The Mission Continues...

Clean water! How we take it for granted, and what a dream for so many who don't have it.

We have a great group of Missionaries ready for the next leg of our journey. Our team consists of both traveling missionaries (Eric & Linda Enskat, Janet Hirsch, Fred Lewis, Ron Polasek, and Barb (Schwartz) Trumbull) and a home base organization team, as well as the prayers and support of the members of the Presbyterian Church of Barrington and friends!

After months of learning, exploring ideas, making amazing connections and a lot of prayer, we have found a site with which we already feel a spiritual bond. We sought destinations in mostly Spanish speaking countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia and Peru. We also asked those we know in the mission field about these countries, their opportunities and pitfalls, as well as asked colleagues who may know of Living Waters and our mission in these places. Through connections which can be described as Spirit led, we found that Peru brings not only the physical connection of needs to our group but also the personnel and spiritual connection of Health Bridges International. The leaders of this group are some with whom Linda has had previous experiences, as well as their own Living Waters connection in helping LWW understand and document the benefits clean water bring to a community.

Our journey continues to Elohim School near Arequipa, Peru. Our covenant with this school and community will help to improve the health of 130 students and their families. The site at the Elohim School, where students from pre-K to 6th grade can find access to the opportunities only education can provide, has had both blessings and hardships throughout its history. Through all of this, Elohim is always serving the poorest of Arequipa. The facility is in near unusable disrepair, the toilet facilities are two corrugated steel partitions near the street, and the water is not suitable for consumption. The school has three people in place who have committed to making this an oasis in the city for education and health. Ms Susi Prescott, an Australian, has committed to raising funds and running the school. Fr. Alex, a priest who is coordinating those of us who come to help. Sra. Rosa is the director of the school.

Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for Commissioning on March 20, and travel April 2 through 9, 2011. Please also follow along here with our next exciting news of opportunity and challenge. We thank you for your support and prayers, and look forward to sharing great stories as well.  Help us to make a small ripple of difference in our great sea of humanity by being God's hands and feet in Arequipa, Peru.

Faithfully,

The PCB Living Waters Mission Team

 

HBI Links to their blog and information on Elohim School:

http://hbint.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-opportunities.html

http://hbint.blogspot.com/2010/01/elohim-god-is-alive.html

Train the Trainer

Uploaded on behalf of Linda Enskat:

During the summer we learned about leadership and the water system, itself, with three of our team members. This week, Linda Enskat is learning the third piece of our Team Leadership: CWU-102 hygiene, health and education.

The first two days we are learning different ways to communicate and how to find appropriate people to further teach others in the community. We are learning to work with the community leaders, giving them stories and activities to be able to teach other kids and adults: What makes people sick, what is clean water -vs- dirty, how to use clean water.

One example used to demonstrate the water conditions are where there are three communion cups filled with water; 1 cup with "stones", crumbled cookies, showing water which looked bad but is good to drink; 1 cup with sweetener which looks clean but is contaminated; 1cup from their water source which looks fine, but is not safe to drink. We learned how to grow cultures in the water samples to see what kind of bacteria are present.

We also learned about how we can represent germs by modeling some out of Playdoh – and some were quite creative little beasts!

Another interesting exercise was when one person had a glittery hand lotion on, and we greeted one another with a handshake. Everyone in the group was 'contaminated' with the glitter after just a minute of greeting! We need to teach the proper use of clean water, for cooking, drinking, brushing teeth and caring for babies. Cleaned water is not for washing clothes, animals, or floors! Another example of the proper use of clean water was to have a UV Dye on our hands to see how well we washed. If there was dye remaining, we need to wash better!

Our experiences also include lessons on how God used water to help God's children throughout the Bible with stories of Deliverance (the parting of the Red Sea upon leaving Egypt) and Living Water (The woman at the well). The days are once again very full, but the scenery is beautiful. There is a little time for reflection first thing in the morning, but the rest of the day is spent preparing ourselves for the time when we pass this knowledge to others!