A 14-member team of water and sanitation workers, contractors, utility contractors, and volunteers traveled to El Salvador last month with big goals.
The primary objective was to solve a water scarcity issue by repairing a well and installing a solar pump system. Complex projects like this need experts and don’t always go so smoothly, especially in a rural third-world setting. Yet, the team was able to complete their projects in 4 days! (Watch Matthew Parker, Lead manager for the Latin America Regional Team, share about the success of this team effort.)
The demonstration garden in El Salvador, DEMOSFÉ, was previously connected to a local water source for irrigation but the source was unreliable and not viable for the garden’s needs. Antonio Mejia, manager of the garden, has grown in his passion for how composting revolutionizes the quality of soil and showing neighbors food can grow without harmful agro toxins. But it’s been without a sustainable, dependable water source. Irrigation is the difference between surviving crops and thriving crops.
Nu Water Works implements water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions in developing countries. In 2021, a Nu Water Works team drilled into the land for water access but ran into issues with soil composition. They determined that there was a significant lack of water production. (A gallon per day is not enough for the campus garden to flourish.)
Latin America team members and cooperatives had known for some time about an old, abandoned well on our campus, but resolving an unusable and contaminated well filled with 7 feet of trash and old water requires strategy. Led by utility contractor and Nu Water Works lead, Jeremiah Watson, a team headed to El Salvador in the spring of 2022 to tackle the well project. Team members Jason Carpenter and Kyle Becker went into the 25-foot well and physically cleaned it out, first pumping out the contaminated water and secondly digging out the trash one bucket at a time.
BECAUSE OF THEIR GOOD WORK, THE WELL HAS BEEN CLEANED UP AND BROUGHT TO LIFE— IT NOW PRODUCES 150 GALLONS PER DAY.
Jeremiah shared: "When you use a well, if it’s a good one, it increases in production. As the groundwater starts to work its way, it creates its own channels. So even from the first day when we finished cleaning the well, it produced about 100 gallons of water. Just two days later, it was already producing 150 gallons. I feel like the LORD is just blessing that production and that work, as it continues to grow and meet the need of the garden.”
What we’re looking at is a miracle.
“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.” — Isaiah 44:3-4
Jeremiah Watson, manager for the Nu Water Works program, testifies about the trip at a Church Community for God service, May 2022.
G.O.D. Incorporates Solar Energy to Power Reclaimed Well
As the well cleaning process was underway, part of the team addressed a different matter: how to power the drip irrigation system. Solar Energy expert James Lasater led a team to install a solar panel system to collect sun to power the well. This ensures the well will be able to function completely off-grid and be an ongoing sustainable system. All the parts for the technology can be locally sourced, and most importantly, our people on the ground are empowered with the knowledge and capacity to manage it.
James trained G.O.D. Int’l student interns, Amilcar Alas and Kenia Mejia how to run, repair and problem solve this new technology. At a recent Church Community for G.O.D. service, James testified to the enthusiasm of the interns: “When you have students who want to learn it’s much easier to teach! So when we went through all the procedures, how the system works; they blew me away with their comprehension.”
“I am used to physical work but this time I was called to be part of a very important and different job: to learn solar energy. Most of the time I was learning about this very important resource. And for a few days I was able to see the other parts of the project: the cleaning of a well, and the installation of solar panels. It wasn’t until we we were finished that I managed to understand the importance and how each work complements a single project. And it is how I understand that a body has different parts, with different abilities, which then compliment each other to be able to do a job under a single mind, the mind of Christ.” - Amilcar Alas, G.O.D. Student Intern
This type of empowerment and successful implementation of solar energy is an impactful demonstration to witnessing neighbors. They can show others how to build a system!
“You are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
— Matthew 5:13-16
Salvadoran students gain sight for God’s work in them, in El Salvador and for his people.
From Kenia Mejia, G.O.D. Student Intern:
“Seeing their genuine love towards God, his word and his people, fills me with great encouragement and challenges me to make an effort to one day see that same degree of unity as a body within our ministry [here in El Salvador]. I think I learned a lot through these life examples of these brothers. I feel that I have not made a mistake in learning to walk this path.
I met wonderful people, we worked together and they encouraged me to continue in this life choice I have decided to walk, they taught me not to give up when there are thoughts in my mind that tell me that I cannot do something. Instead, I must try again and again, not to think that I am not capable of achieving something. They reminded me that God has chosen me for a great purpose and I only have to obey even though sometimes life becomes difficult.
Their advice to me is a treasure, and they showed me love even without knowing me more than a few days on this trip and it has been a great experience, knowing a little about their life stories, their struggles and challenges, I realized that many of them have arrived at the feet of Jesus, tired of the simplicity with which we often take life, without a purpose, without God.
But there is something more, showing empathy for those who suffer, working to improve the living conditions of those who need it, giving sincere love that comes from God and sharing the word with others! Among it is something wonderful, feeling this unity as a Body.”
From Gabriela Barrera, G.O.D. Student Intern:
“Seeing the love they have for God and his family was something that impacted me because in my country there are not many parents at home with their families, but they showed me that with God it can be different.
We know that God is with us and he is moving in a big way. I remember that someone in the group asked me if I believed that God was going to use me and I answered yes. I am sure that God is going to use us and not only me but those of us who are willing to do his will, he is already using us and we know that greater things are coming. And I am happy to share that with the people that I am serving who are my family in Christ.
I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with the group, for the way they made me feel special, they made me feel God's love and that I am part of a great family. I am grateful for what I learned and felt, for every hug, every joke and laugh, for the words I received from them to encourage me and for everything that God has been doing and continues to do in us.”
From Doris Alas, G.O.D. Student Intern:
“On the first day of work I could only see the beginning of the work and I really could not understand what the final objective really was. But I could see the leaders talking and giving instructions to their work team, moving from one place to another and even talking with the different leaders of each group. Most of the time maybe I didn't understand everything in their language but I tried to understand and I did understand some words! Even so I continued to observe and enjoy the work that God had given us. One of my challenges for the week was to be able to get involved in the project we were doing and give 100% of myself. It may be that I lacked a bit of skill but I got involved in what I could. I could remember the passage in Ephesians 4, it was always in my mind and I could see it reflected around me as I thought about the teamwork we were enacting. As through that we were being worthy of the vocation to which we have been called and being an example. At the end of the week I also learned to see how each of the different groups were connected for the same purpose. This week I had challenges, one of them was to continue firmly and with dedication in God's call and make an effort in every job we do. To impact more lives and demonstrate that there is a different way of living through the word of God.”
From Orlanda Pineda, G.O.D. Student Intern:
“Over time, I was able to notice that each job , although they were different , had the same purpose , which was to make the well “walk again” , and now the well is working thanks to the work we did.” The trip also included Gregg Garner, International Founder and CEO of G.O.D. Int’l, who ministered to the team and student interns. “Receiving God's vision through Gregg Garner for these next few years gives me more clarity of the panorama of who we are as an organization. Throughout his teaching a very important word was used: productivity. First, God wants us to start walking on our own , just as the well is functioning, so can we do this. According to Luke 5: 17 -26, God wants to heal us to be productive people, also we can be the type of people who can find the solution to the problems within our community and involve people and generate jobs. This requires first faith and more training. I am motivated to be productive in everything I do, not to settle for what I know. We can be the kind of people who bring peace to the earth. And we can get out of the weapons system and transform them into working tools, as Isaiah says, we can open the eyes of young people and teach them to have dominion over the land and earn and income from it.”
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