About a year and a half ago, we began using our own Justice Water phrases with the intention of seeing these words dance off of the page and into reality. One of those phrases was called “The Ripple Effect” and this common phrase was used to drive our desire to see our work multiplied in the nations who have water needs by the locals we trained there. Super ambitious, I know, but that’s what we believed for. And, I have to say that we have seen God take this term and take it from Justice Water’s Ripple Effect to HIS own Ripple Effect. It has been amazing. 

It has been extremely difficult for us to summarize what this last year has been like. Our journey has taken us to some real mountain-top experiences and some lower, are-we-even-helping, trying times. Honestly, the trying times have surely outweighed the “aha” times for us. It has felt like dragging our feet through mud, falling down, getting back up, accidently going the wrong way, falling down again…you get the picture. It hasn’t always been pretty and that has been difficult for us. 

This past trip to Haiti has shown us, however, that our tumbles and imperfections are not failure. It is true that His power is made perfect in our weakness and it is a humbling, often anticlimactic thing. Because it truly has to do with him and not with us. With that in mind, the Ripple Effect has been able to take place in a really neat way. 

When we were picked up in Port-Au-Prince by our good friends, we saw the typical scene of the airport. Dust and dirt and people asking if you need help with baggage. But, in the chaos there was an air of confidence displayed in our Haitian friends that we had not realized before. Throughout our time there, they displayed a sense of knowingness and gentle humility as they explained to us about the tanks they had been working on since we left. 

We had the opportunity to go out with them into the area they had been working in, Haiti’s 5th section. It’s about a 2 hour drive from Montrious, Haiti (where we usually stay) and then about another hour long hike into the village. This is a community of rice farmers and people heavily enslaved both physically by poverty and by the spiritual chains of voodoo as well. As we walked up and into the village, we were in awe of what we saw. 

The Ripple Effect had happened. 

It was an amazing time of our friends telling us what they had done to provide one of the poorest communities in Haiti with clean drinking water. This community, by the way, is the community where cholera started. That contaminated river was the only drinking water they had. And so, now there stand a few beautiful rain catchment tanks. We were able to connect with the Pastor, a man of peace connection to this area, and teach them even more about rain catchment and see how well the tanks work. What a gift to be a small part of this “ripple effect”. 

 

 

We believe this is but the beginning. We know that there is a lot of work ahead of us to figure out how to empower, further equip and expand the people of this ministry. Thank you for joining us as we help these Haitians help themselves and their communities. In another Justice Water phrase “change is a reality”. And, we really believe it.