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.

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!

Saludos de Guatemala! (Greetings from Guatemala!)

This is the daughter and granddaughter of Esther, the recipient of the Habitat for Humanity House that the Wellshire group built in March. I had a chance to go back and visit the family and see their completed house. You can read more below.

I am sitting down relaxing in the lobby of my little hotel in Antigua for the first time since I arrived on Sunday night. I finally have a little free time to sit down and update my blog, so here goes!

I am spending a week in Guatemala and a week in Mexico working with the local staff and offices of Aguas de Unidad/Healing Waters International. I arrived here in Guatemala late Sunday night and will be catching a bus to Mexico this Sunday. For my seven days here in Guatemala, I have a pretty packed itinerary.

After my plane landed at 11pm on Sunday, Daniela Rosales from our Guatemala office picked me up at the airport and we made the 45 minute long drive to Antigua (this drive takes only 45 minutes when there is no traffic, more on that later.) She dropped me off at the hotel and I crashed. I woke up Monday morning at 5:15am to shower, get dressed and be ready to go at 5:45am. I had a meeting planned with a member of the Aguas de Unidad Guatemala board of directors at 7:30am in Guatemala city and because of the rush hour traffic, it takes an hour and a half to get from Antigua to Guatemala City in the mornings.

The meeting was very successful. I had the chance to thank our board member for his service to the organization, update him on what was going on with Healing Waters and he shared some great ideas and thought that he had about how to make Aguas de Unidad better in Guatemala.

After this meeting, I drove to our office (which is on the road between Guatemala City and Antigua.) I held a staff meeting with all of our Guatemala staff, got brought up to speed on the happenings of the Guatemala office, helped establish and set some priorities, and enjoyed some quality time with our amazing Guatemala Aguas de Unidad team.

After a delicious lunch, I headed to one of our water systems that is located with a church in the "La Florida" neighborhood. I sat down with the pastor of the church and talked through some operational changes that we have while getting updated on how the water system was going for his church. The opportunity to be in the field seeing the water systems and meeting with the pastors is always amazing and really recharges my batteries in the work that I do for Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad.

This pastor has been using the water system to bless his neighborhood and his church, and it was amazing to see the love in his eyes for Jesus and for his community. After the meeting at the water system in La Florida, I headed back to the office and spent an hour working with Ben, our director of maintenance for Guatemala.

We are in the process of hiring an assistant for Ben and he and I had to sit down and write the job description and employment contract. While this may sound dry and boring, it was also an opportunity to get caught up with Ben. I have talked about him before in my blog: http://blogadegregorio.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-in-life-of-healing-waters-field.html He is a great guy and it was a lot of fun to work with him, even on a project that might seem boring.

After we wrapped up at 6:30pm, we headed back to Antigua. These 10-13 hour work days can be long when I am in the field, but they are worth it. Because my plane ticket and hotel are paid for by our generous donors, I really feel like I need to be a good steward of those donations and take full advantage of my time in the field, so I tend to work very long but very fulfilling days.

When I got back to Antigua, I went out for tacos with Dani, Ben and Ben's wife Krista. We shared some great stories over some Gallo beers and tacos. All in all, it was a great day in the field!

On Tuesday morning, I had to get up at 5:15am again for a 5:45am departure to Guatemala city. I went to meet with the national denominational council for the "Verbo" churches, which is a big denomination of evangelical churches that started here in Guatemala. The denomination has over 30 churches here, and many in other countries including Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and they have even planted churches in Spain, Canada and the United States. I love this sort of "reverse missionary" work when Latin America is sending missionaries to do church planting in "developed" countries like Canada, the United States and Europe. It turns the whole missionary perspective on its head and I just love it!

The meeting with the denominational leadership for the Verbo churches went very well, far better than expected. We have 2 water systems currently at Verbo churches, and after this meeting with their national council, I hope we will consider expanding into more Verbo churches in the future.

We headed back to the office and then I took our whole ADU Guatemala staff out to lunch. After a delicious lunch, I headed to the community of Villa Verde in Ciudad Quetzal. This is where we are going to be installing one of our next water systems. I had the chance to meet with some members of the church, tour the community and see the location where the water system will be installed.

It is very exciting that despite the tough economic times, Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad is still expanding as an organization and we will be installing three new water systems in Guatemala this year. (Along with 3-4 in Mexico and 10 in the Dominican Republic.) I hope to visit one of the other new water system sites later in the week.

I returned to the office late in the afternoon and then called our headquarters in Denver to check in and update everyone there and finally made it back to my hotel at about 6:30pm, racking up another 12+ hour day but excited both for what was accomplished and for what the rest of the week held in store.

Wednesday morning (this morning) I actually got to sleep in until 6:30am, imagine that! My first meeting was an 8am breakfast meeting with a pastor, but it was in a town between Antigua and Guatemala city, so I didn't have to fight the rush-hour traffic going into Guatemala City.

The meeting with the pastor was incredible. He told me stories of some of the amazing things happening at his church, at the water system and in the community. This is one of those pastors that just knocks your socks off with his vision for serving his community and his amazing work ethic.

We departed the breakfast meeting to go to Chimaltenango, which is a town about 30 minutes from Antigua where we have two water systems. This is the town where we went with the group from Wellshire Presbyterian church for a trip in March.

We arrived about 30 minutes early, so we drove to the Habitat for Humanity house that the group from Wellshire helped to build back in March. I had the chance to see the completed house and spend a few minutes talking with the family, it was great to see the project come to completion and see the family moved into their house. I really respect organizations like Habitat for Humanity because they provide such a basic thing (dignified housing) but really work to empower the recipients of the houses and charge no interest or very low interest loans to the new homeowners, truly a "hand up" and not a "hand out."

After visiting with Esther (the new homeowner) we headed to one of the churches in Chimaltenango where we have a water system. We met with the pastor for over two hours, and got an update on the state of the water system and the church. Once again the pastor shared some great stories about what they have been able to do in their community because of the water system. It was invigorating!

After a quick lunch, we met with the other pastor at the other church in Chimaltenango that has a Healing Waters/Aguas de Unidad system. I hadn't met this pastor before and it was great to sit and talk with him and hear his vision for transforming his community.

We returned to the office at about 4:30pm and I checked back in with the Denver office and got caught up on e-mails. After leaving the office at 6pm, I have been sitting in the hotel relaxing.

I am going to go grab some dinner and then drive down to Guatemala City to pick up my parents who come in on a flight tonight.

They are going to hang out here in Guatemala for the next few days while I am working and then join me on the bus trip from Guatemala to Chiapas, Mexico on Sunday. I am blessed to have them come down here to spend some time with me, enjoy all that Antigua has to offer and keep me company in the 12 hour bus ride on Sunday.

I will try to update once or twice more before I leave for Mexico on Sunday. I will also try to get some more photos in here too. Take care and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!

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.

Amazing Photographer + Big Heart = Powerful Photographs and a Good Friend

Photo by Bryce Boyer from the D.R.
To see more of his DR photos, go to:

http://dominicanrepublic2008.blogspot.com/

When I was in the Dominican Republic for five weeks last summer doing my work with Healing Waters International, I had the privilege of co-leading a group of Healing Waters and Compassion International friends during my last week there. The group came down to help inaugurate a Healing Waters system and also visit the children that they sponsor through Compassion international. There is an amazing synergy between our organizations and this trip was a great manifestation of that synergy. (that was an academic sounding sentence, sorry about that, there is still a lot of academia left in me.)

Anyhow, Compassion International sent down a photographer with this group of people named Bryce Boyer. In the week that we spent together, it became very clear that Bryce is a talented photographer and has a HUGE heart for the work that Healing Waters and Compassion do. I really cannot say enough good things about him, and consider him a good friend after spending a week in the DR with him and seeing the way he interacts with people, especially kids. I have used a few of his photos in my blog posts.

I wanted to share a couple of differnent links with you about Bryce. First is his website as a professional photographer (shameless plug.) He does amazing work and has shot for some REALLY high end magazines and newspapers. http://www.bryceboyer.com/

The other link I want to share is the blog he put together after our trip to the DR. His posts provided some amazing insight to the issues of poverty and safe drinking water in the developing world, and I was so impressed with his perspective and his amazing photos. http://dominicanrepublic2008.blogspot.com/ I have cut and paste his most profound post below, but please jump over to his blog that he wrote to see some AMAZING photos.

If you saw a hit and run, would you tell anybody by: Bryce Boyer
Thursday, September 11, 2008

If you saw a hit and run, would you tell anybody?
Visiting the ghettos in a third world country can feel like a punch in the stomach. Like witnessing a terrible car wreck... an accident in which no one want to take responsibility for the victims who are left writhing in pain.

How can I witness such a need for the basic necessities of life (like healthy water) and not tell someone about it. I just got back from a trip to the Dominican Republic taking photos for two fantastic non-profits that are doing something to help: Compassion International & Healing Waters. It feels good to have done something to contribute to their efforts.

My parents have sponsored children through Compassion International for over 25
years. We always had pictures on our refrigerator to remind us of them. This was
the second international trip I've made taking marketing pictures for Compassion
Int. (You can see my Africa trip blog here).

Compassion's focus is helping the poorest of the poor children of the world. Thru community churches, they mobilize thousands of volunteers and staff to help over 1 million children around the world get food, medical attention, education, and encouragement. In America, sponsors help make this possible with $35/month and letters to their sponsored children.

Compassion realizes they can not help the poorest of the poor children of the world if the children are sick all the time because they don't have access to clean water. Healing Waters is a non-profit NGO (non-government-organization) that has a passion for installing clean drinking water systems in some of the poorest areas of the
world. I don't want to bore you... check out their site here if you are interested in what they do.

I hope my pictures will help spur someone into action. Volunteer, here or abroad. Donate. Go on a trip. Sponsor a child. Do something.
Posted by Bryce Boyer Photography at 9:02 PM 0 comments

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:

Amazing Blog Post in support of Healing Waters

A child at a Compassion International site

in the Dominican Republic with a cup of

clean drinking water from the

Healing Waters system

Compassion International, the child sponsorship organization that is a partner with Healing Waters, posted an amazing story on their blog today and I want to share it with you. It not only deals with the impact that the safe drinking water has had from the Healing Waters project, it also talks about the investments in the community that the church has been able to make with the revenue generated by the project.

I have cut and pasted some excerpts below. The link to the whole story can be found here:
http://blog.compassion.com/inside-a-healing-waters-international-project/

Inside a Healing Waters International Project
Written by: Adones Martinez

Since the Healing Waters International water project opened at the Comunidad Cristiana El Santuario Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church in 2006, church members have had more opportunities to decide on matters that can benefit the ministry and the community of Barrio Mexico in southern coastal town of San Pedro de Macorís in Dominican Republic.

The church’s leadership calls for periodic members’ meetings where all ministry managers update the assembly on their ministry. Since all the ministries overlap in some way, these reports help the church make the best decisions.

The ministries include Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program, the Healing Waters International water project, a school and a community holistic vocational center.

These church meetings have become a forum at which the community, represented by the believers, can discuss the best ways to manage resources.

Milqueya is a mother of eight and grandma of seven. She and her husband still live with 11 children and grandchildren at home. Milqueya and her large family enjoy the benefits of the decisions she’s been helping her church make as a voting member. One important decision was the incorporation of the Healing Waters International water project.

In the past, even the least harmful water source wasn’t safe enough for Milqueya. She bought water from the trucks that drove past her home.

Miqueya paid only RD$20 for a 5-gallon water bottle, avoiding the RD$35 price at local stores. But the truck-bought water was making her and her family sick.

“The water caused us stomach diseases. But after we began to drink the water
from the church, we are always healthy and we don’t have any stomach problems.”

After the Healing Waters International project began, the community’s health has improved.

“Since we’ve been running the project, there’s not been any health problems
reported,” says Ana Ivelisse, manager of the Healing Waters International
project. “The National Ministry of Health comes and tests our water to certify
it.”

Not only is the water from the church the purest, it is also the most economic.

For RD$10, half of what she paid for the truck-bought water that made her family sick, Milqueya can take her 5-gallon water bottle home, saving her family’s limited resources for other living expenses.

Proceeds from the water project go toward human and social development to serve and benefit the community through education, health and nutrition.

In the field of education, the Healing Waters International project provides 20 children from Barrio Mexico with a scholarship so they can study at the church’s school.

The project also pays for a watchman who protects the property and equipment of the Compassion-assisted child development center, and a housekeeper who cleans the center’s building.

The proceeds also support the church’s vocational school, which trains locals in a variety of jobs, including computers.

Motorcycles, carts and trolleys arrive each day, taking home 41,000 to 45,000 gallons of purified water each month. The church donates another 600 gallons to the community.


The highest water consumption in the year comes during the summer months when the temperature reaches around 34 degrees Celsius, and the children are home for school break.

The 600 gallons of water that the church donates to the community benefits many groups, including the Compassion-assisted children at Cedina Student Center, the students in the church’s school, the medical staff and patients at a local clinic, and some neighbors in times of special need.

When the community holds a sports event, the church is always willing to support it. Pastor Ventura Taylor says,

“We serve the water in small bottles and we donate it to them as a way of our
church being committed with that activity, which has to do with the social and
cultural development of the community.”

A label is put on the bottles specifying that it is purified water from Comunidad Cristiana El Santuario Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church and Healing Waters International.

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

Working for a non-profit in an economic recession

Filling a 5 gallon jug of safe drinking water at one of Healing Waters systems in the community of "El Puerto" in the Dominican Republic.

Kids taking their bottle of water back to their family

I had some hope the economy would start to turn around or at least level out and stop dropping with a rise in confidence from the stimulus getting passed last week. No such luck.

My working theory on the economic recession is that it is a combination of 2 factors:

1. Legitimate economic problems/issues associated with banking, foreclosures, etc.
2. Lack of confidence in the economy

When people lack confidence, they turn inward and stop spending. Even I have started saving more and spending less in the past few months, so I guess I am part of the problem.

My hope was that with Obama's election and the subsequent stimulus/bailout package, that confidence would start to return. I had no illusions that it would be immediate, or that things would turn around by March, but I had hoped we would see some signs of hope.

Working for a non-profit, all of this is compounded. We have seen a major drop in donations. The need for safe drinking water in developing countries continues to grow, but our ability to meet that need and install new systems depends on getting donors to help pay for the installation costs. Needless to say, my job and salary are also donor dependent, so there are some real concerns there as well.

I read this article in the Denver Post and thought I would share it with you. There are some really good points in the article, so read and enjoy!
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_11762219

A call to service

This is a photo of me and Ed Anderson, the CEO of the non-profit I work for, Healing Waters International. Ed exemplifies the idea of Servant Leadership and demonstrated that to me so much this week. . .

Social service organizations and non-profits are really getting hit hard right now due to the economic downturn. The bitter irony is that their services are needed now more than ever. Soup kitchens are seeing a drop in volunteerism and a rise in people that are coming to them in need of food. Low-cost and free medical clinics are experiencing the same thing, drop in support and rise in patients. I heard a statistic that 20% of all non-profits will cease to exist within the next 18 months. Victims of the economic recession. . .

As Christians, we are called to service, and as the economy continues to kick us while we are down, I challenge you to look up and look out and see how you can help.

I am still reading the "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction" and just got done leading a study on chapter 5 this morning at work. Chapter 5 focuses on Psalm 123 and the notion of service. I really liked this quote on page 67-68:

"God's people are everywhere and always encouraged to work for the liberation of others, helping to free them from every form of bondage - religious, economic, cultural, political - that sin uses to stunt or thrwart or cramp their lives. . . Those who parade the rhetoric of liberation but scorn the wisdom of service do not lead people into the glorious liberty of the children of God but into a cramped and covetous squalor. ¶ As Psalm 123 prays the transition from oppression (“kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men”) to freedom (“awaiting your word of mercy”) to a new servitude (“like servants alert to their master’s commands”), it puts us in the way of learning how to use our freedom most appropriately, under lordship of a merciful God. The consequences are positive. I have never yet heard a servant Christian complain of the oppressiveness of his servitude. I have never yet heard a servant Christian rail against the restrictions of her service. A servant Christian is the freest person on earth."

In these tough times, let's strive for our freedom by becoming better servants of God and serving others. That could mean volunteering, or just sitting and listening to a friend or neighbor who is struggling. As hard as it is to focus externally while we are hurting so much internally, that may just be what will get us out of this crisis and turn things around.