G.O.D. Founder & CEO, Gregg Garner, has named a new manager for NuWaterWorks, a program established in 2014 that has served in East Africa, El Salvador, India and Nashville to increase access to water and improve sanitation in keeping with #6 of the Global Goals established by world leaders.
Jeremiah Watson accepted the position of manager in March, 2022 after the resignation of former manager, Josh Kurtz, who held the position for 7 years.
Jeremiah is an alumni of the Institute for G.O.D. and owner of JMW Construction in Nashville, TN. He has worked in underground utilities and general contracting for over 20 years. Jeremiah has served with G.O.D. Int’l in Latin America since 2005, carrying with him a passion for sustainable building, water and sanitation that has served many individuals and families throughout his years of ministry.
When asked about the objectives of the NuWaterWorks program, Gregg Garner said: “NuWW is a program designed to invite working professionals, like Jeremiah and the other guys working in construction on the day to day, to use their gifts in communities of need. All over our beloved country we have capable men and women with these specific skills who just need an opportunity to share their abilities with others who, without their help, would never receive the benefit of such knowledge. NuWW connects these capable people with communities of need to make a difference in water and sanitation.”
Since stepping into the role of manager for NuWaterWorks, Jeremiah (in keeping with G.O.D.’s team missions approach) has named NuWW team members from each of the international regions where our ministry serves: Cameron Kagay in East Africa, Jason Carpenter in South East Asia, Stephen Carver in India, and Jeremiah himself in Latin America. Each of these team members works in construction, utilities, and plumbing in the U.S., and has over a decade of experience with third-world development. In the two most rural regions, East Africa and Latin America (which have even more extensive water accessibility needs), there are additional project managers: Kyle Becker and Josh De Las Casas.
In Jeremiah's words, the mission of NuWaterWorks is simple: "to bring water and sanitation to those in need, empowering them to better participate in the kingdom of God." He says it's no surprise to anyone that people need to have water and hygiene to survive, but the program is more than that. For him, the goal to get people the water they need is the first step in providing a pathway to develop into the fullness God created his children to bear, including education and understanding God's love for them. Only if people have their needs met can they fulfill God's command to love their neighbor as themselves.
NuWaterWorks has two primary goals in 2022
Under Jeremiah’s leadership and in coordination with Gregg Garner, CEO, and the regional team managers of G.O.D. International, NuWaterWorks has two primary goals in 2022:
Expand the water cistern and create a fill station for a primary school in Uganda. Currently, the rain catchment tank at the school provides 10-15% of the students' water needs at school. For the rest, students have to spend precious class time and energy gathering water from neighboring boreholes and carrying it via jerry cans back to the school. By expanding the water cistern, the students will access 40% of their needs. Through an additional fill station piped off of the well on the G.O.D. East Africa property, water will still be available to the school even when there is no rain, bringing their water availability to 85%.
Thanks to our fundraising holiday campaign, we raised $14,000 towards expanding the water cistern ($6,000 is still needed. If you'd like to give, click here).
Students at the local primary school in Uganda will spend precious class time and energy gathering water from neighboring boreholes and carrying it back to their school in jerry cans, as pictured above. The project will supply students with 85% of the total amount of water they need, an increase of 75% from what they currently have. That is 75% more time spent in their classrooms, focused on their education.
Repair an unused well in El Salvador to aid in increased production on an organic demonstration farm (this project is already complete, as of May 2022!). Last year, NuWaterWorks attempted to dig a new well on the G.O.D. Latin America campus. At that time they ran into issues with soil composition and water production, yielding only 1 gallon per day. When Matthew Parker, G.O.D. Latin America regional manager consulted Jeremiah on what else could be done to provide water to the growing garden, Jeremiah considered repairing a well that had been on the campus long before G.O.D. Int’l began working there.
The well had gone unused for the last thirty years except as an open hole for discarding trash. The thought of repairing the well had previously seemed out of reach. Repairing wells can be quite dangerous, particularly when one doesn't know how it has been built or maintained.
According to Jeremiah, the well hadn't changed, except that it had gotten worse. What changed was our people. Our Latin American cooperatives have been so inspired in their food production efforts that having an increased need for irrigation is now a significant need. Our cooperatives and student interns have developed the capacity to be trained in caring for and even repairing a well like this.
NuWaterWorks sent a team of 14 to El Salvador in May 2022 to clean and repair the well and install solar power
A team of 14, the majority of which are skilled in construction and utilities in the US, traveled to El Salvador in May and completed the full repair, including removing seven feet of trash, cleaning, repairing, and installing a solar pump in May.
Matthew Parker said of this experience, “it’s just so refreshing to work with a team of experts. Contingencies were planned, everything was thought of, our cooperatives are trained to fix it, and everything is locally sourced.”
The first day after the well had been cleaned, it produced 100 gallons in a day. Two days later, the well had increased to produce 150 gallons per day.
Over the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022, MCH Nashville and solar energy specialist James Lasater donated time and services to G.O.D.’s Hopewell Farms to install solar panels that would fuel irrigation processes. This process anticipated the work to be done abroad. For over 25 years G.O.D. Int’l has had the organizational motto: "what we do here is what we do there." This means we will not do it there before we do it here. We practice here to ensure our efforts work effectively before implementing them in the third world. Solar-powered irrigation efforts are thriving both in Nashville and in El Salvador, as of June 2022.
Under Jeremiah's leadership, each of these organizational practices is intact. He knows he's not alone. Every time Jeremiah speaks, he gives honor and mentions his all-star team. He recognizes the difficulty of projects and the danger of doing it at the wrong time or with untrained people. Jeremiah’s experience enables him to manage, budget, communicate goals and plans and execute large-scale projects as he does daily with his business in Nashville. Over many years, Jeremiah has always remembered the Lord and remembered the poor. He is passionate about getting the needy the things they need not just to survive but to thrive. Water is one first step towards education and participation in life, benefiting the world's poorest.
Please join us in welcoming Jeremiah in this role and prayer for the powerful impact we believe he will have in this aspect of our ministry.
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