World Water Day occurred a little over a month ago, March 22, 2015. I am not sure about you, but I often forget
about water. I don’t forget to drink it
on a daily basis, I instead forget about its importance. I forget how precious it is. So many things are connected to this resource
– health, growth, development, survival.
When I arrived on the field the week of March 21, water decided to
remind me of its importance.
At the beginning of the week, I
experienced life without water. Due to
some community construction, our field home did not have water for about a week. Thankfully, I brought drinking water with me
from the city, but no access to water = no showers, no flushing the toilet, no
boiling water for tea (I must admit I did not receive many hugs that week). There
were days when we traveled uphill to the other field house with buckets to carry
water back to our living quarters. This
small inconvenience is nothing to what other people experience on a daily
basis. While I trudged uphill, I
remembered Samaritan’s Purse tweets from different offices during World Water
Day: teams fixing hand pumps, children learning about water, and the post “On
average, women in developing countries spend 25% of their day collecting water
for their families.” There are women spending ¼ of their day collecting
water. And here I was huffing and
puffing at the slight inconvenience of less than an hour’s work.
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| "It was a way for me to serve, but it all happened because of God." |
In the middle of the week, I
witnessed life blooming because of water. I jumped on the back of a motorcycle and travelled
down mountain curves with Samaritan’s Purse Bolivia’s agricultural and
livestock team. After about 45 minutes, we reached a small mountain
community of 10 farmers near the town of Chuma.
We hiked further down the mountain to reach an adobe house of one of the
farmer beneficiaries. We all gathered in
a circle around our agricultural team member Freddy as he summarized the
irrigation system he helped implement. Freddy, or construction guru as I call him,
presented the final part of his project to the farmers. The irrigation project has been going on for
the past 6 months and will provide water for a community of 10 different farmers. Using the water from a nearby waterfall, he
and the farmers were able to create an irrigation system that will run to each
farm. This access to water will enable crops to grow.
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| "Thank you brother Freddy. Thank you Samaritan's Purse." |
After hearing the success of the
irrigation system, I trekked around the property to see the fruit of the labor.
We climbed the side of the mountain and
found land full of papaya, avocado, lemons, and other scrumptious fruit. As I walked across the farmland, I saw
growth. And water helped make that
happen.
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| "Now, our crops will grow." |
I thank God for the work Samaritan’s
Purse is doing with this resource. We often forget that there are some who do not have
access to water. Water provides life. And I hope that now whenever I use it I will
remember the life it brings and the way it points to the ultimate giver of everlasting
life.
“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:14
