Gatungan: Celebrating Success

Toti writes:
Here is a picture of the men we hired for the job in Gatungan. THe women are the wives who prepared our food. They are happy and thankful for your kindness.

A few hours ago I read a terrific report that Toti Ambulo posted on the network. Toti is the assistant director for Impact Nations Philippines. He reported that the final 15 bio-sand water filters had been installed in Gatungan. This is great news on several fronts. Gatungan is a village of about 2,000 people that for the first time in their history now have clean, safe drinking water. This means an end to water-borne diseases like amoebic dysentary, diarrhea and kidney disease. Unsafe water in the villages can even kill, especially the very young and very old. The water filters also bring a positive economic impact to the village--less sick days, allowing more productivity. As well, during the past two months, Impact Nations has trained and hired people to do the filter installations.
Toti reports that two men who came from Assam, India (in the extreme northwest of the country) learned how to do the filter installations in Gatungan. They had heard about the success of the bio-sand filter program that we are having in the Philippines, and so flew from India to receive two weeks of intensive training.

Jesus said that the Kingdom is like a mustard seed and yeast. Both start small, but over time transform their environment. In June we conducted a Journey of Compassion to the Philippines. The team met Toti and heard about the need for safe water. Six team members began to give $50 each a month for one year in order to meet the need. From that seed, an entire village has clean water, locals have been trained and employed, the village economy has improved and (who would have guessed this?), what has happened in Gatungan is now going back to the state of Assam, India. In the Kingdom, what happens is increase.