Why I work for Healing Waters

A friend of mine is getting her Masters degree in Non-Profit Management. As part of one of her courses, she had to interview someone that works for an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization, like Healing Waters.) She asked to interview me! I felt privileged to be asked.

As I was filling out the questions, I had a chance to reflect a little bit on the work I do with Healing Waters. Below are the questions and answers I gave, a little peek into my mind and soul. Enjoy!

1. Can you please first tell me a little about yourself and the organization you’re with?
a. What is your current position?
Field Operations Manager for Healing Waters International

b. Have you held other positions?
Not with this organization.

c. How long have you been involved with this organization?
Since November 2007, 2 years and 8 months.

2. How did you first get into the service field/work/position that you are in?

a. Earlier in your life, did you have a stand-out experience or event that particularly inspired you to serve? (Inspiration from a family member, friend, teacher, other individual, book?)
 My family would take a road trip to Northern Mexico every other year from the time I was 5 years old. This early exposure to poverty and the stark contrast between life in the US and life in Mexico had a profound impact on me
 Both of my parents have always been very community-service focused. My mom was a public school teacher my whole life and my dad worked for a law firm that focused on public sector clients (municipalities, school districts, universities.)
 The motto of the university I attended (Pacific Lutheran University) is “Educating for lives of service.” This meant there was a strong social justice focus or service focus in nearly every course I took and the professors really supported the idea of public service.

b. Did you have other influences, i.e. spirituality, political convictions, etc.?
My faith is one of the primary factors that motivates me to do the work that I do. I draw a lot of inspiration from Matthew 25:31-40 where Christ calls us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, comfort to the sick, clothe the naked, and give rest to the stranger. I also believe that faith without action behind it is meaningless. St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times, use words when necessary.”

3. What motivates you to continue to serve now?
a. What do you gain from what you are doing
The individuals, families and children I see when I visit our water systems who are getting access to safe drinking water motivates me to serve. Knowing that their lives will improve because of the work that Healing Waters is doing motivates me. I gain a sense of peace knowing that I am helping make the world a better place, even if it is just one water project, one family, one individual at a time. I feel called to do the work that I do, to invest my time, energy and talents to make life better for people who have not had the privileges that I have had in my life.


4. Can you describe the challenges you face in working for a NGO?
On a personal level, our society defines success as the accumulation of wealth: more cars, bigger houses, etc. Despite making a conscious effort to not live that way or be sucked into that definition of success, sometimes it can be hard. I have been offered jobs that pay double what I am making, but have turned them down. At the end of the day knowing that I am making a difference is better than getting a huge paycheck, but it can be a struggle, especially with a family to help support.

Also on a personal level, but more related to the work I do, I get energized by being in the field and seeing the people benefitted by our projects, so when I sit at my desk in Denver for months at a time without a field visit, I can lose sight of the greater goal.

On an organizational level, there is the chaos of working in a foreign country. The cultural differences, the major inefficiencies, the corruption and the distance and inability to be in the day-to-day operations are all challenges. I have spent a great deal of time in Latin America in the past ten years and am still amazed by how difficult it can be to get things done.

5. Can you describe the challenges of resource development?
In my position, I am insulated from the direct fundraising challenges. I do occasionally lead trips to the field with donors or prospective donors. The challenge on those trips is balancing a “good experience” for the donor with the realities we face on the ground.

There is also a challenge of how open and honest you want to be with a donor. Donors want to support an organization that is successful, so you want to present your success stories to donors. At the same time you want to be honest and transparent with donors and if you are struggling with something as an organization, you want to bring the donors into that struggle to help support you. It is a tough balance to strike.

6. How do you define “success” today - when do you feel like you are successful?
On a personal level, success is knowing that 130,000 people are being served with safe drinking water every day and that I had a very small role in that.

On an organizational level, success is staying true to our mission which means empowering local partners to transform their poor communities with a sustainable long-term safe water solution. When our systems are self-sustaining and people are being served, that feels like a success. When we add more projects and expand into new communities, that feels like a success.

7. What would you say to others to encourage them to serve?
Exposing people to the vast contrast in wealth and poverty will hopefully encourage them to serve. If I could get every CEO of a multi-national corporation to go live in the country where they manufacture on a local salary for a week, I think businesses and the decisions that are made by those businesses would be a lot more ethical and humanitarian.

a. What types of people do you think are attracted to serve in this type of organization and/or in civil society?
People who have seen a greater need and felt a call to respond to it. Usually it is people who have had some experience traveling internationally. They have been shocked by the poverty, the lack of access to basic resources, etc. And that has inspired them to want to do something about it. I think you need to have something in you that sees the humanity of all people and wants to work to make the world a better place in some way.

b. When recruiting and hiring new staff or volunteers, what types of people—with what types of skills and knowledge—does this organization look for?
I have not done a lot of recruiting or hiring. Our CEO talks about “head and heart.” He hires people that have the heart and the drive to do the work and knows that he can train their heads.

8. What other advice do you have for others who may be interested in exploring working in a NGO?

a. Where can one learn the knowledge/skills and gain the experience that is necessary for working in your type of organization?
Go spend some time in a developing country. Not just a week or two traveling, and not just to touristy areas, but really immerse yourself in the culture, the society, the politics, and the place. Be a Peace Corps volunteer, or find another program that suits your needs and interests. There are tons of long-term volunteer opportunities in countries like the Dominican Republic. Language skills are also useful in this kind of work. A month or two of intensive full-immersion language classes in a country where you are interested in serving would be invaluable to not only pick up the language, but also immerse yourself in the culture.

b. What are the best “points of entry” into the field of service
Finding a long-term volunteer opportunity abroad is a great way to start. Then when you return to the US you will have real field experience that you can apply to an organization like Healing Waters International.

9. Do you have any advice for young people in particular?
Travel! And not just to Europe or Australia. Travel to developing countries and spend enough time there to not just know the name of the local beer, but know the hangouts and activities of the local people.

When I was 23 and living in South America, I traveled with a retired stock broker. His sage advice to me was “There is always going to be time to earn money, but you will not always have the privilege and luxury of your health and time to travel. So do it now. Know that you can return back to the US at age 25 and still get started in a career. But you will never be able to replace the experiences you learn while traveling from 22-25.”

10. Could you speak to your particular interest in the cultural diversity and/or the international arena?
I have a strong passion for Latin America and development work in Latin America. Inevitably I end up looking at the root causes of poverty and what different people are doing to address them. This leads to an exploration of immigration and the large populations of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. So I have developed a “sub-passion” for issues related to immigrant populations in the US and the cultural diversity that comes from that immigration.

My love for Latin America has also helped me develop a profound respect and appreciation for other cultures. In my own life, career and family, I try to take the best parts of each culture I have been exposed to and incorporate that into my sphere of influence.

Thoughts about politics and the church, repost from a friend of mine

I am just getting caught up on reading my friends' blogs and stumbled across this post from a friend of mine. Paul Sundberg posts on his blog "JUST KEEP ASKING" He is a friend of mine, the father/father-in-law of two of my dear friends from college. His is the pastor of an ELCA Lutheran Church in the Pacific Northwest. I really appreciate his perspective and this is not the first time I have reposted one of his posts. Without further ado, enjoy:





Last night’s vote on health care reform in the U.S., was hardly the end of it. Our divided nation will be more divided. Wrangling and rancor will continue, and indeed, increase. That is the way of the world. It is most certainly nothing new. But what a sad display: it remains disheartening and disturbing.

Still a Christian, I am most disturbed by those who identify themselves as Christians and who see our government as an enemy and not as an instrument of compassion. I continue to be dumbfounded by those who care about the first three trimesters of life and are totally callous about the fourth trimester. I continue to be appalled by those who call this a Christian nation, demanding legislated moral constraints, without demanding care for the least among us. I continue to be saddened by the Christians that label such care as socialism, and sees solutions only in capitalism (as though it was a social mechanism baptized by Jesus himself). Have they never read about the communities of Jesus in the New Testament?

No wonder why fewer and fewer Americans are finding hope and solace in the church.

We have so much work to do to show we still matter.

Back from Guatemala, Snow Boots and Flip-Flops and other contrasts

I arrived safely back from Guatemala on Thursday night. It was great to be back with Jessica, Lil' A-P and Sol. We are mid-way through Week 34 of the pregnancy and cannot wait to meet our little girl.

Today I took a "travel comp" day to get caught up on things around the house and run some errands that I had neglected during my trip to Guatemala. I raked the leaves in the yard, cleaned the house, did some small home improvement projects and got caught up on work at Wellshire Presbyterian Church where I am the Youth Director.

The temperature today in Denver was in the high 70s. Just last week I was shoveling 20 inches of snow off my driveway and sidewalk. I love living here in Denver, a city of contrasts. We have almost two feet of snow one week and I am tromping around in my Sorel snow boots and the next week we have temperatures in the high 70s and I can walk around in my flip-flops. A few winters ago, I even went skiing on a Saturday and golfing on a Sunday.

These contrasts in temperature and weather are not so common in Guatemala. The weather tends to be pretty even keel there. However Guatemala is a land of contrasts, just not contrasts of temperature.

The contrast in Guatemala is the incredible wealth and the oppressive poverty. Last time I was in Guatemala I was visiting a coffee plantation. I saw workers in the field that were making an average of $300 per month, just a little more than minimum wage in Guatemala. While I was talking with one of the plantation workers a loud noise caught our attention. It was the owner of the coffee plantation, arriving to work in his own private helicopter.



The wealth in Latin America is impressive, even by our own standards here in the United States. One of the richest men in the whole world, Carlos Slim, is a Mexican. The upper classes in Latin America live well. Which is why it contrasts so much with the impoverished masses, the folks we have the privilege of working with in Healing Waters International.

I never cease to be amazed by the spirit of the people we work with. Despite extreme poverty contrasted with such wealth, the people we work with have profound faith and an incredibly positive outlook.

The class system in Latin America is not as rigid as the caste system of India, but the chance of moving from the lower classes to the upper classes is pretty slim. Despite this, and despite having this class contrast front and center every day with helicopters landing in coffee fields and Land Rovers and Mercedes driving by urban slums, the people we work with find joy in their lives, their families and their faith.

That is one of the things that drew me to Latin America originally and keeps me coming back. That spirit, the sense of faith and community, and the general sense of joy.

So as I settle back into my life here in Denver, trying to decide whether to wear my flip flops or my snow boots, that contrast will make me grateful for my time in Latin America and the people I am privileged to work with there.

Some great quotes on social justice, global missions, prayer and service

I am the interim youth director at Wellshire Presbyterian Church. For the past few weeks, with the help of Holly Inglis, our Director of Christian Education, we have been doing a really cool series with the youth group on prayer.

The first week we focused on "prayer for self." We set up prayer stations so the kids could focus their prayers. I built a cross out of rough-hewn 4x4 cedar and the kids were able to write their prayers on a piece of paper and then nail them to the cross.

Last week we focused on "prayer for others." The kids braided together strips of cloth representing themselves, the person they were praying for and God, symbolizing the way that prayer can bring us together and in closer relationship with God.

This week we focused on "prayer for the world." One of our activities was praying over headlines from the paper and quotes about service, global missions and social justice, and then lighting a candle and placing it on a big world map over the country or region the kids were praying for.

A couple of the quotes that Holly found for this activity are below and I wanted to share them with you. They really resonated with me and I hope they are meaninful for you too:

“It is not how much we do,
But how much love we put in the doing.
It is not how much we give,
But how much love we put in the giving.”
-Mother Teresa


“Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing;
Nakedness is lack of human dignity”
-Mother Teresa


“If we pray, we will believe;
If we believe, we will love
If we love, we will serve.”
-Mother Teresa


Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless humanity now.
-Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

A huge "shout out" to Holly for all of her help with this series we have done on prayer. She is a genius with a servant's heart. I am blessed to work with her. Thank you Holly and thank God for Holly!

Another great water org with a very similar message

Yesterday I posted about not getting paralyzed by the scope of the problems we are facing in the world. Today I got an e-mail and a video from another water org that had a very similar message. I really like what they have to say, just at the end, kick over to Healing Waters website instead of the one that they suggest. :)

Enjoy!

"I've been reading a lot lately about the psychology of enormous problems. About how people will always rush to save one child but disconnect when faced with helping thousands of children. "One death is a tragedy, a million - a statistic," we're told.

Non-profits like ours that are addressing enormous problems (a billion people without clean water) are told to make sure we don't scare people off by communicating how big the whole problem is.

Author Seth Godin recently wrote that the problem with enormity in marketing is that it doesn't work. He said "Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down. Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies, and you won't get a bigger donation, you'll just get averted eyes."

While all this may be true, it just seems rather boring. Visionless. I believe people want to sign up for something bigger than just one. I did.

There's a proverb in the Bible that says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." People are certainly dying all around us, but could that be because we're terrified to tackle the enormous? Because we don't have the faith to see the entire problem solved?

I can't quite see to a billion people yet, but I'm getting closer.

So in the spirit of solving enormous problems, we want to step it up this September, and serve more people. Then keep going until every single person on the planet has clean and safe drinking water.

We shot a video that explains how we want to do that through the 2009 September campaign. Please watch it, share it and act."

Overwhelmed, paralyzed, what can I do?

The title of this post captures the sentiment that I have felt at times about issues of social justice, global poverty, starvation, the water crisis and other tough stuff that tugs at my heart strings.

There are so many issues out there, that we can be paralyzed into inaction because we are so overwhelmed by the amount of saddness and suffering around us.

But know that you can make a difference, even little you. In your tiny corner of the world, you can make a difference. I use the starfish parable a lot to describe this:

One morning an elderly man was walking on a beach. A high tide the night before had washed thousands of starfish up on the beach. Now that the tide was back out and the sun was coming up, the starfish were dying in the sun. He came upon a boy surrounded by thousands and thousands of starfish. As eagerly as he could, the youngster was picking them up one at a time and throwing them back into the ocean.

Puzzled, the older man looked at the young boy and asked, "Little boy, what are you doing?"

The youth responded without looking up, "I'm trying to save these starfish, sir."

The old man chuckled aloud, and queried, "Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?"

Holding a starfish in his hand, the boy turned to the man and, gently tossing the starfish into the water, said, "It will make a difference to that one!"

Find your starfish in your own little corner of the world. For me, it is safe drinking water in Latin America. For my wife, it is teaching in urban schools. For a friend of mine, it is working in soup kitchens and homeless shelters on her time off. Each one of us knows we can't fix all the world's problems, but we each work in our own corner of the world "making a difference to that one."

The video below has a cool spin on this too (and is also pretty critical of "reality TV" which is one of my pet peeves):

Last three days in Guatemala, a LOOOOONNGGG bus trip and my first day in Chiapas, Mexico!

I picked up my parents from the Guatemala City airport on Wednesday night. Their plane was late and did not arrive until about 11:45pm which means we did not make it back to our hotel in Antigua until 1am.

Thursday morning I turned my parents loose in Antigua as I drove to the Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad Guatemala office. Thursday was another full, but very fulfilling day. I arrived at the office and got caught up on e-mail, staying in touch with the Denver office of Healing Waters. Then Juan, Dani and I piled into the car and drove to Comalapa, a city of 15,000 that is about 1 hour from the office. Along the way we shared the road with a man herding his cow as you can see in the photo below.



We are installing a new water system in Comalapa this year, so I got the chance to see where the water system is being installed and learn a little bit more about the community. I am really excited about this water system because it is being installed in a Christian school that has representation from various churches in town, including Catholic and Protestant. The school is run by an interdenominational organization with a strong version for serving their community.

This is a photo of me standing in front of the school with a teacher

After visiting the school where the water system will be installed and meeting with some people from the school, Juan, Dani and I toured the local market where I got to take some great photos.

A Catholic church, a brightly painted bus and a "tuk-tuk" (three wheeled motorcycle taxi)

Three boys in the market who wanted me to take their photo

An indigenous woman selling tomatos and potatos

A beautiful indigenous woman selling flowers

On our way back to the office we stopped by a roadside stand where they sell roasted corn on the cob. You rub lime and salt on the corn and it is DELICIOUS!

The woman preparing the corn and cutting the limes

Me enjoying some roasted corn on the cob

We got back to the office in time to finalize our schedule for the next day, which included a morning meeting with a couple of my staff members, and visits with three church partners all over Guatemala city. Friday morning dawned early once again, as I had to meet with Ben, our tech and maintenance manager to help him with contracting an assistant. Then we hopped in the car and headed into Guatemala city. I met with the pastor a two church elders from a church that is really involved in their community. We met on the campus of a seminary where the pastor teaches classes.

The pastor and elders of the church, note a slight difference in height.

After that meeting, we headed to a famous Chinese restaurant in Guatemala city (I know, Chinese food it Guatemala? Right?) The food was mediocre but the meeting with the pastor went well. He had some good feedback and suggestions and really enjoyed getting to know him and hear about his church. Guatemala is a country of contrasts, and this man is the co-pastor of a church. He is well-educated and from a middle class family. His co-pastor at the church is a carpenter with a 6th grade education. It was amazing to learn how well these two men complement each other and can do such a great job leading a church.

Important Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad and church business over Guatemalan Chinese food!

My final meeting of the day was in the Santa Fe neighborhood which is literally a stones-throw away from the runway of the Guatemala City International Airport. This neighborhood is famous because every few years a pilot doesn't stick the landing at the airport, or the brakes don't work on the plane and the planes end up crashing into this neighborhood. (I guess that is not something you want to be famous for.) The pastor of the church had a great sense of humor and a huge heart for serving his community. It was very clear that he was using the Healing Waters system to reach out to his community and provide them a source of safe drinking water. . . and hope for a better future.

Another substantial height difference. Next to me is Daniela Rosales, a Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad staff member in Guatemala

We finally made it back to the office at about 5pm and celebrated the birthday of Cristobal, one of the employees at the Aguas de Unidad Guatemala office. Our Guatemalan accountant, Letty, has a one year old son that joined us for the party. After some delicious cake, I took the time to say goodbye and pray with the employees. It was a long but very fulfilling work-week.

Gregorio and Juan Orlando

Cristobal blowing out his candles

I drove back to Antigua exhausted but very content. My parents were waiting for me and we all went to dinner at Mono Loco and had their famous nachos! On Saturday morning my parents and I drove to Lake Atitlan. It is a beautiful lake in the Guatemalan highlands surrounded by two huge volcanoes. We walked through the market and I started to buy dresses for my daughter (who will be born on December 20th.) I went a little crazy and ended up getting 7 different dresses, but it was fun!

Then we took a boat ride out on the lake to a small village. We returned to Panajachel (the major city on the lake) and had a delicious lunch of Mojarra, a fish that is caught in Lake Atitlan.

My Dad and I at the Mirador overlooking Lake Atitlan and Panajachel

Dad after finishing his Mojarra. I told him to eat the eyes, he wasn't interested.

We drove back to Antigua and then met Juan Colmenares (a Guatemala Aguas de Unidad employee) and his family for our final dinner in Guatemala.

On Sunday morning we left our hotel in Antigua at 6:00am to be at the bus terminal in Guatemala city at 7am. Our bus left for Tapachula at 7:30am and arrived in Tapachula at 2:00pm. Tapachula is just across the Mexican border in southern Chiapas.

The border crossing was a little bit chaotic. The bus dropped us off on the Guatemalan side of the border where we had to wade through money changers and people offering to "help us" with the immigration process. Once we got up to the window for Guatemalan immigration, they looked at our passports and told us we had to pay 10 Quetzales each (the equivalent of $1.25.) I was suspicious of that as I didn't think there was an "exit tax" to leave the country so I asked the agent if she could produce a receipt for me. Surprise, Surprise, their machine was broken so she couldn't give me a receipt. But if I wanted to go to the bank a block away and make the payment there, they would give me a receipt. The bank had a line out the door and I decided it would be easier to just pay and get across the border. After that you physically walk across a bridge that is the Guatemala-Mexico border. On the other side the bus is waiting. You take your bags from underneath the bus and then go through Mexican immigration and customs. We put the bags back on the bus, borded and off we went.

From the border to Tapachula it is about 30 minutes and we got stopped at police/military checkpoints twice looking for drugs and illegal immigrants.

We got the bus station in Tapachula which was surprisingly clean and calm for a Latin American bus station. We had to wait for an hour and a half to get our bus to Tuxtla so I ran out and bought some sandwiches, chips and soda.

We boarded the bus to Tuxtla at 3:30pm and finally made it to Tuxtla at 9:30pm. Once again there were at least 4 military/police checkpoints looking for drugs and illegal immigrants.

We checked into our hotel and then went over to Mario's house. He is the National Director of Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad Mexico. Mario's wife, Kim, is an INCREDIBLE cook and she had made some typical dishes for us. In typical fashion, dinner lasted until midnight and we finally made it back to the hotel and crashed.

Now I am Mexico for the week and will try to post updates a little more frequently. My schedule will slow down a bit, so I hope to be sharing a bit more. Thanks for reading and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!

Guest Blogger: Great blog post from a good friend about missions work

So I haven't been great about getting new content on my blog this month. It has been a crazy few weeks, and I just haven't felt inspired. . . until this morning.

I read a blog post from a friend of mine and wanted to repost it. I think it is profound enough that it needs to get some circulation. The "Guest Blogger" today is Paul Sundberg, who is a Lutheran pastor up in Lynwood, Washington. His daughter, Kirsten, and son-in-law, Nathan, are some of our best friends and I count Paul as a friend of mine in his own right.

The post really resonated with me relative to the work I do with Healing Waters and any other global or local missions work that people do. Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Are We Just Enabling?

So here is the question-- We do a whole lot of local mission work, helping those who are homeless, have little in the way of resources or money. Jesus teaches us to take care of those-- feed the hungry, etc. When people have made a whole host of poor decisions that have landed them in that spot, are we doing more to enable them to make more poor decisions, or are we really doing good? There are consequences to our decisions--where do these come in? In this culture of kindness and gospel outreach, I feel guilty even asking the question-- but it has been bothering me for months. And maybe it's grace. We don't judge-- we just do what we can and leave the rest to the Lord. Comments?

This is a question with which we constantly struggle as we work to address basic needs. There simply aren’t simple answers.

It is an accurate reading of the gospels to conclude that Jesus never asked someone how they got into a situation of need. It is also an accurate reading to conclude that much of Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees, scribes, priests, and leaders is directed to their socio-economic/political failure to care for the poor and excluded. Such care was an obligation of the “system”/institutions. When it comes to personal choices Jesus seems to point to the reality that systems themselves limit the range of choices one can make. What is possible from one position in the system is impossible from another position in the system.

Maybe the most interesting situations occur with the feeding of the great crowds 5000 and 4000 “not counting women and children”. These people willingly followed Jesus out into the desert and seem to have neglected to provide for their own needs – generally accepted foolish behavior. In addition, it’s likely that few would have suffered by waiting for a meal until they got back home. But, Jesus says, “feed them”.

It’s not that Jesus doesn’t call us to exercise our decision making abilities; he just doesn’t call us to self care. When he feeds and heals he sends people back home to take up their productive/supportive roles in society. When he doesn’t do that he invites people to follow him and join his community – and become healers and feeders of those in need. There is nothing he does about past choices; he only draws people into new opportunities. And what if their choices are once again bad? 70 X 7 seems to be the formula for forgiveness – transformation most often takes a long time.

So, meeting basic needs seems to have several objectives. 1) Meet the need, after all, hungry is hungry, thirsty is thirsty, homeless is homeless. 2) Draw people into community. 3) Turn the healed and fed into healers and feeders of others.

Those are the objectives we actively pursue at Trinity as we deal with basic needs. Thanks be to God, we’re seeing all three of them realized.

Posted by paul sundberg - justkeepasking@gmail.com at 6:34 AM
Labels: care, choice, community, Compassion, forgiveness

One more Wellshire team Guatemala Sermonette/Message

Rachel is in the green shirt on the far left

Below is the final sermonette/message from one of the members of Wellshire who participated in the Healing Waters/Habitat mission trip to Guatemala in March of 2009. It focuses on our responsibility as Christians to ensure that the money we give to causes is being used wisely, good stewardship. This was written by Rachel Wildrick, a member of Wellshire and sophomore at UC Boulder. Enjoy!


After my first year of college, the thing I’ve begun to get my head around most is the simple fact that life isn’t that simple. It isn’t just the sky is blue, as anyone familiar with the physics of light and refraction could tell you. Life requires considering all sorts of different data and interaction. In a similar way, ADU Guatemala has changed the way I view charity- no longer is it we give, they receive – too simple! Instead, charity is about not only meeting needs, but also meeting needs in a compassionate, yet helpful manner – we don’t just give, we help empower and help up our brothers and sisters… and that means giving with more than just that particular need in mind. It is the nonprofits that take into account the issues or problems that a situation presents (in other words, are a little more complicated to explain) that are the successful, effective, working organizations.

For example, ADU’s partnerships with good-standing, local churches who have seen a need and want to help meet it give the churches the opportunity to stimulate the area’s local economy (by employing locals and charging a fair price for water), and to also use the portion of whatever profit they make to help grow and lift up the community around them. On our trip there, that meant that we went to local schools and painted classrooms, took class pictures, and played with the children all in the name of the church we were working with.

At the local high school, the very idea of community service by others inspired a celebration for the entire school, involving a full-fledged banquet, gifts for us made by the shop class and a dance performance – this fabulous celebration was really a celebration of the outreach and the impact that this church was able to make on the school. Made possible BY ADU, and through ADU’s holistic approach, and their encouragement of serving the community through something like a small profit through selling clean, disease free water for a manageable and fair price makes a huge difference in the people in that area. I remember someone remarking after we left that day from the school, that this day is something that they will remember forever (whether it be just the image of white tall gringos attempting to challenge their star basketball team or us painting the inside and outside of their school, not only are the memories stamped on our hearts, but we have made an indelible mark on their lives as well.

It’s giving with knowledge and understanding of what you’re giving to… No longer will I give money or time to organizations who are giving handouts that don’t work for long… ADU sets the standard for empowering those that they serve, thoughtfully and with a mind to better the community. I obviously have a very high opinion of ADU, and think that they set the standard in many ways for non profit organizations, but one thing that is crucial to conscientious giving is the accountability of the organization. By keeping close record of all water sales, they are setting an example of good business and accountable habits for the churches they work with and the local employees, which as we’ve talked about, reaches the entire community.

In our giving to organizations that are accountable and effective, we in turn are being effective givers, where our time and money really count and make a difference. With the old ideas of simple donation (we give they receive) out the window, I want to suggest that giving is more about the Christian ideals like giving somebody the tools that will help them up, accountability to the community and to God, as well as giving back to the community that you live and work in.

It’s harder and more complicated to consider things like economy, business, community development, but I feel as though God calls us to consider the bigger issues, to consider the difficult things. God’s not about a temporary fix or handing out 500 dollars that’ll run out in no time. God is about solving long term problems with long term solutions. So while it may take an additional 15 minutes to describe, really, what your favorite charity does, I think it might just maybe be more of what God wants from our charity. Not just simple giving, but thoughtful, compassionate giving that addresses the problems, whether they be monumental or easily fixed.
Yes, the sky is blue… but give me 15 minutes and I could tell you the million different reasons and interacting sciences that make it work.

Another Sermonette/Message from the Wellshire Guatemala Team

I am going to share a couple more of these sermonettes because they really drive home the power of Global Missions and the important work of organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Healing Waters International.

This one is from Ray Johnson. Ray has been a member of Wellshire for decades and he went on this trip with his whole family (wife and two kids.) The message is pretty self-explanatory, so enjoy!

WHY GUATEMALA?

Good morning. My name is Ray Johnson, and I had the privilege of being part of Wellshire’s recent trip to Guatemala. I have to be honest. The main reason I went on the trip to Guatemala is that my wife told me I had to. She really wanted our family to participate together in an international mission trip ... and it was a great idea. But, I had two questions prior to this trip that made me hesitant about doing an international trip:

The first was “Why Guatemala?” Why travel all that distance to another country when you can find many of the same problems we are going there to address, right down the street in our own city? This is a question I asked myself and it is a question I was repeatedly asked by others.

That question was answered for me while I was in Guatemala. See, there are approximately 13,000,000 Guatemalans … of those, approximately 1,000,000 are presently living in the United States, some legally, some illegally, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. They are here hoping to work and be able to send money back to their families so that their lives can be better in Guatemala. And Guatemala is just one country where this is happening.

I also learned that drug and gang violence was on the rise in Guatemala. I learned that many of the gang leaders there were “trained” in Los Angeles gangs and were deported back to Guatemala after they had been arrested. Back in Guatemala, they’ve carried on with what they know.

When you travel to a country like Guatemala, or any other country for that matter, and you listen to the people there, you realize that no matter how different we look, or what language we speak, or what our customs or living standards are, God created us all the same. We all need food and shelter, we want to love and laugh, we want a safe place to raise our families, and the list of similarities goes on. In short, they desire the very things that we desire.

So, I truly believe that a man in Guatemala, given the hope of decent housing, clean water and an education for his children would rather stay with his family in his native land than travel to the United States in hopes of being able to send some money back to make the lives of his family better in his absence.

So what occurred to me on this trip is that maybe, just maybe, some of the problems occurring right down the street here in Denver and in other cities in our nation are truly global problems that need a global solution; a global solution that starts by providing hope for people in nations like Guatemala.

The second question that kept gnawing at me prior to this trip was “can we really hope to make a difference?” After all, I just told you that there are 13,000,000 Guatemalans and 19 of us who traveled down there for one week. We talked about this after we arrived in Guatemala. Greg Allen-Pickett told a story that I had heard before, but had forgotten. I won’t forget it again.

The story is about a young boy walking along a beach. The beach is littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed up on the beach in a storm the night before. As you know, starfish don’t move very fast, and their chance of making it back to the water before the sun rose and killed them was slim. So the young boy was picking them up one by one and casting them back into the water. A man came along and asked the boy; what are you doing? There are starfish along this beach for as far as you can see in both directions (maybe 13,000,000 of them)… you can’t possibly make a difference! The boy bent over, picked up another starfish, cast it into the water, looked at the man and said, “I made a difference to that one!”

So now when I think about the 19 of us traveling to Guatemala and working for four days on a Habitat for Humanity house for a woman named Ester, I can’t help but think “we made a difference to that one”… A difference that will impact her, her daughters and her grand children and maybe provide that glimmer of hope.

So next time you hear that Wellshire is planning a global mission trip, don’t be like I was. Remember two things: 1. We really have become a global society that needs global solutions, and 2. Don’t be paralyzed into inactivity, globally or locally, by thinking, I can’t possibly make a difference.

Guatemala and Global Drinking Water Crisis Message

Last Sunday my church celebrated our mission trip to Guatemala. Seven members of our mission team gave short messages/sermonettes/homilies to share our experience in Guatemala with the rest of Wellshire church. Below is the message I gave, which sort of expounded on the bible study that I led the last day our group was in Guatemala. . . enjoy!



How many of you have had the opportunity and privilege of traveling to Mexico or Guatemala?

How many of you were given the advice “Don’t drink the water?”

Many people believe that advice is just for Americans and that the locals can drink their own tap water.

The sad reality is that is simply not the case. In 90% of cities in Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, the tap water that comes out of the tap is so contaminated it would make anyone sick, no matter what your nationality. You see little bugs like salmonella, giardia, fecal coliforms, e coli and others don’t discriminate based on your nationality, anyone who comes in to contact with these little buggers gets sick.

That is a daily reality for the people that live in Guatemala and other developing countries, they can’t just go to the tap and get a glass of drinking water and they have to treat any water they are going to cook with too.


Some facts about the global drinking water crisis:


-More than 1.1 billion people in the world, 1 in 6, lack access to safe drinking water

-More than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die from water borne illnesses each year, like the equivalent of 16 Boeing jumbo jets crashing each day, no survivors.

-Diarrhea from water borne disease is the second leading cause of mortality among children.

-Poor, urban communities of the developing world pay the highest prices in the world for water.

These are numbers. Numbers and statistics are important for us to try to understand the depth and breadth of a problem, but numbers never tell the whole story.

These numbers have faces, and we had the privilege of looking in those faces each day we were in Guatemala. Many of those faces are the photos I took on the trip in this blog post.

But our trip to Guatemala was not a story of sadness, it was a story of hope, because each one of us who went on the trip to Guatemala and each one of you who prayed for us while we were on the trip. . .

is working to change these numbers and just as important, looking in these faces and building relationships and solidarity with the people that represent these statistics.

As Christians, we are called to help others in the world who are hurting, struggling and not getting their basic needs met. We are called LOUDLY to do this throughout scripture.

In Matthew 25, Jesus states “. . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me. . .

Truly I tell you, just at you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

I have felt this call strongly in my life and it has led me to do development work in Latin America as the Field Operations Manager for Healing Waters International.

Each person will respond this call differently, by helping out a neighbor, by working in the soup kitchen or homeless shelter down the street, by traveling to a native American reservation and working there, or by doing global missions.

Each one of these are equally important and equally good responses to that call, but it is so important that we heed that call and like Jesus, actively work to feed the hungry, offer drink to the thirsty, comfort to the lonely, care to the sick.

We could learn statistics about all of these hurting people in our world, and statistics are important to grasp the scope of a problem, like the global problem for safe drinking water.

But we also need to remember that these numbers have faces.

We need to look in those faces and shine the light of Christ through our eyes and treat those in need with the dignity, respect and help that Christ is calling us to do.

So all of this really begs the question: What are you going to do to heed that call?

This is your call to action. In Healing Waters when talking about the global water crisis, we call it the H2OATH:

-Learn about the problem

-Do something about it

-Tell others

I encourage you to take your own oath for your own passion and calling for missional work, work outside the walls of this church, work that Jesus comes along side and does with us.

Amazing, Inspiring, Profound and Thought-Provoking speech. . . excerpts below

A child in Guatemala. She lives in poverty

without safe drinking water or other very basic things

but represents hope for the future. All of us need to

believe in a better future, no matter where we are

or where we come from.

My mother-in-law sent me the speech below. I have taken excerpts out of the speech to share with you. If you want to see the whole thing click here http://www.paulhawken.com/paulhawken_frameset.html
Then click on "Multimedia" and you will see the speech as a PDF.

This speech was given by Paul Hawken at the University of Portland graduation this May, 2009. Paul's short bio is: Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.

Here are some amazing excerpts from the speech:

Healing or Stealing?

The Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland

May 3, 2009

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there. Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. . .

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way. . .

Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown — Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity.

Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history. . .

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. . . We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

Great ministry in Guatemala

This is a photo of me, Mario (Healing Waters

Regional Director for Guatemala and Mexico)

Brock and Kerrie of Deepstream Guatemala

ministries and Claro, a Guatemalan who is having

a house built for him by Brock and Kerrie's ministry.

When I was in Guatemala back in October I met a family that had just moved there to work as missionaries. They have an amazing story and I have mentioned them in my blog before. You can read a little bit about them here:

The Johnson's are Brock, Kerrie, Madi (11), Brooke (10), and Jake (7). God called us to Guatemala to help those whose needs are far greater than our own.

Our eyes have been opened to true poverty, suffering children, and desperate need - which has changed us to the core.

Living in Guatemala has been a wild faith journey thus far. Arriving here without a "ministry plan", we have simply been zeroed in on following the voice of Jesus.

You can read a brief summary about our calling to Guatemala, or a series of blog postings where we have shared our last year or so.

When I returned to Guatemala in March with a group from Wellshire Presbyterian church, I visited the family again, this time with my whole group, and saw some of the projects they are working on. I continue to be impressed with their ministry, not a typical "missionary" model, really trying to get in to the community where they work and meet the most basic needs of the people, letting the love of Christ shine through their actions.

This is a photo of the group from Wellshire church

praying with Brock and his family in the community

of Buena Vista where they work building houses and

changing lives.

They have put together a short video that highlights their work and I want to share it with you:

Another Amazing video from Playing for Change

This is another video from Mark Johnson and the "Playing for Change" movement. If you don't know what I am talking about, read the blog post below from yesterday.

I have to give a shout out to one of my other Blogging friends who is also a co-worker with me here at Healing Waters International, Aaron Walling. He has a great blog called "One Drop", the title is from the Bob Marley Reggae song, so this next video I am posting is for him. His blog is a lot like mine with a mix of videos, thoughts, reflections, and some good Healing Water stuff thrown in there. Check him out and check out the remarkable video below:

Playing for change - street musicians making a difference

I heard a story about this on NPR yesterday and after a little bit of digging, found these videos. This is AMAZING!

There is this guy named Mark Johnson who recorded and filmed a street musician in California singing "Stand by me" and then decided to start filming musicians in all corners of the world singing the same song. He states, " The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world."

This first video is the "Stand by me" video. I will post a few others over the next few days/weeks. Really cool stuff!

Powerful Video

My mother-in-law sent me this video today. It moved me to tears. If you have 7 minutes, take a look. Here is a synopsis of the video:
This film is about the hunger and poverty brought about by Globalization. There are 10,000 people dying everyday due to hunger and malnutrition. This short film shows a forgotten portion of the society. The people who lives on the refuse of men to survive. What is inspiring is the hope and spirituality that never left these people.

Food insecurity, malnutrition and starvation go hand in hand with lack of access to safe drinking water. Let's all work together to try and solve these problems.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Healing Waters International on 9News last week, Welcome back Wellshire and some light-hearted stuff

Greetings to everyone! The whole group from Wellshire made it back safely on Saturday and Sunday after an incredibly fulfilling trip to Guatemala.

If you want to read about our trip, all the blog posts are below. If you want to do it chronologically, scroll down to the post from Sunday March 22 entitled: Wellshire Group In Guatemala! Post 1 from Saturday, 3/21. Then you can read up from there:
Wellshire group in Guatemala: Post 2 from 3/22/09
Wellshire Group in Guatemala: Post 3 from 3/23/09
Wellshire Group in Guatemala: Post 4 from 3/24/09
Wellshire Group in Guatemala: Post 5 from 3/25/09
Wellshire Group in Guatemala: Post 6 from 3/26 and 3/27

Or you can just read straight down and learn about the trip from the last day to the first, totally up to you. Trying to appease both linear and non-linear thinkers. :)

While we were in Guatemala, the UN celebrated World Water Day, which is a day designed to raise awareness around the issues of the 1.1 Billion people that lack access to safe drinking water. We got some very positive news coverage from a few local TV stations here in Denver including 9News, our NBC affiliate. Below is the video:



If the video doesn't come up in the blog, you can also access it and an article on the 9News website here:
http://www.9news.com/life/programming/shows/mornings/article.aspx?storyid=112223&catid=229

We also were interviewed by 7 News, and I will post that video when I get it.

If you are passionate about the cause of safe drinking water and believe that Healing Waters International is doing good work to address it, please consider becoming a monthly donor. Every little bit helps, and every $50 that is donated provides a person access to safe drinking water FOR LIFE! That's right, not just for a year or five years, $50 provides access to water for LIFE! You can click on the button below to donate, it will take you straight to our eTapestry donation page.



If you still have more questions about Healing Waters before you are ready to make that commitment, feel free to e-mail me: Greg Allen-Pickett or visit our website at http://www.healingwatersintl.org/

Finally, I wanted to share a fun, light-hearted video with everyone after all this serious water stuff. On our trip we had various levels of Spanish speakers, and it was a real joy watching people speaking in Spanish, trying the phrases they knew, and building relationships with Guatemalans.

As a part-time Spanish professor, I tried to share my insight, knowledge and tips. One of the people on the trip told me about this video, which is absolutely hilarious. For anyone who has ever taken a foreign language class and remembers their experience and the vocabulary from that class, this video perfectly captures it. The video is called "The one semester of Spanish - Spanish love song." It uses all the phrases that you learn in your first semester of Spanish to try to win over the heart of a lovely lady. . . ENJOY!