"In all four installations I participated in (Arcahaie July 2009, Port-au-Prince March 2010, Limbe/Cap-Haitian August 2010 and Blanket January 2011), the anxiety expressed for the need of pure water (prior to the installation) and the joy to receive pure water (after the installation) were noticeable among the people.
In Arcahaie some people had wells in their courtyard, even if it was not clean water; at least they had immediate access to water for bathing, laundry etc. That was not necessarily the case in Port-au-Prince, where I saw people collecting rain water running down the sidewalk.
In Limbe/Cape-Haitian a group of women walked miles several times each day to get water from the river (prior to the installation). After the installation there was a great change in their lives, not only in receiving pure water, but also cutting down on the walking distance with heavy buckets of water on their heads. Blanket’s situation is very similar.
The small changes are obvious immediately, but in one week (our length of stay there for each trip), we cannot evaluate the total impact on the health, nor can we evaluate the impact on the faith of the people we are serving. We pray, trust and hope that there will be fewer waterborne diseases and fewer deaths due to dirty water, and people’s faith will grow. We are blessed when we can see the power of prayer. We saw a man sob for joy in Limbe/Cap-Haitian, exclaiming that he had been praying for a water system for almost 10 years, and it was now happening and the extra care we provided the elderly and the children really touched him and other people."
St. John’s supports Living Waters for the World through its mission budget and also through the Holiday Gift Market. We recently received a thank you from the Living Waters staff ...
Please know that all of the staff and volunteers of Living Waters for the World appreciate your generous gift, and that we will be diligent in assuring that it is used wisely and well to serve people in need. Our sincere thanks to you for this generous gift, and for the trust in our ministry that is implied in your contribution.
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