11/21/2009 10:19:00 PM Prescott church calls on good will
Matt Hinshaw/ The Daily Courier Pastor Mary Bope with the American Lutheran Church places a dollar in the Uganda water project mock well Tuesday afternoon.
People in two particular Ugandan villages walk five miles a day and spend a third of their meager incomes to fetch dirty water.
In America, most people need only walk to a faucet to turn on safe drinking and bathing water.
Because of this critical need in the faraway villages, The American Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prescott is launching a fundraising drive to dig two deep-water wells, first in Bukewa, Uganda, and then in Buhemba, Uganda. The cost of each well is $10,150. The church plans to complete the Bukewa well first and then begin raising money for the well in Buhemba.
The will to help this impoverished population rests in the hands of the church's Associate Pastor Mary Bope, who once practiced law before becoming a pastor. Before she entered law school, she got a deferment so that she could spend a year in the Peace Corps teaching math and science. This commitment took her to a little town in Ghana, West Africa, where she met with an eye-opener.
"The Peace Corps philosophy is that you live at the same level as the native people," she said. And, she did, often going
without electricity, having to boil drinking water and straining it before consuming it, and taking baths from a gallon plastic bucket, often using the same water multiple times. Running water did not exist.
"It was a pretty hard life," Bope said. "It was so clear to me that water is such a precious resource for people - if you don't have it. We take it for granted in the Western Hemisphere and America.
"Those kinds of experiences you never forget. They make an impression on you - kids without food and water."
Expressing her love for the African people, Bope then "fast forwards" to 2007 when she went on a short mission to Uganda in East Africa.
"Thirty years later, things are essentially the same," she said of what she witnessed on that trip. "Children are still starving. They are still searching for clean water."
This past September, Bope and parishioner Cindy Craig listened in on a leadership simulcast and the topic of water problems in Africa came up. When Craig heard of the hardship, she said her desire to initiate a well project for the Ugandan people became intense.
"I heard the stories and heard the statistics and it just hurt," she said.
Statistics are grim. According to Water 4 Kids International, based in the Phoenix area, 1.1 billion people across the world are living in extreme poverty without clean water, food, health care and education. Millions have no access to safe drinkable water and many are dying from preventable and treatable diseases as a result.
The Bukewa villagers walk five miles each day to the swampy shores of Lake Victoria to buy dirty lake water and pay 30 cents for two gallons. These people make just 90 cents to $2 a day in wages.
The children spend a quarter of their day looking for water, Bope said. So, there's no time for school, no time for play. "You wouldn't wash your dog in this water," she said.
Craig pledged $1,000 to the first well project before the church even decided to become involved. Today, since the church's Board of Deacons has approved raising money for the cause in alliance with Hope 4 Kids, parishioners will get the chance to begin the church's Wells for Life fundraising drive by dropping money into two wishing wells sitting in the entryway to the church's sanctuary.
Congregants will hear as the fundraising kicks off that 5,000 Africans, 500 of them children, die everyday because of contaminated water-related diseases, Bope said. In Phoenix alone, she pointed out, residents use 1,000 litres of water each day, compared to sub-Saharan African people who use 20 litres a day.
With the urgent need of the Ugandan people at the forefront, Bope and Craig want to encourage people "to give more 'presence' this Christmas," rather than presents to family and friends by contributing to this cause and other charities in their names.
Bope said $10 billion would solve the world's water problems. "Americans spend $450 billion on Christmas."
Hope 4 Kids builds deep-water wells with local vendors in Africa, Bope said. "We want to be on board, and we want to build two wells."
Those in the community who would like to help can mail a check to the church, 1085 Scott Drive, Prescott AZ 86301, or to Hope 4 Kids International, P.O. Box 86265, Phoenix AZ 85080 or donate through the organization's website, www.hope4kidsinternational.org.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, November 30, 2009
Article comment by:
Dr. Cliff Pash
I am a missionary for the past 5 years to Uganda and we have begun a church in the village of Bukewa. The lake water is NOT good to drink and I am so happy that this church is going to construct a bore hole (water well) in that far place. The churches and Christian NGO's do most of the development work in Uganda and Kenya. Without the bore holes, the people cannot get enough of the water they need and the water they can find often makes their children sick. God bless this church for the work they are doing. Bukewa is in a forgotten place of Uganda. Critical people, come and visit Bukewa. You will love the people and you will give to this project. I challenge you.
Thanks for the reminder John. You have a good holiday too!
Posted: Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Article comment by:
John Dunlap
Dear Religion/Division - Why are these people arrogant hypocrites? For wanting to help dying people? Because they choose to show others that God loves them and cares for them? Wow, how horrible to "foist" love upon people who desperately need to be shown some. It's unfortunate that your only point of reference for "religion" is through a random group of missionaries you encountered in the past. We are all children of God...you too, whether or not you accept it. And by the way, I have traveled the world in my 60 plus years and seen far more than you, I can assure you. Someday you will gain the maturity to realize that you don't have all the answers on your own. May God be with you during this Thanksgiving week and open your heart to the concept of giving rather than critcizing.
To 'No name and JERRY'. Neither one of you have likely every left the county in yer lives. Everything you know is what the church tells you to believe. I've done a decade of PeaceCorp work and in that time I've seen missionaries come and go in the countries I worked and their message is alway, "You're doing it all wrong, listen to us and we'll save you" GACK!!! You arrogant hypocrites.
The wells we dug exceeded 300 ft and we used fairly modern equipment to do it. $10K in a third world country? Sure.
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
And the Lord said: I don't think you are wrong, I KNOW you are wrong. Why don't you DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE with your time instead of dissing people who are making an effort to help others in need? Cynics who only spout their own self-important opinions and are utterly useless...bah. Until you can make a difference to ANYONE, just shut it.
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
Jerry
Hey "And the church gets what out of this?" - any well you supposedly assisted on building in Africa that cost $1000-$1500 has either long ago dried up or is producing substandard water to keep poisoning these people. DEEP WATER WELLS cost real money.
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
Objectivity
@And the Lord Said: I agree with you. If I'm going to donate money to a cause, it will be with an non-biased organization. I support serving humanity, however, I do not wish to impose any faith upon anyone.
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
Elliot
"Inasmuch as you have done it for the least of these my brethren, you have done it for me." To those much is given, much is expected. Way to go, Pastor Mary!
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009
Article comment by:
And the Lord said......
INAZ, We're just all very well aware these days of the hidden agenda's of today's churches. First off, lets insult the indigenous people by going into their third world country with pot, pans and bibles, then make them listens to our sales pitches in order to receive 'gifts'. Second, lets insult them further by telling them that the religions they've been following for thousands of years (longer than Christianity), is all wrong.
Then make them give up their whole way of life to follow the true religion because there can only be one true religion. Think I'm wrong? Pick up a history book starting with Hawaii...
Posted: Sunday, November 22, 2009
Article comment by:
InAZ
I used to go to this Church and I really liked it. It was a great stepping stone. Hey 'US FIRST', why don't YOU go out there and start fundraising for these children in the US. And who cares how much it costs, if you don't want to donate then don't. Everyone is a child of God so why should this Church have to start here in the US? And what's not to say that they don't help out people here in the US as well. Amazing how many 'do good' articles are followed by negative comments.
Posted: Sunday, November 22, 2009
Article comment by:
And the church gets what out of this?
BULL!! I lived in Africa and no well I ever saw constructed cost $10,000. The few that I assisted on were in the $1000-$1500 range with locked steel covers, concrete and hand pumps. Are you shipping a backhoe in your luggage and flying 15 managers to supervise who then will stay at a resort while the locals do all the work at $1 each a day? Huh, I wonder what the real story is and who's pocketing what.
Posted: Sunday, November 22, 2009
Article comment by:
US FIRST
I wish this much help would go out to our own children in the US. I know this is a great cause....but why not start at home 1st. There are starving kids right here in the US!
