wfn.org | Methodist well project assists Haitian island

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

April 10, 2002       News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-32-71B{153}

NOTE: For additional coverage of church work in Haiti, see UMNS story #152. 

By United Methodist News Service

Residents of the semi-arid island of La Gonave, a part of Haiti, now have
better access to drinkable water, thanks to the combined efforts of the
Methodist Church in Haiti and the United Methodist Church.

In February and March, a team completed the drilling of two wells and began
installing a windmill at Dent Grignin. 

The water project was conceived in 1993. Members of the United Methodist
Kansas East Conference had been visiting the island for years to build
schools and churches and share their religious faith, but the idea of making
water a priority came after Glen Paden, a Kansas engineer, discussed the
situation with a Methodist district superintendent for La Gonave.

Lois Waters led the conference committee that worked with the Haitian church
on the project proposal. It took root in 1994, as the conference raised an
initial $27,000 and the United Methodist Committee on Relief supplied a
$167,000 grant, she said.

Despite setbacks and changes in project plans, "everyone has persevered,"
Waters said. "We have overcome cultural differences, changes in goals and
vision, but the result has been five wells drilled and a plan, which has
begun, for Phase II, training Haitian well drillers. God has been with us
through the struggle."

The project has survived, she added, because the right people have come
along at the right time. One of those people is H. Ray Newmyer, a volunteer
with Lifewater International, a clearinghouse for professionals who want to
do volunteer work.

The Methodist Church in Haiti had contacted Lifewater for help with drilling
problems on La Gonave. Newmyer, a water-well driller from Mosca, Colo., with
42 years of experience, has made three trips to the island in the past year.
The first occurred last summer, to retrieve a cable tool rig and rotary rig
that had become stuck in a well hole. "My task was basically to get them
unstuck and get the wells finished," he explained.

Gary Downey, an employee for the Methodist Church in Haiti who accompanied
the well-drilling team on its most recent trip to the island, recalled the
support of the people there. On a Sunday morning, he spoke in Creole to a
local congregation, asking the members to pray for the team's success in
removing a drill, and the people responded. "It was almost like water
because you had these voices rising and falling around you," he remembered.

That afternoon, when the drill was freed after only 30 minutes of work, "it
was almost as if the prayers of the people had been answered," he said.

Newmyer, who attends an independent Brethren church back home, noted that he
did have the right tools to do the job, but added, "I'm quite sure the
prayer really helped."

Members of the community also knew that the well would then be in working
order. "They were lined up there with their buckets, waiting," he said. Once
the water came, "the women danced. They got excited and danced."

Newmyer will participate in the next phase of the project as well, which
involves training local well drillers. The Rev. Lebrun Sorsaire, who serves
as the Methodist pastor for the island, said that five young men had been
recruited for a two-year training program.

Donations can be made through the Advance Special of the United Methodist
Church, earmarked for No. 418900-1, water development in Haiti. Checks
should be made payable to "Advance GCFA" and can be dropped in church
collection plates or mailed directly to Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO,
New York, NY 10087-9068. To make a gift by credit card, call (888) 252-6174.

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United Methodist News Service
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