Blessing the water

Pablo and I leave Ocosingo at 6 am for a special worship service at his church in Tenejapa, a two hour drive into the mountains of Chiapas. Each year at this time the whole community gathers at each of the three springs that provide water for the village to ask God’s blessing for their continued availability. This year Iglesia Elem is responsible for the blessing services so Pablo has prepared three sermons for the day. Two hundred plus people walk, ride horses or in the back of trucks ¾ of a mile up a mountain outside the village to the first spring. We are joined by a Tzeltal Mariachi band. The spring bubbles out of the side of the mountain then flows into an underground cistern or holding tank where it collects and then flows down the mountain to the village in a 2 inch pipe.

Most of the people attending this service are not members of the Presbyterian Church so Pablo uses the opportunity to evangelize the community. He speaks of the Living Water available to us through Jesus and how much we need that water to live. An Elder of the church gives an emotional talk about how much the community has changed since it was founded in 1994 and thanks God for the many blessing of the community. The services are repeated at each of the springs that support the community.

Water, just another example of something I took for granted in North Carolina that I now appreciate so much more. Access to clean water is real problem for the people of Chiapas. Once the rains begin in May, surface water containing who know what micro biotic life will run into the cisterns and mix with the spring water that flows into the village.

My friend Glenn Pierce witnessed this problem in January ‘06 when he accompanied me on my drive from NC to Ocosingo. He went back to Asheville and convinced his Rotary club to involved Rotary International in a grant request to purchase well-drilling equipment so we can provide a reliable source of clean drinking water to villages like Tenejapa. We are currently waiting on Rotary International Foundation’s response to our grant request.