April 3, 2000
BAPTIST WORKERS train local workers to draw water into a purification system built by Texas Baptist Men. (Photos by Grace Robinette)
Texas water project shows reflections of God's love
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___The stark contrast between a brilliant sunrise coloring the clear African sky and the gloomy subsistence lifestyle of refugees was one of the most compelling memories Texas Baptist volunteers brought home from Mozambique.
___"People there are just trying to live from one day to the next. And some of them don't," said Rex Campbell, technical coordinator for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Campbell and Walt Kriss, a member of Midway Road Baptist Church in Dallas, worked with two North Carolina Baptists, an Oklahoma Baptist and volunteers with the Baptist Union of South Africa to provide pure water for refugees displaced by widespread floods.
___The Baptist volunteers operated two water purification units about 12 hours a day at a camp 15 kilometers east of Chibuto, Mozambique.
___They purified at least 50,000 liters per day, storing it in two aboveground swimming pools until tanker trucks from Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders could deliver it to five refugee camps and a hospital in Chibuto.
___They also concentrated on training South African Baptists to operate the water purifiers, which were given to the Baptist Union of South Africa. Another volunteer team of North Carolina Baptists is continuing to serve in Mozambique.
___At the refugee camps, a South African physician and his two assistants gave nursing mothers and children age 4 and younger six ounces of powdered milk and one spoonful of peanut butter per day.
___The volunteers encountered a Baptist pastor who worked in the camps, but they were unable to communicate with him since he spoke only Portuguese, the dominant language in Mozambique.
___Kriss, who has served as a cook in mass food service operations from Texas and Oklahoma to Istanbul and Albania, prepared meals for the volunteer workers who operatedthe water purifiers.
A MOZAMBIQUAN REFUGEE, holding her child, ponders her plight.
___He was disappointed at not being able to cook for the refugees themselves.
___But after visiting two camps, Kriss recognized the logistical problem of sustaining a large-scale, long-term food service operation for up to 20,000 refugees in that particular context.
___He felt better after learning how the purified water has successfully warded off the threat of water-borne bacteria and disease in the refugee camps.
___ "The day before we left, a girl came by and told us that to her knowledge, there was not one case of cholera in any of the five camps we were serving," Kriss said.
___In addition to servicing the camps, the Baptists also provided drinking water for individuals who walked to the water purification site. With a scoop made from half a milk jug, the volunteers would offer a cool drink of water in Jesus' name to the weary travelers and fill their pots to be carried home to families.
___"The foot traffic into the water camp was growing every day. We were seeing more and more individuals who came with containers to be filled," Campbell said.
___While conditions in the water purification camp were primitive, they were made much more bearable thanks to the work of "Johann," a bush ranger from South Africa.
___After hearing an appeal for volunteers on the radio, he signed on for two weeks with the Mozambique Relief Coalition and said he would be glad to serve another two-week stint after returning to Johannesburg to take care of some personal business.
___The bush ranger, who is fluent in English and Afrikaan and proficient in Zulu, helped the volunteers set up camp, build latrines and install a shower.
___"I can't even say for sure that Johann is a born-again Christian, but I know he was a gift from God to us," said Campbell, who called Johann "as handy as a pocket on a shirt."
___Communication was a challenge for the volunteers. Since the relief operation was a cooperative venture between the Baptist Union of South Africa, Baptists in North Carolina and Texas and the Mozambique Relief Coalition, workers on the field attempted to check in daily with coordinators in Johannesburg, Maputo and the United States.
___Some calls could only be completed by satellite phone. Some could only be made by radio. All were dependent on fickle atmospheric conditions.
___Even so, Kriss succeeded in calling home about 5 a.m. on a Sunday to talk to his family. That morning his daughter-in-law, Patti Kriss, who works with Campbell in the BGCT communications office, was scheduled to sing a solo at Midway Road Baptist Church.
___Before she sang, she shared a testimony about the dangers her father-in-law and co-worker faced.
___But she also offered the assurance that there is no place in the world safer than the center of God's will.
___"I asked everyone to stop every time they passed a water fountain, took a shower or did laundry, and pray for Dad and Rex," she said.
___After she sang, Pastor Glenn Meredith jettisoned his prepared sermon. Instead, a 20-minute prayer time and 40-minute invitation followed. Three adults and three children made professions of faith in Christ, and several families joined the church.
___
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