Clean Water for our Brothers & Sisters in Cuba

Each time we take a drink of water the thought of it being unclean probably doesn’t even cross our minds.  We have been so blest with clean, drinkable water.  We don’t have to worry about diseases such as e coli, chorea, and diarrhea etc. from unclean water.  But unfortunately for our brothers and sisters in Cuba that is a daily fear.  In one particular village of Santa Y Anna, Camaguey where we have a Moravian Church lives about 3,500 people.  Their wells are very shadow and often only a few feet from the septic systems.  The water is highly contaminated with many bacteria including E Coli.  At least 10% of the people there have contacted chorea from this filthy water.  The vast majority of these people are children.  In May of this year Bishop Sam Gray, Evan Crooks, Bruce Ledwith and myself visited this village to survey what can be done to eliminate this problem.  We installed a temporary system at the house of the pastor where the church is also located.  After having the water tested there and then brought to a lab here in the states the results proved that it was completely clean of all germs including e coli.

The church there currently worships 40+ people and continues to grow at a good pace.  To allow for this growth, Aldo, the pastor, is in the process of building an addition on the back of his house.  This will allow for much better worship and give them an official church building.  Our next step is to install a permanent system in the building using his current cistern.  This will allow villagers to come to the church to get clean, fresh drinking water for their use.  After installation we will continue to monitor the use of the system and review test analysis.  Our next step will be to install a second system at another location to take the load off of the church and to allow access to more of the villagers.   We will be going down in November to start the process of reviewing and implementing the work on the system.

A system like this is very expensive. We are estimating around $5,000.  But with your help and God’s blessing, I am confident we can obtain this goal.  At worship for 3 Sundays in a row beginning Sept. 20^th we will have collection points at the commons area and in the vestibule for donations for this project.

Their prayers are that better bridges, better relationships, will be built between our two countries.  I hope that we too will share in this prayer with them.

So on Sept. 20^th, 27^th, and Oct. 4^th please consider a contribution.

God Bless you all.

GOD IS WORKING IN CUBA

Joe Jarvis

Armando Rusindo Mission Foundation