Living Water

Even today, if you fly over the destruction in Port au Prince, you can’t help but imagine what those moments were like during and immediately after the earthquake: the confusion and terror, loss of life, hurting families, and scared children. You start to let their fear and pain become yours. Then you realize you’re on a plane. You’re not even breathing the same air as the people below.

Haitian history is now divided into “pre-quake” and “post-quake.” Between the two is a pile of concrete and rocks stamped January 12, 2010. I’ve heard sermons about ancient Israelites building altars out of rocks to signify a defining moment in their journey. It would be easy to fly in with our own little story of hope for Haiti. It would market well and make us feel better, but like Port au Prince, it would be a pile of rocks.

Living Water’s work in Haiti has been hard. Even under the best circumstances, providing sustainable water solutions is difficult. In fact, since Living Water started working in Haiti in 2006, our entire effort has been to rehabilitate wells that have fallen into disrepair. Thousands of wells in Haiti don’t work due to neglect, lack of follow-up, or failure to transfer ownership to the community. Too often, water projects are imported solutions. The implementer doesn’t breathe the same air as the community. It’s like being in a plane, above it all.

Not all of Living Water’s projects have worked as planned. We have to learn from our experiences, because installing water solutions is not our real challenge. Whatever joy that water flowing from a new pump brings, it’s what happens afterwards that matters. Pipes corrode, pumps fail, and earthquakes make a mess of things. Post-earthquake Haiti has made obvious that if anything is to last—schools, families, businesses, the Church or our water projects—it cannot be defined by things that fall apart. Haiti is not defined by her rubble. She is defined by what endures: businesses that continue despite the loss of office space, schools that continue despite loss of classrooms, churches that continue despite loss of buildings.

Seven months after the quake we visited Haiti and children’s school-papers were still scattered in the rubble of Ecole Mixte Salem de la Mebea Primary and Secondary School. There were cartoon characters on the school walls with cracks running through them. I asked what the now leveled second story used to be. It had been an orphanage.

Living Water has worked in that and surrounding communities for some time. The pump at this school had been broken even before the earthquake. We watched the Living Water team repair it in only a day, and it immediately served the school and surrounding community. But it seems to me that the pump, now flowing with clean water, is not the main character of this story—the Church is.

Next to that vanished orphanage, next to the school where cracks rip through Mickey Mouse’s face, next to that pump now flowing with clean water, is a church. Like your church, it is part of one of the most sustainable movements our planet has ever seen. Persecution (and earthquakes) can’t kill it; efforts to stop it have only made it stronger. Its members lay down their lives for others. They move into areas no one else will because they believe the way of Jesus is the best way to live. That’s what we found in that small church—a group of pastors seeking to live the way of Jesus. What better partnership could one hope for to help define our program and sustainability in Haiti?

Shortly after leaving Haiti I learned that 54 of our projects had gone down within weeks of our repair. Materials had been improperly specced by a supplier. There is nothing Living Water could have done to prevent that, but we find something in that setback worth sharing as a success: it was local pastors—people who breathe the same air as those we serve—who alerted us to the problem.

Because Living Water is understood as part of the Church, Haitian pastors serve as a network of oversight for our water projects. Our Haitian team began receiving phone calls from other pastors where water projects were failing. Many of those pastors had been given oversight of the water projects. Others, because of their love for their communities, became a support system for existing caretakers and water committees—who contacted us. As a result, Living Water was able to identify the supply chain issue and resolve all 54 projects.

We want you to meet just a few of those pastors who form our sustainability network. Many of them lost family in the earthquake, and all lost someone they loved. Our hope is that they will encourage you in your support for Haiti. We hope you will see in them that your investment has been in far more than pipe that can corrode and concrete that can crumble.

A few of the Haitian pastors we work with, left to right: Pastor Olgens, Pastor Destine, Pastor Jean, Pastor Luclouis, Pastor Dumay Jean Heibert