UM Men
INSIGHTS
UM Men provide clean water By Steve Young
Eighty-member Conshohocken (Pa.) UMC proves the adage, “Through God, all things are possible.” In addition to serving those in need in their area, “ConshyUnited,” through its partnership with Living Waters for the World (LWW), shares the gift of clean, sustainable water with community partners in Kenya, Cuba and soon, at the Karama Education Center located in Uganda. “I feel that I’ve been called to do this work because God has given me so many blessings in life,” says Dave Patterson, who with his wife, Pat, helm the ConshyUnited Living Waters team. “One of the ways that I can do that is by providing clean water, one of the most valuable resources that we have in this world, yet one that millions of our brothers and sisters do not have.” Pat adds, “In Uganda, 80 out of every 1,000 children will die before they reach their fifth birthday due to illnesses caused by drinking contaminated water and inadequate sanitation practices. By installing a LWW filtration system, we will be able to purify the water and provide the community with safe drinking water for a generation!”
Partners around the planet LWW’s unique, volunteer-driven, train-equip-support model has empowered partners (like Conshohocken UMC) to form clean-water partnerships with more than 1,000 communities throughout the world. The “secret sauce” of LWW can be summed up in one word – relationships. The relationships formed by the Conshohocken Living Waters team with their international community partners are a wonderful example of joining around God’s table to share both COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS gifts and accountability so CONSTRUCT THE BUILDING THAT WILL HOUSE THE LIVING WATERS that clean water may flow FILTRATION SYSTEM. for years to come. [Editor’s note: the General Commission on UM Men has recommended Living Waters for the World as an official partner ministry.]
A partner in Uganda As with their water installations in Kenya and Cuba, the ConshyUnited team sees their partnership with Uganda’s Karama Education Center as another “God thing.” The school, located just a few kilometers from both Republic of Congo and Rwanda, began in 2017 as a joint effort of the NOW AFRICA Initiative and The Chain Collaborative. Currently serving 350 students Kindergarten through 7th grade, the school already boasts the second highest literacy rate in their district.
Steve Young is executive director of Living Waters for the World 34
And, after having to collect water from a great distance, the school now has a rainwater harvesting system and local tap.
