Out There with the Beams -- October 2018

Dear Friends and Family,

When do you hear God speak to you?  I’ll admit that I don’t always hear a definitive voice guiding me toward a specific action, but I do quite often see him acting through so-called happenstances or chance meetings that are just too serendipitous to be random.  I love witnessing such an obvious God moment that makes it impossible to deny his existence and his love for humanity.  A friend just sent me this picture of Pablo and I talking to a woman named Rosemery, who I at first thought was just a humble flower seller in Aiquile, Bolivia.  This photo captures the precise moment that God put three people together to make sure 18 schools and whole bunch of families would have clean water to drink in Aiquile.

It turns out that Rosemery was also a teacher in an elementary school in Aiquile.  We were in Aiquile on the last day of an Agua Yaku motorcycle trip distributing water filters in rural villages along our route.  We had just planned on stopping for the night in Aiquile before heading back to Santa Cruz early the next morning.  Honestly, I knew Aiquile needed clean water, but Aiquile is a good-sized regional town and I thought it was too big of a project to tack onto the end of a long week.  Rosemery also knew they needed clean water in the schools of Aiquile.  She inquisitively asked what we were doing in Aiquile. When she heard about the filter project she immediately went into action, making some phone calls and organizing a meeting with all 18 school directors in front of our hotel within an hour.  It just “so happened” that the teachers were on strike that day. Classes had already been cancelled and the school directors were all gathered together several blocks away to organize a march.  After hearing about the water filters, they quickly gathered in the street in front of hotel and where we trained them on how to use the water filters in their schools.  We ended up distributing over

40 filters in Aiquile—sending them to schools, boarding houses, the hospital, and many local families.  The teachers disbursed quickly after the training, only to march back through the plaza a few minutes later beating on the water filter buckets like drums as they chanted in unison for higher pay and better government support for the local schools.  It is hard to deny that God was working overtime to make sure we did not pass by Aiquile without leaving behind almost all the water filters had left in our trailer.

We have another volunteer team from Crossroads Church arriving in Santa Cruz tomorrow morning.  Sixteen of us are headed out on Sunday afternoon to Buena Vista where we will be working with a local partnering NGO, called Etta Projects, to distribute water filters in several rural communities along the eastern most edge of the Andes mountains near Amboró National Park.  Please support us in prayer as we bring clean water and demonstrate God’s love in these communities.

Here are a couple of pictures of our latest prototype for the new AQUASIV water filter.  I can’t wait to show everyone how versatile it will be for use in all kinds of outdoor activities and for clean water needs all around the world. It is not in production yet, but we will be testing improvements on our trip to Buena Vista and we will soon be launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for our first production run.

We are also continuing to drill water wells in Riberalta, near Bolivia’s northern border with Brazil.  It is a full two days drive from Santa Cruz up to these communities.  We have drilled 23 successful wells in the last couple of months. So many recipient families have expressed their deep-felt appreciation for the clean water that these wells have already provided. We will continue to work there until the rains become too heavy in November to continue drilling.  We have promised our local church and mission partners in Riberalta that we will drill at least 65 wells in 13 designated communities.  It costs us about $500 to drill each well.  Thank you to those of you who have already stepped up to help with this project. We are working on faith, praying that the remaining funds will come in on time.  I know there are huge needs all over the world and that our personal resources are limited, but God is not limited.  If you feel called to sponsor a well or two in Riberalta, we will drill them!  If you feel God calling you to do more—we still need $25,000 to complete the financial end of our commitment!

Personal Financial Support

Thank you so much to so many of you for your faithful and continued support of our ministry here in Bolivia.  If you have visited us in Bolivia on a team or if you have been receiving our newsletter and would like to become a regular monthly supporter of our work, please click on the donate button and follow the instructions.  It would be especially helpful if you could become a monthly supporter for our personal support account.  In focusing on the ministry, we have neglected to keep a close eye on our salary account and unfortunately it is no longer at a level that allows us to receive our full salary.   We need another couple dozen friends to step up and become monthly supporters.  $25, $50 or $100 a month would help us get back up to full support quickly.  If you set up an automatic monthly contribution you will not even have to remember each month, just don’t forget to pray for us too!

Blessings,
Danny and Vanessa