Albany church expands mission beyond national borders

ALBANY – In recent years, Porterfield Memorial United Methodist Church has branched out beyond the boundaries of the United States to do the work its members say they feel God has called them to do. And the work is paying off.

The church partners with Living Water International to dig wells for impoverished countries. The motivation was sparked after the Rev. Leigh Ann Raynor, Porterfield’s senior pastor, read a book called “Hole in Our Gospel” in 2013.

That year, there was a Christmas offering at the church to raise $5,000. The response was tremendous.

Poerterfield members’ first trip on behalf of Living Water was in the following April to Nicaragua. That was followed by a trip to Honduras in October 2014, El Salvador in July 2015 and Honduras again earlier this year. From the beginning, the Porterfield congregation has increasingly embraced the idea.

“Statistically, water is the lifeblood,” said team member Wallace Bonner. “Water is abundant, but clean water is scarce.”

Bonner is one of a few parents in the church who has made the overseas trips a family affair, his wife and daughter joining him on the mission trips.

“Anytime we can work it out to have a teenager go is a good thing,” he said.

Sheila Urick, who has been on the two trips to Honduras, said there are usually teams of 10 who will visit either villages or a school. The women teach hygiene and Bible stories, while also helping the men build the wells.

During the first trip to Honduras, the team learned the village was taking their water from a nearby river a few hours of the week. Whatever they were able to get during that time was the household water supply for that week.

Use of the well began as soon as it was finished. As it turns out, the well came just in time.

“In May (of 2015) the river totally dried up,” Urick said. “Now the only source of water is the well we left them with.”

The Rev. Nate Lehman, the church’s associate pastor, said there is a commitment to make Living Water a long-term ministry of the church. Porterfield team members plan to go back to an undetermined country in 2017, at least as a summer trip if not a spring trip as well.

“We like to establish a relationship with one country, but I don’t know (which one that will be yet),” he said.

Financial support from the congregation, which has also been hands-on in offering the support needed, has been significant. Every Christmas offering at Porterfield since 2013 has gone toward Living Water.

“They offer prayer support, and (help with) preparing things to take,” Urick said.

The support is considered a blessing for those involved with the ministry firsthand.

“The momentum has grown, but knowledge has grown even more,” Lehman said.

In the process of planning the mission trips, more consideration has been given by those involved into how good Southwest Georgia has it.

“Having gone on the trip, I have an abstract idea of what contaminated water is like,” Bonner said. “It hits home when you’re standing in the middle of a perfectly good lavatory and you are told you can’t use the water.

“Every time we send a new team, (we are building) momentum, because that is 10 more people to tell the story.”

A repair and maintenance team is sent as a smaller effort to make sure the wells stay in working order. Through the onsite teams they interact with, the Porterfield teams are able to gain some understanding of the long-term sustainability achieved from the wells.

In some areas where poverty is rampant, those who have made these trips have said there is a tendency for the people living there to engage in practices that can make the situation worse.

“The expectation for produce and things like that have a very exploitative impact in the third world,” Bonner said.

Urick said she has been impressed by the faithfulness of the people in these countries. They already have next to nothing, yet they are willing to put what they do have into something with no guarantees – just the hope it will make a difference.

“They trusted God with the rest of it,” Urick said.

During the trip Bonner went on, he said the determination of where the well should go in the school yard was largely based on convenience – not necessarily based on where a well should go. Many times, there is no science involved, and the wells are instead built in a central, shady location out of the way where the equipment will fit.

Even so, the work is still worthwhile. The Living Water participants at Porterfield say the mission does have a future, in turn implying the church itself has a meaningful future.

“If there is no impact, there is no future,” Bonner said.

Raynor, while reflecting on what she learned from the book that inspired the project and the impact it has had, expressed gratitude in what can be done with just a small amount of faith.

“(I learned) how much we take water for granted,” she said. “I’m just really proud of these teams and what they have accomplished.”

In 1990 a group from Houston set out to help the more than 660 million people lacking access to safe drinking water. Since then, more than 17,000 water projects have been completed via Living Water. For more information, visit water.cc.