Teamwork

Our lack of posts is an indication that we are busy. This week Darcy (whose on summer break from being a speech assistant) is putting together our lesson plan for Zambia. We are also busy going to hygiene training at our church each evening. The training is being taught by a Seeds of Hope staff member and a Lifewater volunteer who just returned from Zambia. In addition to learning the hygiene lessons, its great to hear about Zambia!

Since we don't have time to write anything we outsourced most of this edition to our team member, Lon whose from Colorado. We thought you might be interested in who's going with us to Zambia. Lon is our team leader and as such is taking care of logistics, as well as, team teaching with us. We know Lon well as all of us went through sanitation training together and stayed together in the home of some fabulous Lifewater staff. We asked him to write a bio, so here it is... Thanks Lon!

Lon grew up in the Air Force. Living in many states, Canada, and Japan, he developed an appreciation for other cultures. In his brief career as an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers, he learned about building latrines among other things. In his career in the oil business, he learned about drilling wells and pumping them as well as managing people.

Then one day in 2004 while coming out of a church where he had been unable to plug into a ministry, he saw a Lifewater display about drilling water wells. He thought "If God has ever spoken to me, it is now. This relates to my entire background.” He attended Lifewater's annual conference and committed to becoming a volunteer. The next year, he took hygiene training and participated in a trip that Rod Thompson led to Tibet where they taught drilling at a school on a 12,000' plateau.

In June 2006, he attended pump repair training and went to Ethiopia on a trip led by Terry Steinhoff (who first introduced him to Lifewater). They taught pump repair to about 18 students. Half were with Kale Heywet Church, and half were Ethiopian government employees. In February, 2007 he went on another trip led by Rod Thompson to Uganda to teach pump repair. Students were from Divine Waters and JOY drilling.

Having taken Sanitation training with Darcy & Jeff, he is now headed for Zambia with them. His passion of trying to get the oil industry involved in supporting safe water efforts is meeting some level of success – please pray for that support to grow!