Kentucky Church Marks 1,000,000 Gallons of Clean Water
Photo: Bob Wade in Haiti
Seven years ago Bob Wade of Memorial United Methodist Church in Elizabethtown, Ky., learned about Living Waters for the World at a local fundraiser. His Sunday school class sent five members to attend Clean Water U for training. “We were green when we started this,” said Bob. “None of us had been in the mission field, so it was new and exciting for us. At the end of the five days we felt like we had the resources and expertise we could lean on.”
Today, Memorial UMC and the Hardin County AM Rotary Club have partnered with nine communities in Haiti to install water purification systems and health education programs. Those communities have been transformed by clean water, but so too have Bob and his fellow mission team members.
Photo: The 2016 Memorial UMC Water Team, Living Waters for the World's in-country network team, and partners from the Nazareen Church in Port-de-Paix, Haiti mark the dedication of the church's clean-water system.
“As Americans, we are of the mindset that we are going to go there and help people,” said Bob. “And, we are helping. But, we also have a lot to learn, especially spiritually, from the people living in Haiti. They don’t have 401-K plans or health insurance, so they really live their faith. That has a lot of instructive value for me personally.”
Photo: David Martin, a member of Memorial UMC, sets up a hand washing station to teach the importance of proper hand hygiene.
Photo: Jill Wade, a member of Memorial UMC, teaches Haitian children about proper ways to use clean water.
At the end of 2016, Bob and Memorial UMC celebrated 1 million gallons of clean water produced by the systems they helped install. “The further we go along, the more blessings we receive,” he said.
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