Pipeline, Fall 2009

PROVIDING A CUP OF WATER IN JESUS’ NAME | FALL 2009

Breaking the Cycle Empowering Uganda’s Next Generation

IN THIS ISSUE:

A Closer Look: Water & Poverty

| Jiggers and the End of the World | Updates: Kenya, Peru, & Honduras | | Upcoming Events: Reserve Your Tickets Now! | Saying Goodbye to a Wise Old Hippie |

O

On a recent trip to Africa, I was reminded once again of what a strategic

VOLUME 8

NUMBER 2

LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL Chairman of the Board

Gary Loveless

Executive Director

Gary Evans

lives, communities and even nations. In war-torn regions where unemploy-

President

Jerry Wiles

Senior Vice President

Mike Mantel

ment is 80 percent or more, where 85 percent of the population is non-

Vice President

Lew Hough Tim Mulville

literate, and where infrastructure is shaky, the opportunity to bring change

Vice President Vice President

Brad Saltzman

Vice President

Bruce Whitmire

opportunity we at Living Water International have to bring transformation to

is incredible. As you read the stories and reports in this issue, I know you will rejoice that, together, we can make such an impact on so many people’s lives.

In addition to all the people who are without access to clean water, there are still billions who have not had access to the Word of God in a form that they can understand. I’m referring to the roughly four billion people—70 percent of the world’s population—who are primary oral learners. The exciting thing is that more people are hearing and experiencing the gospel today than at any other time in history, and this is happening mostly among oral cultures.

By connecting with the rapidly reproducing church planting and orality movements, we are seeing far greater results than we would ever be able to on our own. God is continuing to unite and mobilize his people, and the momentum of his redemptive activity is amazing to see. We believe that the most fruitful days for LWI are still ahead.

Living Water International Headquarters PO Box 35496 Houston, TX 77235-5496 877.594.4426 www.water.cc Living Water International Canada 45 Sheppard Ave E, Suite 900 Toronto, Ontario Canada M2N 5W9 Phone: 1.877.988.4688 www.livingwatercanada.org Living Water International exists to demonstrate the love of God by helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water, and experience “living water”—the gospel of Jesus Christ—which alone satisfies the deepest thirst. is published quarterly by Living Water International to raise awareness about the global water crisis and to inspire Christians everywhere to respond with compassion to the needy of the world.

We welcome your stories, comments and/or address changes. Send them to: The Editor, Pipeline, PO Box 35496, Houston, TX 77235-5496 or email the editor: pipeline@water.cc.

Living Water International is a nonprofit Christian organization and tax exempt by the IRS under code section 501(c)(3). Gifts are tax deductible as allowed by law. Contributions are solicited with the understanding that the donee organization has complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version™ TNIV Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.

| A CLOSER LOOK: WATER & POVERTY | JIGGERS AND THE END OF THE WORLD

All photos by staff and volunteers of Living Water International unless otherwise noted.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 BY LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL INC.

Combined Federal Campaign # 10788

| CHILD CHAMPIONS | BREAKING THE CYCLE | GLOBAL UPDATES | EDITORIAL: THE WISE OLD HIPPIE

EVANGELICAL

PRESS ASSOCIATION

T H E STORY O F THE

T H IR ST Y l i v i n g w a t e r i n t e r n a t i o n a l ’s 2 0 0 9 g a l a

F R IDAY, SEP T E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 0 9 b e p a r t o f t h e s t o r y.

The Story of the Thirsty doesn’t just involve villages, health clinics and schools receiving the gift of clean water in the name of Jesus... it’s the stories of people like you that make it possible. Tell us your story: www.water.cc/yourstory.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

InterContinental Hotel • Houston, Texas Corporate sponsorships and individual tickets are available. For more about Patrick, visit www.tablegroup.com.

Annual Houston Gala Friday, September 25, 2009 6 p.m. Reception • 7 p.m. Dinner InterContinental Hotel • Houston, Texas Sponsorships and individual tickets are available.

Annual Open House Saturday, September 26, 2009 LWI Headquarters • Stafford, Texas 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Free of charge.

LWI MICHIGAN AREA BENEFIT Thursday, October 8, 2009 6:30 p.m. Doors Open • 7 p.m. Dinner Central Weslayan Church • Holland, Michigan Sponsorships and individual tickets are available.

RSVP to Jodi Mohney (jodi@water.cc).

LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL PRESENTS A LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

For event information, or to RSVP, contact Cheryl Thornton at cheryl@water.cc or call 281.207.7856.

CREATING A CULTURE OF TEAMWORK AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT FEATURING

Leadership Summit Featuring Patrick Lencioni

PATRICK LENCIONI

09.09.09

LIMITED ENTRIES & SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE VISIT WWW.WATER.CC/TEAM-LWI TO SEE HOW YOU CAN BE INVOLVED WITH LWI IN UPCOMING MARATHON EVENTS

RSVP TODAY! contact cheryl@water.cc

As the ministry of LWI grows, our needs do as well. Do you have special talents or interests? LWI has opportunities open for gifted and dedicated volunteers! Whatever your role, wherever you are, LWI will likely have an opportunity to serve. Visit www.water.cc/volunteer and fill out the volunteer information form so we can get to know you better. More questions?

Contact Cheryl Thornton (cheryl@water.cc or call 281.207.7856).

A CLOSER LOOK:

WATER & POVERTY

BY PAUL DARILEK

The poorest people in the world actually pay some of the world’s highest prices for drinking water, and the water they get is less clean and less plentiful. The poor pay more in the form of lost time, health, education, and life, but also in monetary terms. More than any other factor, water scarcity keeps the “bottom billion” entrapped in a cycle of extreme poverty.

In the end all of humanity pays the price. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

The Poor Pay More?

People living in the slums of Nairobi, Jakarta, and Manila actually pay 5 to 10 times more for water than those in high income areas of those same cities. They even pay more than consumers in London or New York. The poorest 20 percent of households in El Salvador and Nicaragua spend on average more than 10 percent of their household income on water.¹ In the U.S. the median household spends only 1.1 percent of its income on water and sewage.² For the poorest of the poor, the water bill may be the world’s most retrogressive tax—on life itself.

Dead Babies Cost Money

443 MILLION

SCHOOL DAYS ARE LOST FROM

WATER-RELATED

ILLNESS

Fall 2009

Infant mortality is highest where clean water access is lowest. Every year 1.8 million children die from diarrhea, far more than armed conflict and terrorism combined.³ Picture a preschool classroom blowing up every six minutes, day and night.

The irony is that high infant mortality increases population.

Demographers call it the “demographic-economic paradox.”

Elderly people in extreme poverty depend on their children for sustenance in old age. When people know some of their offspring will die, others will move away, and some will not be able help, they tend to have more children. So it is that India’s former minister of population, Karan Singh, coined the phrase, “development is the best contraceptive.”⁴ Studies show that access to safe water reduces child death rates by more than 20 percent in Uganda. In Peru a toilet in the home reduces infant death by more than 30 percent.5 The world over, the people with lowest reproduction rates are those who know their babies are not going to die.

Women and Children First!

In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, 40 billion hours a year are spent—mostly by women—just hauling water. That’s equivalent to a year’s labor for the entire workforce of France. The result, known as “time-poverty,” affects women and girls most. About half the girls in Sub-Saharan Africa who drop out of primary school do so because of poor water and sanitation.

At any given time close to half of the people in the developing world are suffering from one or more of the diseases associated with inadequate water and sanitation.6 Each year, 443 million school days are lost from water-related illness—equivalent

EVERY INVESTED IN WATER AND SANITATION

$8 WORTH OF TIME,

PRODUCTIVITY,

AND HEALTH

to an entire school year for all seven-year-old children in Ethiopia.7 Lack of education keeps children from getting out of poverty. Lack of water deprives children from education.

8:1 ROI The payoff for water provision is big. Every $1 invested in water and sanitation generates on average an $8 return in the form of saved time, increased productivity, and reduced health costs.8 This does not even include new productivity made possible by water access. The long-term benefits of access to clean water would be felt by all of us in the form of decreases in economic aid, increased productivity, lower infant mortality, decreased population burden, increased educational opportunity, and decreased “time poverty”—not to mention the ethical payoff of giving life to those who most need it.

Why Didn’t I Know This?

You’re not alone if you had never fully contemplated how lack of water keeps people in poverty. The world is only beginning to take a close look at the root causes of extreme poverty. Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day. One in three lives on less than $1 a day.9 Their world and their challenges are foreign to us.

Dripping taps in rich countries lose more water than is available to the poorest billion people on earth.10 It’s no surprise we’ve never put ourselves in their shoes and fully understood how water scarcity perpetuates this cruel cycle of poverty.

Good News!

The good news is that there is more than enough water in the world for domestic purposes, agriculture, and industry. And the payoff for its more equitable distribution is great.

LWI’s Gary Evans puts it this way, “We’re in a world where there are 900 million people barely treading water, and the water’s too low for them to reach the ladder. They don’t need a boat. They don’t need a helicopter to rescue them. They just need a little boost so they can reach the ladder. Then they can climb out on their own. Clean water provides that boost.”

And if you want to reach out and give that boost, and you want to do it in Jesus’ name, then you’re in the right place.

1. UNDP Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, p. 7.

2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Water on Tap: What You Need to Know, p. 11.

3. UNDP Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, p. 3.

4. David N. Weil (2004). Economic Growth. AddisonWesley. p. 111.

5. UNDP Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, p.

6-7.

6. Ibid., p. 47.

7. Ibid., p. 22.

8. Ibid., p. 58.

9. Ibid., p. 82.

10. Ibid., p. 6.

www.water.cc

Jiggers and the End of the World by stan patyrak

Clockwise from left: A young boy from Bomandjoko enjoys clean water from a newly constructed well. A well was drilled at Bomandjoko school and is used by students and the surrounding community. • Dirty conditions and lack of sanitation are a major cause of jiggers— small flea-like parasitic bugs that nest under skin—most commonly in the feet. Jiggers can become so painful that children have to resort to learning to walk on their knees. • This is what the housing crisis looks like for the Ba’Aka people in CAR. It is a common site to find these small domed homes next to larger Central African homes. • This is the previous water source for the community of Bomandjoko.

Fall 2009

The end of the world.

Bomandjoko community and school West Central African Republic.

The Ba’Aka people (also known also as pygmies) call this village “The End of the World.” It’s the last village in the southwest corner of The Central African Republic (CAR), alongside a road that dead ends into a river. I can see Cameroon from here.

To most Central Africans, the Ba’Aka people are considered “animals of the forest.” In a country of 95 percent unemployment, where 85 percent of people lack access to water and even more lack proper sanitation, we learn that the Ba’Akas are the Central African version of “the least of these”—seen as less than human and not worth our attention.

But these guys are masters of living off the land. The Ba’Aka people are brilliant hunters, gatherers, and survivors. This makes the Ba’Akas of some value to the “upper” Central African classes. Central Africans often take the Ba’Akas as property, in a de facto system of slavery. It’s very common to see the Ba’Akas’ small domed huts next to larger square homes of the more privileged classes.

Now we’re in Ba’Aka country.

A month ago, the community of Bomandjoko—and students who attend Bomandjoko School—had never seen a latrine or clean water. They gathered drinking water from a small, contaminated stream a couple of kilometers from the school.

They eliminated waste along the way, behind homes, in the field, and often in the river at the dead end of this community.

It’s only our third day in the CAR, and we have almost become accustomed to seeing naked kids. We’ve almost become used to the nothingness out here. This is the wild west of the CAR. Still, in Bomandjoko on this hot day, we are completely astonished by what we see.

Feet.

I never thought I would be talking about water, sanitation, and feet. Here, lack of both water and sanitation is not only causing extreme sickness, it is literally crippling people—mostly children. It’s a terrible sight, perhaps worse than the swollen bellies: children with open sores and mangled feet. The pain is obvious, and many children walk on the sides of their feet to compensate. Often, the pain becomes so intense that children begin walking on their knees.

Jiggers.

Our guy on the ground here tells us we are looking at the work of “jiggers”—small, parasitic bugs that enter through the feet. Jiggers are just one example of what lack of sanitation looks like. Human waste, animal waste, or just dirty ground conditions introduce this bug under toenails or through the skin of the feet. Small sacks can be seen and felt under the skin— almost like an ant bite with a black “head.” These sacks must be dug out carefully. If they remain where they are, or if the sack is ruptured, many more of these bugs will be released under the skin. Children that walk on their knees end up having the same issue they had with their feet—jiggers enter through the skin of the knees and spread throughout the leg.

Eventually, children are completely immobilized. It’s horrible.

The link between clean water, sanitation, and an investment in hygiene education has never been so apparent. In this case, perhaps the education issue rises to the top. It is probable that not one member of this community has ever seen or used a latrine before; now they have two blocks of latrines, thanks to our team.

Still, to a community whose first taste of clean water was only a month ago, drilling a well or constructing a latrine and leaving would be of little value. It’s easy to look at a new water well, or look at fresh concrete drying on a beautiful new latrine (yep, to some of us latrines are beautiful) and think: there’s the solution. But, in areas of the world like this region of the CAR, they are simply tools. There is something bigger at work here.

The fact is, it’s impossible for us to put ourselves in the place of this community—or any community that has never stepped inside a building to use the bathroom. And, sometimes, when you have never experienced clean water, the familiar open water source can taste “better” than the safe water from a new well.

Clean water and latrines can make a difference here, and will—but drilling the well and building the latrine is the easy part. Intangible things, not easily photographed, are making the biggest difference. Things like a relationship with the community, investment in hygiene education, community training—these things bring trust, understanding, acceptance, change.

Somewhere in the middle.

We like stories with a compelling beginning and beautiful ending. Bomandjoko is somewhere in the middle. But now, their story has a chance to end closer to health and wholeness, and further from children having to learn to walk on their knees because of jiggers.

Ultimately, this is our opportunity. Today, it’s difficult to see clean water dripping down over jigger infested feet. It’s challenging to hear a young girl tell us that the open water source tastes better than the new well water. But, it’s part of Bomandjoko’s story—and LWI’s partner here has put themselves right in the middle of it. And that means just as much as, if not more than, the new water well and latrines.

Looking over my shoulder, I can still see Cameroon from where we are standing. And, although it’s still technically the end of the world here, I can see Bomandjoko’s story ending beautifully.

www.water.cc

CHILD CHAMPIONS: “The kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14)

FAITH TABAK: CHANGED THE WORLD AT HER 11TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

Faith asked for donations to LWI instead of presents. When people asked if they could give both, Faith said, “Nope, just give more water!” Thirty-five friends gave $500 to repair a hand pump in war-torn Sierra Leone. So what’s in store for next year? Faith said, “I want to do the same thing again for my 12th birthday!”

AMANDA SIMMONS:

THE 4TH GRADER WHO BROUGH

T NICARAGUA HOME WITH HER

The water crisis hit home when Amanda saw it firsthand on her LWI trip to Nicaragua. She lobbied for her Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, Tenn., to use their “Je ans to Help” day to reach out to Nicaragua with clean water. “Jeans day usually raises around $400,” Amanda said. “But this time we were amazed!” As her passion flowed out, the money flowed in, and the kids at Briarcrest raised more than $2,000 to support a wel l project in San Pedro, Nicaragua.

IAN AND MICHAELA FLYNN:

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU A LEMON… USE

IT TO SAVE SOMEONE’S LIFE!

for toy money. When their Ian, 4, and Michaela, 8, run a lemonade stand partnered with LWI to Mo., ld, terfie church, Windsor Crossing in Ches decided they could do they , piracy Cons nt change the world through Adve stand again, this time to bless something, too. They set up their lemonade if they thought they should LWI with the proceeds. Their parents asked collection, and the kids said, save the money for Windsor’s Christmastime wells.” The next day they “Let’s give it now so they can start building church and sent it on its way to to coins and brought a Ziploc bag full of bills the thirsty.

Fall 2009

CELIA CRAFT AND NOWEN KATE:

TOOK THE H2O CHALLENGE!

Too young to lead a church or join a Rotary Club, these young advocates (Celia, 4, and Nowen, 5) challenged their parent s and 30 friends to drink only water for two weeks, and give what they would have otherwise spent on drinks towards a clean water projec t. They hoped to raise enough for a whole well. When their friends sent their money to LWI before the kids could count it, Nowen Kate’s mom asked her if she thought they’d met the goal. She answered, “I don’t know, but I think God thinks about it like this: do you remember that woman who gave all she had? It’s just a little really. But Jesus is really happy.”

JUNIOR OPTIMISTS:

When middle school teacher Kelly Riggs taught her students all about the plight of child soldiers in Uganda, the school’s 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Jr. Optimists Club decided to do something about it. They raised enough money to sponsor a well in Northern Uganda. The following year, they came back to school eager to do it again. They held water walks, washed cars, sold t-shirts, hosted dinners, and once again met their goal, sponsoring a second well in the last year of their teacher’s career before her retirement. What’s more, when Kelly Riggs went to Uganda to visit the well, she fell in love with the children of Uganda, and with her friend Jack Witteman, who she married soon afterwards. Next year, Kelly Riggs won’t go visit the Jr. Optimists’ well—Kelly Witteman will!

CALEB GARNER: CHAMPION INSPIRER

Caleb Garner, 8, emptied his pockets when he heard there were kids like him without clean water. He handed $7 to his Sunday School teacher to give to LWI. When he received $20 for his birthday to buy a video game he’d been wanting, he looked his father, Dale, in the eyes and said, “I’ll give this to the kids who need water—if you’ll match it!” Bang! $47 for water! Next thing he knew, he found himself challenging hundreds of kids to give at his church’s summer program, “Championship Village.” The kids raised enough to send a group of grown-ups from their church to El Salvador to drill a well. Caleb’s efforts even caught the eye of his pastor, internationally acclaimed bestselling author Max Lucado, who was inspired to be keynote speaker at LWI’s 2009 fundraising event, “Come Thirsty!”

ive now, and ren know! G ild ch we’ll e th t e nvelope and e e th Inspired? L n o s” champion ipeline. mark “Child in the next P e av g u yo uch post how m www.water.cc

Fall 2009

Brea king the Cycl e Empo weri

ng U gand a

’s Ne xt Ge nera tion

by Jonathan Wiles

he people of Uganda have a rocky history, with a complex mix of uneven economic development, violent regional conflict, and marginalization of minorities. In 1965, Uganda and South Korea were at about the same point of economic and social development. Today, South Korea is a strong industrial nation, while Uganda is a century behind, trapped in cycles of poverty and violence.

In the decades following the county’s independence in 1962, the country was subjected to a series of corrupt dictators, most notably Idi Amin, who in the 1970s killed hundreds of thousands of Ugandans because they disagreed with him politically, or simply because they were members of the wrong tribe.

Relative stability came in 1986, when an elected government came to power. However, the years of political instability had set the country back decades, and the violence still wasn’t over.

In 1987, a terrorist group calling themselves “The Lord's Resistance Army” (LRA) was formed in northern Uganda.

The LRA began an armed rebellion against the Ugandan

government that has become one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the "spokesperson" of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Holy Spirit. The group adheres to a bizarre blend of Christianity, Mysticism, Islam, Ugandan traditional religion, and witchcraft, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments.

Any resemblance to these religions is superficial; Kony's beliefs are a haphazard mix from the Bible and the Qur'an, adapting to his personal desires and the practical needs of the moment.

Over the past 20 years, the LRA has committed widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, and sexual enslavement of women and children. They force children to kill one another and their own families, fighting as "soldiers." Perhaps the greatest atrocity is teaching these children that they spread this carnage by the power of the Holy Spirit to purify the "unrepentant," twisting Christianity into a religion of horror to their victims. It is spiritual warfare at its very worst.

www.water.cc

It is estimated that 1.2 million Ugandans were driven from their homes during the conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan government. Many northern Ugandans ended up in overcrowded camps built by the government to house Internally Displaced People (IDP).

When the camps were at their most crowded, thousands of people often depended on a single hand pump designed to serve a fraction of their number. They would stand in long lines, working the pump constantly, until it broke. They would then have no choice but to drink polluted water from nearby rivers or from standing ponds of surface water, and disease would spread through the camp.

Living Water International was able to be part of the refuge and care of the victims of this conflict by repairing and drilling wells at IDP centers like Abia Camp, near the northern city or Lira. When the LWI crew arrived in Abia in 2005, more than 9,000 people were crowded into a camp originally built for 5,000. They had five wells. Four of them were broken down, and the last one was in desperate condition.

Community leader Amos Muhangi told us about their situa-

Fall 2009

tion. “Many of us are carrying water from springs, over there,” he said, pointing to the east. The spring, we discovered, was several kilometers away; on more than one occasion, water haulers had been abducted by LRA forces. The drilling crew completed a high-capacity well for Abia Camp, and began repairing wells. The occupants of Abia breathed a collective sigh of relief. “Now we can stay safe,” Amos said. “We do not have to live in fear.”

Since 1999, quiet periods have been more common, and many displaced northern Ugandans have returned to their homes and communities. In most cases, they have had to rebuild their lives from nothing. One of the primary needs of these communities is water. Some of them had never had a safe water source. Others returned home to find their wells polluted, sabotaged, or broken. The need for water in communities that are rebuilding in the wake of the conflict has provided an opportunity to touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans at a time when they need help the most.

After her family returned to Aboke village from an IDP camp in Gulu, ten-year-old Naomi Agaba’s chore was to collect water

Far Left: A boy in Ruhaama County misses school to carry water for his household from a mud hole—his community’s only source of water. Middle: Kids in Abia IDP Camp gather water from a newly-rehabilitated well. Worn down from overuse, the pump had been non-functional for over a year. Left: A team drills a new well in Gulu District. Below: Occupants of Koro IDP Camp gather to watch LWI Uganda rehabilitate a well—their only source of safe water.

for her family from a nearby water hole—the only source available. The family uses it for everything. "The water from here is bad,” she said. “We try to boil it to make it safe but it isn't always possible. People get worms from this water." Diseases from unsafe water and poor sanitation are still responsible for half of the deaths in children under five in Uganda.

Today, Aboke village has a well that provides clean, cold water for the whole community. “Thank you for blessing my heart,” said Imat Mecaleci, a village elder. “You have blessed our village with a well. May you serve many more people.”

Since starting to work in Uganda in 2001, LWI has been able to help hundreds of communities like Aboke acquire safe, clean water, working with in-country partners to train and equip Ugandan drilling crews. This year marks a new chapter in the work of LWI in Uganda. A central office is being established in the capital city of Kampala to coordinate projects on a countrywide basis. LWI Uganda Director Beau Abdullah is excited about the progress. “We’re on the verge of something new; there’s so much potential to help so many people.” Beau and the Uganda team are hard at work developing more effective

hygiene training to introduce to rural people, and working with pastors and regional ministries to find new models of church partnership and evangelism.

About half of the schools in Uganda still lack a safe source of clean water. Water-related disease is one of the leading causes of school absence and drop-out. Lack of water makes it hard for schools to retain teachers. LWI’s team in Uganda is drilling water wells at these schools, and is empowering communities to rally around these projects. Teachers are teaching health and hygiene practices to the students, who now have the clean water to follow them. Local pastors are spending time on school grounds, caring for kids and participating in their education.

For more than 40 years, Ugandans have grown up in fear, but a new generation is growing up in a more stable Uganda than their parents knew. This generation could break cycles of violence, poverty, and spiritual darkness, and see transformation come to communities on an incredible scale. As people of the Kingdom of God, we long to see this kind of transformation happen; the great thing is that we get to be part of it.

www.water.cc

GLOBAL

UPDATES KENYA

HONDURAS

For four years, Kenya’s rainy seasons haven’t produced much rain. With local food supplies drying up and global food prices on the rise, the people of Kenya are already being stretched far beyond their limits. Refugees from surrounding countries—particularly Somalia—continue to pour into Kenya, and refugee camps have long exceeded their full capacities. According to the UN, over 350,000 refugees are currently in Kenya.

In most cases, they are crammed into already overburdened camps, where water wells—if they exist at all—are often broken from excessive use.

Like most of its Central American neighbors, Honduras has struggled with political instability throughout its history, but has been relatively secure for the past 20 years. During 2009, the country has undergone a constitutional crisis. President Manuel Zelaya, installed in 2006, precipitated a national crisis when he attempted to hold a national referendum on altering the Honduran constitution to extend presidential term limits. Congress and the Supreme Court had declared the referendum unconstitutional, but Zelaya insisted that the vote be held.

The armed forces of Honduras arrested Zelaya, at his home, on the morning of June 28, the date of the scheduled vote, and was exiled from the country. Roberto Micheletti, a member of the same party as Zelaya, was sworn in as President for a term that ends on in January 2010.

Tensions remain high between supporters of Zelaya and the standing government, but aside from heightened airport security, LWI’s operations have not been affected so far. Please pray with us that peace will prevail in Honduras.

PERU In early June, government efforts to lure foreign mining and energy companies to the rain forests were violently protested by the tribes that call these rain forests home.

More than 50 people died and dozens were injured in clashes between Peruvian police and the tribesmen who are defending their ancestral homes.

Indigenous tribes have been protesting since April, hoping to persuade Congress to repeal the laws that encourage foreign energy companies to invest billions of dollars in rainforest projects. The recent violence further underscores the deep divisions between the wealthy elite in cities like Lima and the poor people groups in the remote areas where LWI is at work.

Fall 2009

EDITORIAL:

THE WISE OLD HIPPIE REMEMBERING TOMMY HEAD FROM LWI PERU

BY MELANIE DEWVEALL

T

Tommy Head stood out, there’s no question about it. He wasn’t the best motocross racer in Peru, but he certainly was the only 50-year-old, long-haired, giant, hippie gringo that competed in a world of 20-year-old Peruvians. Tommy once told me that he started thinking about it, and realized most of his friends were about 20 to 30 years younger than him. He may have attributed this to his eternally youthful outlook on life, but I think, personally, that it was designed by God. Younger people, like my husband and myself, were drawn to Tommy like bugs to light. In Tommy, we saw what we wished so desperately to find inside ourselves—a radical faith and a fearlessness that let him be who he was in Christ, without apologies. We all wanted to sit at the feet of the wise old hippie and soak up all of the knowledge he could impart.

“Investing in people is the best investment you can make,” he frequently told me. He invested often, and he invested well.

Whether he liked it or not, he was a mentor and a teacher.

There are countless stories about the effects Tommy and his wife of 28 years, Angela, had on the lives of people across the world. Many of these people live in the Amazon Jungle.

For the last 11 years, Tommy and Angela have devoted their lives to the native tribes of the Amazon. Tommy used his Godgiven gifts of administration and teaching to disciple leaders within these hard-to-reach and oft forgotten communities.

By living with the people in their communities, Tommy and Angela saw the effects that contaminated water has on the human body and on entire communities. As a result, the Heads dove into water ministry and have radically changed the lives of thousands, providing them with hope and a future.

There’s a lady that lives in the small jungle town of Ullapaycu (Ush-pay-a-ku) that made Tommy and his team a thermos of hot water for coffee every time they passed through town.

She was convinced Tommy was kicked out of the U.S.; what

other reason would he have for leaving his life behind to travel the tributaries of the Amazon and drill wells for people he didn’t know?

This is the reason. His life’s verse, as Angela put it: “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life,” (1 Timothy 1:15-16).

Tommy lived an incredible, passionate life. He wanted more than anything to be a light in the darkness—to share the love of Christ with everyone, but especially with the people of the Amazon. He wanted to show them what the love of God can do in their lives. “If we don’t reach these people,” he said, “who will?” What greater example could we ask for?

Tommy lived on the edge. He loved motocross. And he loved the people motocross allowed him to minister to. On April 25, 2009, he died in a motocross accident—living life on the edge and to its fullest, right up to the very last second.

His good friend Wick Jackson wrote that, “In racing, like the rest of his life, he drove men to be better than themselves… they too became dreamers. [He was] bigger than life and not scared to live it to the full.”

That’s my hope and my dream for all of us. To live life with reckless abandonment to our Savior.

COMMENTS? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, or any other that you found in this issue of . Send us an email: pipeline@water.cc.

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- Edith Namanta Age 14

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