We continued on and arrived at a camp about 30 minutes outside of Panajachal that is run by two CAM missionaries, Johnny and Maria Coker. They have a phenomenal ministry where they are building up a church camp to serve both Guatemalan churches and eventually US churches coming to Guatemala for missions work. They have a beautiful home that was built by the CAM churches in the area for them, and two really cool dogs, including a black chow ironically named "Nieve" or "Snow." You can read their blog here: http://the-cokers.blogspot.com/
We sat and talked with them for a while about the water ministry they do with Living Waters for the World, trying to understand the operational model and how they are working to serve people with safe drinking water. This is part of the work I am doing with Healing Waters International to better understand other water orgs and their operational models so that we can expand our model to serve more people and transform more lives with safe drinking water.
After a delicious lunch that Maria prepared for us (are you seeing a recurring food theme to this post yet?) we set off to look at a couple of the Living Waters for the World (LWW) systems. Below is a photo of Johnny Coker at the LWW system in Panajachel. You can see that their equipment array is a lot simpler than the equipment we use for a Healing Waters International system, which has both benefits and drawbacks. We learned how the system works and what kind of an operational model they use to make the system self-sustaining, really interesting stuff! It is great to see the work that other water orgs and doing and compare, contrast, share and learn best practices, and know that at the end of the day we are all working to help the 1.1 billion people that lack access to safe drinking water.
Below is a photo of the outside of the LWW system with a great sign they have painted and a woman walking by in traditional indigenous clothes.
We sat and talked with them for a while about the water ministry they do with Living Waters for the World, trying to understand the operational model and how they are working to serve people with safe drinking water. This is part of the work I am doing with Healing Waters International to better understand other water orgs and their operational models so that we can expand our model to serve more people and transform more lives with safe drinking water.After a delicious lunch that Maria prepared for us (are you seeing a recurring food theme to this post yet?) we set off to look at a couple of the Living Waters for the World (LWW) systems. Below is a photo of Johnny Coker at the LWW system in Panajachel. You can see that their equipment array is a lot simpler than the equipment we use for a Healing Waters International system, which has both benefits and drawbacks. We learned how the system works and what kind of an operational model they use to make the system self-sustaining, really interesting stuff! It is great to see the work that other water orgs and doing and compare, contrast, share and learn best practices, and know that at the end of the day we are all working to help the 1.1 billion people that lack access to safe drinking water.
Below is a photo of the outside of the LWW system with a great sign they have painted and a woman walking by in traditional indigenous clothes.
After visiting this system in Panajachel, we headed back towards Antigua. We stopped in Chimaltenango to visit a couple of our own Healing Waters International systems. Healing Waters goes by the name Aguas de Unidad in the countries where we operate, ADU for short. We visited the systems, chatted with the system employees, and I filled up my water bottle, of course. Below you can see a photo of me standing in front of an ADU system with the snazzy logo and branding that we have on all of our systems.
Finally we made it back to Antigua at about 6:15pm. Mario and I rested and got caught up on e-mail for about 45 minutes and then headed in to Antigua to meet with a group from Northern Arizona University. There is a group of 10 students from the campus ministry center at NAU in Guatemala for the week doing missions work. Through my Flagstaff connections, I was able to get in touch with them and meet up with them for dinner tonight to talk about the global water crisis and what Healing Waters International is doing to address it. You can read an article in the Flagstaff Arizona newspaper about their trip here:
Finally we made it back to Antigua at about 6:15pm. Mario and I rested and got caught up on e-mail for about 45 minutes and then headed in to Antigua to meet with a group from Northern Arizona University. There is a group of 10 students from the campus ministry center at NAU in Guatemala for the week doing missions work. Through my Flagstaff connections, I was able to get in touch with them and meet up with them for dinner tonight to talk about the global water crisis and what Healing Waters International is doing to address it. You can read an article in the Flagstaff Arizona newspaper about their trip here:
We met for dinner (once again another delicious meal, I am eating my way through this country!) The students were patient enough to let me talk with them for about 30 minutes while we waited for our food. I encouraged them all to become advocates for the drinking water crisis and for Healing Waters International. I handed out our H2OATH postcards and gave them cool Healing Waters t-shirts with the slogan "I have a Drinking Problem" (which you can also order here: http://www.healingwatersintl.org/goodies)
Finally I charged the student with the H2OATH:
Learn About the Problem (the drinking water crisis)
Learn About the Problem (the drinking water crisis)
Do Something About It (get involved, ask me if you are unsure how)
Tell Others (be creative about getting others involved, share your passion!)
The picture below shows the students with their very cool H2OATH postcards
All in all it was a great day! Hope you enjoy the photos and the post.
All in all it was a great day! Hope you enjoy the photos and the post. 
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