President's Message
I would like to begin by saying that absolutely nothing that has happened this year, not the COVID 19 pandemic, not the closing of international borders, the disruption of mission travel, or any of the restrictions that have been imposed upon us to combat the virus, nothing, not one thing, came as a surprise to God.
Our theme for this year has been, “For such a time as this”.
It is from a verse in the book of Ester, in which Mordecai said
“If you don’t do anything at this time, relief and deliverance will rise from another place, And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
Let me share with you a story that began several years ago.
Our organization, Living Water World Missions, was established as a legal nonprofit according to the laws of our country. Our express purpose is to share the Gospel of Christ, through the building of clean drinking water filtration systems, in places that lacked access to clean drinking water. But our primary goal, as my friend Jim Pitkin has stated on many occasions, is to make the name of Jesus famous.
The Lord opened the door for us to go primarily into Guatemala, and led us to establish a series of long term relationships with a multitude of Churches, Schools, Orphanages, and Medical Clinics where we were successful in not only building clean drinking water systems for those communities, but also in sharing the story of Christ.
Over time our commitments grew to the point where we had to expand our operations and hire four of the most amazing individuals in Guatemala that you could ever imagine, to assist us in the work in that country. Those four amazing individuals, Josué, Cesia, Gaby and Eswin, are the backbone of all of our operations in Guatemala.
A few years ago we felt that the Lord was telling us we needed to establish a separate nonprofit, under the laws of Guatemala, that could operate independently of our stateside organization.
The process of doing so was time consuming and required quite a bit of “thinking outside the box”, as well as education on the part of our Board and our Staff. But, after many long months of effort, we were successful and
“Asociacion Mision Mundial de Agua Viva Guatemala”, finally received its charter from the Guatemalan Government.
Under the Lords guidance, we started the process of building a supply chain to move filters in bulk and other systems parts from the US into Guatemala.
Little did we realize at that time why God was leading us in this direction.
Last January our Board met with our Staff, who are also the Board of the Guatemalan nonprofit, to plan our work for the coming year. We had a list of over 15 sites to consider for water system installations, and many other things to plan for as well.
Well, long story made short, our carefully considered plans kind of evaporated in March when international travel into Guatemala was curtailed. Not only that, but in Guatemala draconian measures were put in place designed to combat the spread of the COVID virus. People could not travel from one Department to another or, leave the city that they lived in. The entire county was locked down from Friday evening to Monday morning and a curfew from 4PM to 7AM on other days was rigidly enforced. All shopping, including for food, was restricted to the hours of 8:00AM to noon. All schools were closed, and so were all the churches.
The Government, anticipating that the county would soon be overwhelmed with COVID cases, decided to build a series of regional hospitals solely to treat COVID cases. And because the Lord had allowed our Guatemalan nonprofit to be established, the Government was in a position to request help from the nonprofit, to build clean water systems in those hospitals. Additionally, our Staff received authorization, for such a time as this; to travel throughout the country, to not only build the new hospital systems but to also maintain our existing water systems.
Since we could not send Teams, carrying supplies into Guatemala as we would normally do, we used the supply chain that the Lord has us develop for such a time as this, to send a number of complete clean water systems, ones that you donated, from the US into Guatemala, on an expedited basis, to allow those hospital installations to take place.
Because of your faithfulness we were able to continue to serve Gods kingdom in this time of difficult circumstance.
Mark Vanciel, CEO and President of Living Water World Missions
Read the full 2020 Annual Report:
I would like to begin by saying that absolutely nothing that has happened this year, not the COVID 19 pandemic, not the closing of international borders, the disruption of mission travel, or any of the restrictions that have been imposed upon us to combat the virus, nothing, not one thing, came as a surprise to God.
Our theme for this year has been, “For such a time as this”.
It is from a verse in the book of Ester, in which Mordecai said
“If you don’t do anything at this time, relief and deliverance will rise from another place, And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).
Let me share with you a story that began several years ago.
Our organization, Living Water World Missions, was established as a legal nonprofit according to the laws of our country. Our express purpose is to share the Gospel of Christ, through the building of clean drinking water filtration systems, in places that lacked access to clean drinking water. But our primary goal, as my friend Jim Pitkin has stated on many occasions, is to make the name of Jesus famous.
The Lord opened the door for us to go primarily into Guatemala, and led us to establish a series of long term relationships with a multitude of Churches, Schools, Orphanages, and Medical Clinics where we were successful in not only building clean drinking water systems for those communities, but also in sharing the story of Christ.
Over time our commitments grew to the point where we had to expand our operations and hire four of the most amazing individuals in Guatemala that you could ever imagine, to assist us in the work in that country. Those four amazing individuals, Josué, Cesia, Gaby and Eswin, are the backbone of all of our operations in Guatemala.
A few years ago we felt that the Lord was telling us we needed to establish a separate nonprofit, under the laws of Guatemala, that could operate independently of our stateside organization.
The process of doing so was time consuming and required quite a bit of “thinking outside the box”, as well as education on the part of our Board and our Staff. But, after many long months of effort, we were successful and
“Asociacion Mision Mundial de Agua Viva Guatemala”, finally received its charter from the Guatemalan Government.
Under the Lords guidance, we started the process of building a supply chain to move filters in bulk and other systems parts from the US into Guatemala.
Little did we realize at that time why God was leading us in this direction.
Last January our Board met with our Staff, who are also the Board of the Guatemalan nonprofit, to plan our work for the coming year. We had a list of over 15 sites to consider for water system installations, and many other things to plan for as well.
Well, long story made short, our carefully considered plans kind of evaporated in March when international travel into Guatemala was curtailed. Not only that, but in Guatemala draconian measures were put in place designed to combat the spread of the COVID virus. People could not travel from one Department to another or, leave the city that they lived in. The entire county was locked down from Friday evening to Monday morning and a curfew from 4PM to 7AM on other days was rigidly enforced. All shopping, including for food, was restricted to the hours of 8:00AM to noon. All schools were closed, and so were all the churches.
The Government, anticipating that the county would soon be overwhelmed with COVID cases, decided to build a series of regional hospitals solely to treat COVID cases. And because the Lord had allowed our Guatemalan nonprofit to be established, the Government was in a position to request help from the nonprofit, to build clean water systems in those hospitals. Additionally, our Staff received authorization, for such a time as this; to travel throughout the country, to not only build the new hospital systems but to also maintain our existing water systems.
Since we could not send Teams, carrying supplies into Guatemala as we would normally do, we used the supply chain that the Lord has us develop for such a time as this, to send a number of complete clean water systems, ones that you donated, from the US into Guatemala, on an expedited basis, to allow those hospital installations to take place.
Because of your faithfulness we were able to continue to serve Gods kingdom in this time of difficult circumstance.
Mark Vanciel, CEO and President of Living Water World Missions
Read the full 2020 Annual Report:
| 2020 Annual Report |
