A Promise to Keep
Honduras
Clean water: we take it for granted, but so many people in the world watch their children become ill and die for lack of clean water. Louis Manz of St. Luke's, San Antonio, saw this desperate situation while working on a mission team in Honduras. Manz, with the help of the World Mission Division of the Diocese of West Texas, obtained a grant to purchase a water well drilling rig, a truck and a compressor. A call went out to the diocese for volunteers to be trained to do the actual drilling. After three years of planning and hard work, the first water ministry team will go to the El Paraiso district of Honduras to drill the first three of seventeen wells that are planned, each near an Episcopal mission. Members of the team will also teach a course on water safety and well and pump maintenance. At the request of the local rector, the team will participate in an evangelism program.
One of the Honduran villages we surveyed for water is so obscure that there's not even a major trail, much less a road, marking its location. On top of that, the village is in an area where it's hard to find water, but I promised to try.
A few months ago I returned to the village and was surprised to see a new road painstakingly dug out of the volcanic rock. When I mentioned this to my hosts, I learned that the pastor told the villagers the water engineer would bring water if they would make a road. With great effort, they set out to hew the path by hand. Surveying the results of their work and faith, I was immediately stricken by my casual attitude to the desperate needs of these villagers.
It's hard to find water in that location, and I know we won't find it by our abilities. But God will lead and control our hands. A promise is a promise.
Lord, please forgive me for my casual attitude toward the lives and suffering of those villagers in Honduras. As your Son performed His first miracle through water, so Lord, please work miracles to provide these people with water to drink and living water that comes through Jesus. Amen.
Louis Manz, St. Luke's, San Antonio
Chairman, Water Ministry of the Diocese of West Texas
Anyone wishing to be trained for participation in future Water Ministry mission trips, please contact Louis Manz at (210)492-4482 or email: lmanz@satx.rr.com
Donations to help fund future wells to:
Diocese of West Texas (marked for Water Ministry)
P.O. Box 6885
San Antonio, TX 78209
Attention: Betty Chumney
