WINE INTO WATER STORY. March, 2018
A little background on our newest, and most exciting project at the Clinic:
Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico. The vast majority of inhabitants are indigenous people, descendants of the Mayans. There are many distinctly different people groups in Chiapas, with different customs, language, food, and dress. The majority of the people we serve are Tzeltal, who have various sub groups, such as: lowland Bachajon, and the highland OxChuc people. Other major people groups are the Tzotsil, Ch’ol, Tojolabal, and Lacandon. Most of these Indians live in complete poverty, in villages with wood huts, dirt floors, and outside latrines. They farm the land as did their ancestors hundreds of years ago, growing corn, beans and squash.
Chiapas is a beautiful, mountainous state. There are canyons, valleys, rivers and streams. There is abundant rainfall, and water is plentiful. As are diseases caused by waterborne pathogens. All of the water here is contaminated. People suffer from typhoid, cholera, parasites, amoebas, and skin infections.
After facilitating medical teams for some years, Pastor Pablo began to share his dream of a clinic for “his people”. With many hands, contributions, and work teams, the clinic, Las Manos de Cristo, was built, and dedicated in 2012.
I am a nurse, and have traveled here since 2003, participating in dozens of medical caravans, and spending 6 to 12 weeks per year working with the missionaries in the clinic and in the remote villages.
Year after year we teach hygiene techniques, and preach about drinking only clean water. It is extremely hard to carry water for miles, or to keep water boiling over an open fire, or to purchase large bottles of clean water. Year after year we provide medicines to treat the above diseases.
This year, thanks to some dedicated people from NC area, who themselves are travelers to Chiapas, have contributed and connected with Wine to Water. The first filters were carried in suitcases just 2 weeks ago with the doctors and nurses of the first Caravan of this year. Training was done for the permanent doctor and nurse and staff worker at the clinic. It has turned into a very exciting project!
As nurses, we spoke to each and every one of the 1500 patients who were seen during those 2 weeks. Eyes lit up as we spoke of a simple way to make clean water. There was great interest. We made a list. Those patients returned to the clinic last week for classes on the health benefits of clean water, and on the use and care of the filters. Already there are 100 filters in use!
We have now started to follow up on these patients. Many live in huts in remote villages. Some live in nicer cement houses in the town. Some live in ramshackle tin homes on the outskirts of town. All, need clean drinking water.
Sebastian is monitoring this program and he and I traveled to several homes to follow up. March, 20, 2018
Maria and her family are overjoyed to be using the filter. The filter was running when we arrived, purifying another new large bottle of water. With 2 adults and 2 children in the family, they go thru a lot of water. She cried as we came into her home. She offered us a blended oatmeal drink, mixed with the pure water. It was delicious. She was so proud and grateful. The filter has only been in use 2 full weeks, and already she says no one has had any stomach problems for those 2 weeks, a record, I think. She gifted us with fresh eggs and bananas and wants us to come back for a fresh turkey dinner. She did ask if next time, we would give her a days notice!
Our next visit was made to Maria And Don Feliciano, an older couple in a small but neat, little cement room with lovely flowers out front. They were having a little trouble adapting their filter to the kitchen faucet. The fit and gravity was not quite right. Sebastian and Don Fleiciano discussed a solution, and Sebastian will return. They were most grateful, and look forward to not having to purchase water. When I requested a photo, they both agreed, but stepped away to wash their faces and comb their hair for a proper picture! 
Adelaida lives in town and was so happy for us to stop by and check on her. She was listening to our RADIO MAYA, when we came. She is Baptist, but knows Pastor Pablo. She was quite competent in the use of her new filter. Says she already has saved so much money on buying water, and can filter extra water for those times when there is no city water, or the electricity is off. 
Our final visit of the day was to a family on the outskirts of town, in a slum area. The house was a tin sided structure with no running water or indoor plumbing. In fact, there were workers present digging a ditch from the house to the road, presumably for a sewer. The house was set back off the street. We had to tramp thru brush and mud to reach it. The children peeked at us between the slats of wood that was the door, locked with a giant chain. Once the chain was unlocked, they greeted us warmly . The parents were not present, only an aunt who was cooking, and seemed less than happy to see us. Maybe she felt we were inspectors of some sort. However, the filter and bucket sat prominent on a table along with 3 freshly filtered bottles! Success, I think! 
It was a wonderful day. Reminds me of my days of home health nursing! I loved the patient contact on their own turf, and the positive impact of the filters.
As a Christian and health professional, I find this an exciting way to drink of the living water, to know Christ’s love, and to prevent those illnesses that can devastate a family and a community, and which are so easily preventable.
M
