TBM worker helps provide clean water after quake

Mitch Chapman (left), water ministry specialist with Texas Baptist Men, and a volunteer from Missouri assemble a water filtration system. (Courtesy Photo)

image_pdfimage_print

Two high-capacity Texas-made water filters are providing clean water for earthquake survivors in Turkey, and more will be used both in Turkey and Syria in coming days, thanks to a Texas Baptist Men-led team.

A Texas-made water filter is installed at a tent city and community center in Turkey by TBM’s water ministry specialist and Turkish workers: (TBM Photo)

The team installed the first filter at a community center that is providing shower facilities, meals and medical care for about 800 people.

The second filter was installed Feb. 27 in a feeding unit at a high school in Central Turkey, where about 2,500 people are receiving meals daily, said Mitch Chapman, a water ministry specialist with TBM and pastor of a rural church east of Dallas.

Chapman, who is leading a disaster relief team of four volunteers from Missouri, said the necessary component parts for eight additional filtration systems were secured from Istanbul on March 1.

“The filters from Istanbul were delayed in getting here, but we made good use of the time,” Chapman said.

The team distributed four small gravity-operated water filtration systems using 5-gallon buckets to tent cities for individual use. Each one is capable of purifying 500 gallons of water a day.

“The water that is available from the city system here is cloudy, but the quality is not terrible,” Chapman said.

Making their way south toward Syria

Once the component parts arrived from Istanbul, the team assembled four filters that will be installed in tent cities they encounter as they travel southward. Once they approach the Syrian border, ministry partners from Syria will meet them in southern Turkey.

The disaster relief team will demonstrate how to assemble one unit and then leave it and the parts for the other three for the ministry partners to use with earthquake survivors in Syria.


Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays


Currently, the Red Crescent and others are setting up tent cities to house individuals and families displaced by the earthquake, and the Turkish military is delivering food to them regularly.

“The government hopes to close all the tent cities in three to four months and move all the people into container houses,” Chapman explained.

Looking ahead, he anticipates the greatest needs will be clean water, shower and toilet facilities, and basic sanitation. TBM and its ministry partners potentially could provide bucket filtration systems and assist with clean-up in the areas where people are sheltered, he noted.

Aftershocks continue throughout the region at a rate of three or four a day. One that registered 5.7 magnitude hit an area shortly after the TBM-led team left, Chapman noted.

He requested prayer for:

  • Safe travel for the disaster relief team as they make their way from Central Turkey toward the southern border.
  • Rapid construction of alternative housing for earthquake survivors currently living in tents.
  • Both the physical and spiritual needs of people in the affected area.

While Christians serving in Turkey cannot distribute any printed gospel materials, they are free to answer questions about why they are serving, Chapman said.

He recalled going to a hardware store to pick up supplies and the owner inviting him to sit down for tea. Because he was on a tight schedule, Chapman initially declined the invitation, but a ministry partner encouraged him to take the time to share a pot of tea.

“He said, ‘When they are asking you to drink tea, they really are asking you to tell your story,’” Chapman said. “Pray that the people’s hearts would be softened so they can see the truth.”


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard