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Continuing the Living Water Legacy
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| The following incredible story
had its beginning in March 1983, when our church became a Sanctuary church,
giving protection and advocacy to refugees from Central America. We joined
with other local churches to form South Bay Sanctuary Covenant (SBSC).
At the urging of some of these refugees, SBSC had its first delegation
to El Salvador in the middle of the civil war in 1988. After the signing
of the Peace Accords in 1992, SBSC started having annual delegations to
El Salvador and supporting communities there. In March 1998, Stan Grams,
a retired engineer and member of First Presbyterian Church went on the
SBSC delegation. He heard Paul Darilek tell of his dream to drill wells
in poor communities where the ground was too hard to dig a well by hand.
Paul soon got training from Living Water International in Texas on how
to drill a well and was leased a drilling rig for $1/year. Stan started
raising money to pay salaries for a drilling team, a truck to haul the
rig, insurance for the truck, etc. (Stan had gotten good experience by
being in charge of Stewardship in our church.) Many people from our church and community gave generously. Stan raised enough money so that 12 wells were drilled in poor communities. After Stan's untimely death in a plane accident, others carried on his legacy. Our SBSC delegations meet with the Living Water El Salvador well-drilling team each year. This year they are drilling their 145th well! Now, read on and enjoy! |
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Living Water Project wells make an incredible difference in people's lives. |
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| It was a big event. Ten representatives
from each of ten NGOs sat in the ballroom of San Salvador's InterContinental
Hotel alongside 300 of El Salvador's richest, most powerful people. The
president of the country, the vice-president, supreme court chief justice,
an ex-president, cabinet members, the Archbishop, famous Salvadoran artists
were all there, as were El Salvador's truly powerful-elite families of
the oligarchy-names and faces we hear and see regularly on television
all around. They were there to honor ten finalists out of 101 NGOs competing
for three prizes of $50,000, $75,000, and, for first place, $100,000.
More than half of the young men at the Living Water International-El Salvador table had never put on a coat and tie in their lives. Our lead driller, my dear friend Santos, had lived in a house made of mud and sticks until he'd been working for Living Water for a couple years. He dropped out of school in the fourth grade because his family needed him to work full time-and tonight it was possible that the president of his country was there to honor him. Three days ago he'd found a used suit coat for $5. "It was the only coat that fit me, and it was the only one for five dollars-the rest were eight bucks!" With some used $6 slacks, $18 second-hand shoes, a $2.50 dry-cleaning, he threw together a suit for about $30-and looked sharper than you're imagining! At the suggestion of Dr. Ivan Fuentes, LWI-ES director (and the guy who entered us in the competition), the crew met at our office an hour earlier to pray together before the event, and for our secretary, Yesenia, to tie everyone's neckties. And to take pictures of each other in their suits. We held hands and prayed for God to be glorified by these awards. 101 non-profits had entered the prestigious competition dubbed "Helping Those Who Help." We were down to ten finalists. We'd all been mentioned on three television channels and in the country's biggest newspaper. There were several Christian organizations among the finalists. We prayed for several by name, praying that if they were the one who could use this prize to most glorify God, then may they win. In the ballroom, wine glasses of varying sizes and utensils enough for a multi-armed Hindu god before us, our guys looked sharp. Driller Enrique could have been a Wall Street stock broker in his rented suit. Who would guess he was from the underdeveloped hills of Ajuachapan? He only had walls on his house after saving his LWES salary for some time. His wife, a long-time Christian, enjoyed new life after Enrique's LWES work mates encouraged him to accept Christ and join her at church on Sundays-and tomorrow she would see him in the newspaper, a result of his efforts to follow God. The president addressed the crowd. 100 hearts at 10 tables pounded with anticipation. The evening had been titled, "A Night of Winners." Speeches ensued. Hours into the night the host asked, "Do you want to know the winners? . . ." Everyone shouted "Yes!" in emphatic unison. "Well, we'll announce them after dinner!" Barring priests and nuns, everyone else in the 36-table ballroom looked like they wore suits every day. Our table stood out for the water in its wine glasses, its youth, its giddy excitement. Two digital cameras flashed all night long. The boys looked sharp to me, but I'm sure people knew these guys were from the countryside, first-time suit wearers. I could see it in the eyes of Kriete Foundation director Celina de Kriete, of the Kriete family heir to TACA International Airlines, who would smilingly glance at our table with what looked like a mixture of joy and warm-hearted compassion, almost pity, for these servants. After a mind-boggling meal, finally, the winners would be announced. To everyone's joyful surprise they announced that the 7 non-placing NGOs would each win $10,000! A "Night of Winners" indeed. Third place, $50,000, drum-roll, went to the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center at Maria Auxiliadora Catholic Church. Second place, $75,000, to the Carmelite Hospital for improvements in their radiology clinic. Oh, wait a minute, I thought. These guys only move among the really big mucky-mucks. Everyone's heard of these huge projects. What was I thinking? It makes sense now. These peoples' last names are like brands in this country. Hey, it's all been more than worth it, and, shoot, $10,000 is nothing to shake a stick at! It was actually comforting for my heart to stop beating with anticipation for 1st place. Then they announced it, "For first prize, for ONE… HUNDRED… THOUSAND… DOLLARS… (as if anyone didn't know the quantity by now)…" Their next words were, "Without water there is no life…" Ten excited and dedicated servants jumped up and hugged each other ecstatically. It was us, it was really happening. Driller/founder/ex-subsistence farmer, Santos later told me, "I've felt emotions, but there is no emotion like that one. I was just paralyzed, floating up to the stage." We held our over-sized check, flashbulbs glittered the hall, then came the night's highlight. We returned to our table. The press descended on us: microphones, cameras and television crews from all the country's news channels and the country's two big newspapers, note pads out, microphones extended. They asked questions, urged us to stand before this or that sign for a photo, hold up the check, hold up the plaque… It was likely the most fame and attention that group of people will have in their lives. Yet everyone stood in a circle around the table facing each other, not the press, not the cameras. Ten happy young Christian men and women joined hands, thanked God for this blessing, prayed for the families it would benefit, thanked God for putting the goodness in the hearts of the Kriete family to do this, thanked God for this chance to serve in His name, prayed we would be good stewards of this and all our blessings. Strobes flashed, cameras snapped and 10 people prayed on. This had never been about the money, it was about serving God who gave us life by giving life, holding that precious gift with care, channeling the glory to its rightful heir, its creator. Thank you to all who had a hand in creating such a caring group of quality people. See www.lwes.org for photos and more information. Visit First Presbyterian Church's El Salvador pages for more photos and stories. |
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