It’s Our 1st Anniversary!

We’re 1 year into our combined mission of providing freedom through Christ by preventing child slavery, rescuing children from slavery, drilling clean water wells, hosting medical clinics,and planting churches. And it holds true today that Set Free Alliance and Water of Life are truly so much better together.  As part of our celebration of our 1st Anniversary, we want to take you on a trip into the past as we take a look at the history of the interconnections of the two organizations that formed the Set Free you know today. Check out these key points in history:

In 1989 our partner organization started as a school to serve the blind. This school was started by our Indian partner pastor’s grandfather.

In 1992 our partner organization was formed out of the school for the blind when 761 pastors were brought on board.

Water of Life was founded in 2002 when Roland Bergeron went on a mission trip to Honduras that opened his eyes to the water crisis. He left his custom home building business to start Water of Life.

In 2009 our partner organization elected our partner pastor as their President. Previously, he had served as the Director of Evangelism.

In 2010 Water of Life expanded into India when our partner pastor was working to serve the rural people in India and noticed that every village he went to was in desperate need of clean water. He reached out to every US water ministry he could find. Water of Life replied to his request, and in 2010, Roland traveled to India and the first Water of Life well was drilled.

In 2011 our mission to rescue children from slavery began when our partner pastor started ministering to children who were indentured slaves in rock quarries. Our partner pastor’s father reached out to a Christian government official who successfully negotiated the release of 389 children. These children are now being cared for in village churches.

In 2012 the first village became a Christ village. (We consider a village a Christ village when 80% of the village population and 100% of village leadership are Christian.) The same year, the Set Free Alliance’s sponsorship program began. At this point, 418 children were being cared for in 7 rental homes, and 71 children had been successfully reunited with their parents.

In 2013 the central campus began when 579 children were rescued, bringing the total children in our care at this time to over 1,300. Because of this, the land for the central campus was purchased. Additionally, 100 villages have now become Christ villages!

In 2015 a mine owner came to know Jesus in a death bed conversion. His final wish was to release all 1,609 children he owned into the care of our partner organization.

In 2016 Water of Life increased the amount of monthly well drilling to 12 wells.

In 2017 we saw a huge expansion of the Kingdom when over 1 million people made a dedication to Christ over Easter weekend. Additionally, two rescued girls began medical school in China, 500 villages have now become Christ villages, and water of Life began using a district-by-district approach for well drilling (current district name is withheld for safety).

In 2018 Water of Life increased the amount of monthly well drilling to 16. And, monthly medical clinics also started to supplement the evangelism work happening in India.

In 2019 Set Free Alliance and Water of Life come together to become Set Free! 1.2 million people have made a dedication to Christ since the beginning of the year, and three additional girls have been accepted into medical school!

Today we are so much better together. Combined, we are caring for around 10,000 children, drilling deep wells (despite the unforeseen circumstances COVID-19 brought), and we’re only about 100 villages away from reaching our goal of 1,000 Christ villages by the end of 2020.