.

“I’ve seen how distribution changes a village,” Schmidt states. “As people visited the booth filled with hundreds of baskets, I’d tell them stories of how villages changed because of these filters.”

Harmful waste often contaminates water sources with bacteria, viruses, parasites and pollution. Dirty water carries deadly diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. A scarcity of clean water affects one-third of Africa’s inhabitants. Across the continent 115 deaths occur every hour due to lack of fresh water essential for drinking, cooking, sanitation and hygiene.

Cameroon is among 10 African countries where children are at highest risk of water-related threats.

That’s no surprise to Lawrence Kang, the Cameroonian pastor leading the water filter distribution team in central Cameroon, visiting villages of 200 to 500 homes. Along with his team, Kang went door to door in Élalé village setting up filters, which provide safe water for up to 10 people per day for up to 10 years.

Kang teaches each family filter use and maintenance. He uses the filters to illustrate how God cleanses sin from each heart. He’ll return four times in the next 12 months to ensure the filters are being properly cleaned, but more importantly to continue to minister and pray with the families.

Within two weeks, Élalé’s chief shared with Kang dramatic results. While before the filter distribution 70 percent of villagers had suffered from a waterborne illness every month, sickness in the village plummeted by 87 percent. Typhoid dropped from 80 cases to 20, diarrhea from 129 cases to 13, dysentery from 37 to 12, and stomachache from 191 to 20. Meanwhile, attendance at the village church grew from 7 to more than 50.

Susanne Hurst, 63, director of Africa Oasis, notes that the ministry’s filter and other projects carry the tagline Local Lasts Longer. “We have a high value on the local church and what the local church is to do in its community so they’re the faces of compassion in their community, not us,” she says. “We partner with them in creative ways they can reach out in word and deed.”

The baskets provided a creative means to reach donors, Hurst says. As she manned the booth at General Council, “I heard talk: ‘I’m going to buy one for each of my adult daughters, to give them a pretty basket,’ or, ‘I’m going to give these as Christmas gifts,’” she says.

J.T. Espejo, communications director for AGWM Africa, noted that some who donated to the water project and received a basket gave generously above the $15 asking price per basket and said keep the change. “It’s bigger than a basket so people wanted to get involved with the project as well,” Espejo says, adding that the booth sold enough baskets to provide hundreds of filters for Cameroon.

“Because of the baskets sold, 300 households will have access to clean water who previously didn’t,” he says. Beyond providing safe water, “It empowers the local church to make a Kingdom impact in their community and provide access to the gospel.” Additional baskets to fund water filters for Africa will be available at Chi Alpha SALT and other AG events, he says.

“For us, it was a really successful booth activity,” Hurst says. “The baskets give them a token, a gift, that can serve as a reminder in their home that they helped provide families in Cameroon with safe drinking water.”

Additionally, because Cameroon receives few visitors or mission teams, there’s little awareness of the country’s needs. “I think it helps open people up to praying for another group that wasn’t on their radar,” Hurst says. “It’s a great way to promote how they can be involved in meeting a need they already know about or sensitizing them to the need.”