NCM Magazine, Summer 2011

A PUBLICATION OF N A Z A R E N E C O M P A S S I O N A T E M I N I S T R I E S
Working for Water:
A Global Look at How Families
Find What They Need
Pure grace:
A Simple Well Helps
a Bangladeshi Congregation
Break Down Barriers
SurPriSing
abundance:
Shared Knowledge
and Resources Begin
to Transform Katwatwa, DRC
…for those who embrace compassion as a lifestyle
22 NCM MAGAZINE

Nazarene
OVERCOME
HUNGER
Sign up today at 30hourfamine.org/naz | 1.800.7.FAMINE
Don’t forget to visit us at NYC!
30 Hour Famine. Students loving God and fighting hunger.
HOUR FAMINE
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities
worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries partners with local Nazarene congregations around the world to clothe, shelter,
feed, heal, educate, and live in solidarity with those who suffer under oppression, injustice, violence, poverty, hunger, and
disease. NCM exists in and through the Church of the Nazarene to proclaim the Gospel to all people in word and deed.
Nazarene Youth International exists to call our generation to a dynamic life in Christ.
2012

in this
5
The Gift of
Living Water
18
issue
ncm magazine, summer issue | 2011
Shifting the Flow:
How Water is
Helping Break the
Cycle of Poverty in
Swaziland Communities
Japan: The Church
Stands as One
34
22 NCM MAGAZINE
*Information provided by Spicers Paper
6 8
Working for Water:
A Global Look at How
Families Find What
They Need
Thirsty for Change:
Examining the World’s
Water Problem
34
By printing this magazine on recycled
paper, NCM helped save:*
21
Water That Does
Not Come Bottled:
On Reading Psalm 104
One Well at a Time:
Haiti Water Project
Update
Surprising Abundance:
Shared Knowledge
and Resources
Begin to Transform
Katwatwa, DRC
9
Rooted in Dignity:
The Church in
Rwanda Transforms
a Community by
Providing Opportunities
to Work
24 29 32
21
trees
9554
gallons of
water
Grounds for Growth:
A Rooftop Garden at
Jerusalem Church of the
Nazarene Is Yielding Hope
for Food Security
7
million
BTUs
GLOBAL
WATER
ISSue
14
Pure Grace: A Simple
Well Helps a Bangladeshi
Congregation Break Down
Barriers and Pour Out Hope
Steady Convergence:
How the Local Church
and a Water Well
Transformed a Rural
Community in Zimbabwe
ON The COveR: Shallow community wells like this one in Katwatwa, DRC, provide only a fraction of the water that parched communities need.
These sources rarely produce clean drinking water but do produce waterborne illnesses. Follow the church’s work in Katwatwa on page 24.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
580
pounds of
solid waste
1984
pounds of
greenhouse
gas emissions

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22 NCM MAGAZINE
THe GIFT oF
LIvING WATeR
Water is everywhere in the Bible. Proud waves, roaring rivers, and great rains tell of God’s awesomeness.
Springs in the desert reveal God’s power and provision.
God’s word teaches that while water has the power to destroy, it also brings forth new life
while sustaining the old. God is the source of this water. And in the waters of baptism, we turn away
from sin, and our new life begins in Jesus Christ.
In the Gospel according to John, Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at a well (4:1-26). In the
parched lands near the Samaritan city of Sychar, people would walk a long way to draw water from
the deep wells that sustained their lives. Without water from these wells, people, livestock, and even
entire communities would perish.
Jesus told the woman he met there about living water—water that, if she drank, would quench her
deepest thirst forever. He knew that her community depended on the well they stood beside for survival.
Yet, he also knew that the woman needed something more than this water—she needed living
water. She needed new life.
The living water Jesus offered was not scarce, and it was free. In fact, it still is. Christ offers salvation
that touches every aspect of our lives—body, mind, soul, and spirit.
New creation springs forth in this living water by which we are
washed and made whole.
But God’s salvation does not neglect the everyday
needs of our bodies nor the needs of communities
around the world. The gift of water continues
to transform communities today just as
it did for the Samaritan woman over 2,000
years ago.
In the name of Christ, the church is
equipping congregations and schools
with water filters, cisterns, wells, and
pumps that bring safe water to central
locations in communities where clean
water may not have previously existed.
People gather at these clean-water
sources, encounter their neighbors, and are
encouraged by one another to care for and
maintain their water source. There, they have
the chance to share not only their lives, but the
living water of Christ’s presence in their community.
WATER DEFICIT:
Not enough Drops in the Bucket
Each person needs 20 to 50 liters (5 to 13 gallons) of
safe, fresh water every day to meet basic needs for drinking,
cooking, and cleaning. More than 1 in 6 people worldwide—894 million—do
not have access to this minimum amount.
•
Globally, diarrhea is the leading cause of sickness and death,
and 88 percent of those deaths are because of a lack of sanitation facilities,
inadequate water for hygiene, and unsafe drinking water.
•
Simply washing hands with soap can reduce the risk of diarrheal
disease by up to 47 percent.
•
Today, 2.5 billion people—almost a billion of them children—live
without the most basic sanitation. Every
20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation.
That’s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.
•
Adapted from www.unwater.org.
Sharing a cup—or a bucketful—of water in the name of
Jesus is an opportunity for the saving power of God to enter
into and transform lives and entire communities. Jesus cared that
the Samaritan woman was thirsty, for he knew she was not only thirsty for water, but for something
more—God’s living water and salvation. n
ncm.org/water
by
Nell Becker
Sweeden,
NCM Field
Program
Coordinator
SUMMER 2011
5

Achiya
Distance to water source: 6–10 kilometers (4–6 miles)
Average daily household income: 100 Taka (US $1.37)
Average daily cost of water during the dry season:
20 Taka ($0.27) for 30 liters* of fresh water,
plus 30 Taka ($0.41) for transportation
Average daily water use per person in Bangladesh:
45 liters**
Since my husband died, I have lived with my oldest son who
works as a day laborer. There are rivers and ponds near our
home, but they are contaminated with salt water. We use
salt water for bathing and washing, but we can’t use it for
drinking and cooking. During the three-month rainy season,
we collect rainwater for that purpose. But during the
dry season, we must rent a tricycle and a driver and go to
Talukder Pond, 10 kilometers away, to get water. We draw
90 liters at a time, purify it with alum, and store it in our
traditional water pot. If that pond dries up, though, we must
go to another pond in a mangrove forest that is accessible
only by boat. This takes one full day since we can only travel
on the river at high tide.
Chelsea
Distance to water source: in home
6 NCM MAGAZINE
50-year-old Mother,
Bangladesh
15-year-old Student,
United States
Cost of water: less than US $0.01 per liter
Average daily water use per person in the United States:
575 liters**
I am a 9th grader at a school where there are more than 10
drinking fountains. It is free to get water from these, but
many students prefer to drink mineral-enriched water from
bottles that cost US $1.25 each. At home with my two siblings
and parents, I get all the water I need, both cold and
hot, from a faucet in my house. Although I live in a desert
climate, I can walk into my kitchen and access an almost
unlimited supply of water piped in from rivers far away. The
water is collected in reservoirs, treated with chemicals,
and filtered, so that it is free of diseases and bacteria. This
same pure water is piped into our home for use in our dishwasher
and clothes washing machine. We have a garden in
our front yard, but not grass. This way, we save money on
vegetables, and we just have to water a few plants each
day instead of a larger plot of grass.
Photo courtesy of NCM
Photos courtesy of NCM Bangladesh
A Global Look at How Families

Stories have been adapted from interviews,
and names have been changed.
* One liter is equal to approximately 0.26 gallons.
**According to the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations.
Photos courtesy of NCM Lanka
Thilak
13-year-old Student,
Sri Lanka
Distance to water source: 300 meters to 1 kilometer
(984 feet to 0.6 miles)
Water challenges for the community:
• human and industrial waste contamination that
cause illnesses
• limited amount of water, especially when the
community well dries up in July and August
Every day before school, I help my mom carry water from a
well that is 300 meters from our house. My five siblings and
I use this water to drink, cook, and wash dishes. When we
need to bathe or wash clothes, we just go down to the well
instead of carrying the water back to the house. Ten other
families share the well with us. When it dries up in summer,
we must walk one kilometer to get water at the river.
Many wild animals go there, too. If my dad does not need
his bike to go work as a fisherman, he lets me use it to go
to the river and carry water home. My mom is in charge of
our family’s garden where we grow our food. Since we can’t
carry all the water needed to keep it growing, we have to
depend on the rain.
Find What They Need
Photos courtesy of Alcegaire Piard
Micheline
12-year-old Student,
Haiti
Distance to water source: a 15-minute walk
Average daily water use per person in Haiti: 15 liters**
Number of cholera cases in Haitian outbreak: more than
250,000
I am in 6th grade and study mathematics, French, Creole,
social sciences, and applied sciences at school. There are
five people in my family, and we all work together to get
water for our home. Because we have cholera in our area,
we have to be careful where we get our water and how we
use it. Every day, I walk to a hand-pump well or one of three
hand-dug wells and carry water home in a bucket on my
head or in my hands. We use this water for bathing, washing
dishes, brushing our teeth, and cooking. Before we drink
the water, we purify it with Aquatab. Since we live near a
river, I go down there to wash my family’s clothes and get
water for our garden. We can’t use this water for anything
else because it might be contaminated with cholera or other
diseases. We put bleach in the water before we wash our
clothes to help keep us safe.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 7

8
“IF ANyoNe GIveS
eveN A Cup oF CoLD WATeR
To oNe oF THeSe LITTLe oNeS
WHo IS my DISCIpLe,
TRuLy I TeLL you,
THAT peRSoN WILL CeRTAINLy NoT
LoSe THeIR ReWARD.”
mATTHeW 10:42 (NIv)
NCM MAGAZINE
one well
AT A TIme
In Haiti, a simple water well can change the
way a whole community functions. Children,
sometimes as young as four or five years old,
no longer have to draw and carry water from
distant—typically dirty—water sources. Instead,
families can pump clean water from a centrally
located well.
Laborers work together at Pernier Church of the Nazarene to
drill a well for the community. Photos courtesy of Alcegaire Piard
Church members are rebuilding Pernier Church of the
Nazarene because of damage from the 2010 earthquake.
Access to safe water has always been a matter
of life and death in a country where 80 percent of
disease is waterborne. However, the recent cholera
outbreak in Haiti has created an even greater
urgency for clean-water solutions.
Since 2007, the Church of the Nazarene through
the Haiti Water Project has been providing wells,
cisterns, and filters for Haitian communities. Each
water resource is located on church property and
is open to anyone who would like to draw water.
The church charges a nominal fee per bucket of
water, and profits go into maintaining the well so
that it can be a sustained source of life and health.
The Haiti Water Project is drilling 13 wells in Haiti
in the next few months. Eight of these wells will be
on La Gonâve, a small island off the coast of Haiti,
northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Residents
of La Gonâve, a mostly barren and hilly area, experience
extreme water scarcity. Some must walk up
to five hours a day to find water, but the new wells
will provide daily water for thirsty communities.
“Each time we distribute filters or drill a well,” said
Alcegaire Piard, project
manager for the Haiti Water
Project, “we know that it
has been a partnership
between us, these communities,
and God.” n
Learn more at
www.haitiwaterproject.com.
HAITI WATER PROjECT UPDATE
A Clean-Water Alternative:
BIoSAND FILTeRS
375
BIOSAND
FILTERS
120
SCHOOLS
25,000
CHILDREN
WITH ACCESS
TO CLEAN WATER
In addition to drilling wells, the Haiti
Water Project, in partnership with Pure
Water for the World, has installed 375
biosand filters in Nazarene schools.
Biosand filters are a simple, affordable
way to purify water. The sand filtration
system screens out harmful microorganisms
as water passes through,
making it free of contaminants and safe
for drinking.

22 NCM MAGAZINE
ROOTED
IN DIGNITy
THE CHURCH IN RWANDA TRANSFORMS A COMMUNITy
By PROvIDING OPPORTUNITIES TO WORk
The satisfaction that comes from working hard is deeply woven into who we
are as God’s creation. At its best, work offers needed resources in a community
and a way for laborers to provide for their families. It also provides dignity
and a sense of accomplishment. In a small, rural town in western Rwanda, the
local Church of the Nazarene has made a way for their community to experience
this dignity of work. And the effort is changing the people and the place.
An NCM/Abadacogora farmer displays her potato harvest.
All photos courtesy of NCM
SUMMER 2011
9

Pastor Celestin Habineza of Nkuri Church
of the Nazarene runs NCM/Abadacogora.
10 NCM MAGAZINE
by
Kelly Becker Tirrill,
NCM Education
In Nkuri village, about 28 kilometers from Gisenyi
(Rwanda’s second largest town at about 100,000
people), a group of local church members are working
together to provide jobs in their community. To facilitate
income-generating projects, they created an organization
called NCM/Abadacogora—meaning “people who
persevere.” Through this organization, 300 people work
in agriculture in Nkuri’s rolling mountains, providing a way
for them to obtain food, shelter, and education for their
families while also caring for the land.
Discovering Community Capability
More than 10 years ago, Celestin Habineza, pastor of
the Nkuri Church of the Nazarene, had the vision to
start a locally organized and locally run compassionate
ministry project. At that time, many people in Nkuri
could not afford basics, like shelter, adequate food,
access to medical care, and education for their children.
They desired umurimo (the Kinyarwanda word for
“work”) as an honest way to provide for their families.
Deforestation around Nkuri has threatened
the health of the Sebeya River, a main vein of
precious water for the region’s communities.
“There were many in this area who could not pay
school fees for their children,” Pastor Habineza said.
Nyuraribagiza, a mother whose husband died in the violence
following Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, is an example.
“Before the project, our children had limited nutrition in
the food they ate,” she said. “Our family had a difficult
time sending our children to school.”
The area around Nkuri has been marked by violence
both during the infamous genocide, and even more so
by the less well known violence in Rwanda’s rural areas
during the rebel infiltration from 1996 to 2000. The widowed
women and orphaned children here are the community’s
daily reminder that this violence has changed
the area’s social and economic makeup.
Pastor Habineza’s compassionate vision for this community
began to take shape after he attended a training
organized by Rwanda’s NCM country coordinator, Rev.
Simon Pierre Rwaramba.
“After training, we thought about what we could do
together as a church, about what project would work in
our area,” Pastor Habineza said.
They dreamed of a reforestation project that would
not only employ church and community members, but
would also contribute to protecting their community’s
river, the Sebeya. For many years, few trees had grown
along the riverbed, allowing rains to erode the banks of
the river, threatening its health—and the health of those
living there. The congregation believed they could
change that.

planting Trees, Growing Hope
Deforestation and erosion are not unique to Nkuri. Population
pressure has long been an issue for Rwanda, the
“Land of a Thousand Hills” and the fourth smallest country
in continental Africa. Some observers believe that
Rwanda’s land limitations have contributed to the longstanding
unrest and violence between Rwanda’s people
groups by forcing them to compete for limited resources.
Most people in Rwanda are subsistence farmers who
meticulously cultivate small patches of the country’s
steep hillsides. In almost every corner of Rwanda,
these hillsides—from base to peak—resemble patchwork
quilts of potatoes, maize, cassava, bananas, and
other subsistence crops. To have land to produce these
crops, rural families have had to cut down trees, leaving
the land vulnerable to erosion.
The reforestation project started small. In 2001, the
congregation began growing tree saplings that they
sold at low prices to community members. People then
planted the trees on barren areas of land all along the
Sebeya River to its source.
NCM/Abadacogora hired church members for fulltime
work to cultivate tree saplings and organize the workload—from
plowing land to planting seeds, from transferring
mature saplings to plastic bags for travel to
transporting individual plants to the reforestation areas by
foot (an eight kilometer radius).
The scale of the project grew when the Rwandan
government recognized its success. Officials asked
22 NCM MAGAZINE
Used as a natural repellent, banana tree leaves
cover tree saplings to keep out insects.
the church to consider expanding and becoming one
of the government’s prototype reforestation sites. In
exchange, the government would provide seeds, tools,
and an agronomist for technical support.
The congregation agreed and went to work organizing
the labor, training, and administration to expand
NCM/Abadacogora employees place three-inch
saplings in plastic bags so they can be transported
and sold throughout the Sebeya River’s corridor.
“THE COMMUNITy
HAS THE TREES TO
PLANT TO PROTECT
THEIR LAND FROM
EROSION, AND WE
CAN ALSO PROvIDE
jOBS TO PEOPLE IN
THE COMMUNITy. …
IT GIvES THEM THE
CHANCE TO DEvELOP
THEIR LIvES.”
~PASTOR CELESTIN HABINEZA
Berithe, who used to be homeless, now has
a simple house and sends her children to
school with income she earns.
SUMMER 2011 11

12 NCM MAGAZINE
“AFTER THIS
PROjECT STARTED, I
WAS ABLE TO WORk
AND GET ENOUGH
FOR SCHOOL FEES
FOR OUR CHILDREN.
OUR SON IS NOW AT
UNIvERSITy.”
~NyIRARIBAGIZA,
A MOTHER AND FARMER
IN THE PROjECT
Through her work with NCM/
Abadacogora, Jaquelyn can provide
health insurance for her family.
the reforestation project. Since land is so scarce in
Rwanda, the organization has had to rent multiple
tracts of land in different locations to meet the demand
of the expanded project. Because of Nkuri’s hills, cultivating
a large number of trees on dispersed land tracts
takes good organization, as well as committed effort
from workers who must travel around and over these
hills to cultivate each plot of land.
Over the past 10 years, the church’s cooperation, organization,
and hard work have established an effective
and respected reforestation program that is changing
Nkuri’s land use. The project’s farmers have been growing
tree varieties that are compatible with food crops, a
technique that lessens the chance that people will cut
down the trees to plant. They also grow fruit trees—avocado,
plum, papaya, and passion fruit—that they sell to
the community at low prices as a way to promote more
food production in the area.
Faithful with what it had been given, NCM/Abadacogora
has been given more. The group has secured
additional labor contracts from the government to
repair local roads and even to build a bridge over the
Almost every hillside in western Rwanda
is covered with subsistence crops.
Through a government contract, NCM/Abadacogora built this
bridge that allows access to the church from across the river.
river—just 75 meters (around 250 feet) from the church
building. Since 2009, the government has also been
supporting NCM/Abadacogora’s opening of a potatogrowing
project. Through local cultivation, this project
provides inexpensive potatoes in local markets, which
support local nutrition efforts, as well as potatoes for
export to other regions in Rwanda for profit.
The money generated from these projects goes toward
three key areas: salaries for the 300 employees, reinvestment
in additional production, and compassionate
outreach to the community.
“Now people here are able pay school fees for their
children,” Pastor Habineza said. “They are able to build
houses and buy some cows. Each one who works in
the project can also pay for their medical insurance.”
Bearing Fruit through Transforming
the Community
The opportunity to earn a viable wage has transformed
the lives of the employees, their families, and their community.
Many widowed women who are sole caregivers
for their families now have the chance to provide. They
have found through meaningful work—their umurimo—
they have the joy and dignity that comes with doing what
God created them to do.
“After this project started, I was able to work and get
enough for school fees for our children. Our son is now
at university,” said Nyiraribagiza, who currently works
as a farmer in the project. “We see that our children
now have good health because of the food they eat.”
Berithe was widowed during the rebel infiltration in the

The Nkuri Church of the Nazarene constructed a building through tithes and offerings of
church members, including many employed through NCM/Abadacogora.
late 1990s. Her husband had been a Nazarene pastor,
so the church let her stay at the church building.
However, she had no income to use to support her six
children. Through the money she earned by working,
Berithe was able to build a simple house, feed her children,
and pay their school fees.
Alex, an elderly man in the community, has recently
built a seven-room brick house through his earnings.
But his gratefulness for the project does not stop there.
“My house was destroyed by rain, and this project
helped me to build a new house,” he said. “I also don’t
have teeth anymore and can’t eat hard things like
maize, but through this project, I have been supplied
with soft potatoes!”
Food, school fees, medical insurance, and housing—
no one in Nkuri takes these things for granted. Now,
300 people supply these basics to their households
through the work of their own hands.
“The members who work in this church can respond to
the needs in their life through this project,” Pastor Habineza
said. “The community has the trees to plant to
protect their land from erosion, and we can also provide
jobs to people in the community. … It gives them the
chance to develop their lives.”
The church is also finding ways to care for those who
cannot work. Through the project proceeds, they
are paying school fees for children who have been
orphaned and helping build homes for women who
have been widowed.
NCM/Abadacogora farmers display their potato harvest.
NCM/Abadacogora’s activities have also contributed
to the health of the church. The project’s employees
have been faithful stewards of their resources and
regularly give to their local church. Through this community
involvement, the local church built their first
church building.
Stewardship has been important to the success of the
project all along. Stewardship of time. Stewardship of
resources. Stewardship of God’s creative calling. As
people in the church have been faithful stewards of
what God has given them, work has become a way to
live out Christ’s witness of love, compassion, and provision
in the Nkuri community. And it is this relationship
with the Creator that has given people true dignity in
their work.
God’s witness in the community is reflected in what
Pastor Habineza calls the keys to making a project like
this work: “Be patient. Be honest. Have good relationships.
And work hard.” n
Nyiraribagiza sends her son to college with
money she has earned cultivating the land.
Alex, an NCM/Abadacogora employee,
built a seven-room house from his wages.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 13

Pure
Gr
14 NCM MAGAZINE
A SIMPLE WELL HELPS A
BANGLADESHI CONGREGATION
BREAk DOWN BARRIERS AND
POUR OUT HOPE

In the village of Ballan Chor,* Bangladesh, a
community well supplies clean drinking water
in a country facing a water scarcity crisis. For
Christians living here, however, accessing the
well water is not so easy.
Most of the Christian minority living in this part of
southern Bangladesh come from a low-caste
background. The oppression that people from the
lower castes meet on a daily basis does not go
away when they become Christians—it actually
worsens. Their community can even prohibit
them from using the communal well, forcing them
to find water elsewhere.
Drilling Down
Still, people are coming to faith in spite of these
challenges. In Ballan Chor, Pastor Samuel Baroi*
leads a thriving Nazarene congregation. Sitting in
his bamboo and mud home, the pastor humbly
but eagerly shared about their growth.
“There are now 44 baptized adult members, and
about 75 people attend the weekly worship services,”
he said.
Although Baroi is among the poorest in his village,
he donated a portion of the small plot of
land he owns so that the congregation would
have a place to gather. As the congregation continued
expanding, they sought additional ways to
meet needs in their community. At the top of the
list was addressing their limited access to water.
Since Christians in Ballan Chor were no longer
allowed to draw from the community well, they
had to walk five kilometers (about three miles) to
find clean water at another well and then walk
back, carrying their heavy pots. They would have
to make this trip several times a day to supply a
family with enough water for drinking and cooking.
Instead, many church members resigned
Tube wells provide fresh water for drinking and cooking as well as
washing hands, clothes, and dishes. Photo courtesy of Elaine Bumstead
themselves to finding what water they could from
closer, unclean sources.
“There is never enough clean water, and our
people use the nearby fish pond for bathing,
washing clothes, and even for drinking,” Baroi
said. “They are often sick from this water. We
have watched as young children in our families
die because of the polluted water.” In fact, in
Bangladesh, around 110,000 children under the
age of five die every year from water-related illness.
Baroi did not want the Ballan Chor children
to become part of that statistic.
The pastor believed the church could build its own
well. It would be difficult but not impossible. Ballan
Chor is in a low-lying area close to the Bay of Bengal,
where the ground water is salty due to frequent
cyclones and tidal waves coming off the bay,
so they would have to drill quite deep to find fresh
water. With the support of their district, the Ballan
Chor Church of the Nazarene did just that. Careful
to maintain government-approved standards, they
used a tube well, the most common water technology
in Bangladesh. (continued on pg. 16)
“THERE IS NEvER
ENOUGH CLEAN
WATER, AND OUR
PEOPLE USE THE
NEARBy FISH POND.
… WE HAvE WATCHED
AS yOUNG CHILDREN
IN OUR FAMILIES
DIE BECAUSE OF THE
POLLUTED WATER.”
~ PASTOR SAMUEL BAROI
by
elaine Bumstead,
NCM Canada
ace
Director of
International
Projects
*Names have been changed to protect identity.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 15

Pure
Grace
16 NCM MAGAZINE
THE CONGREGATION’S
WILLINGNESS TO
SHARE HAS CAUGHT
THE ATTENTION OF
COMMUNITy MEMBERS
WHO HAD BANNED
CHRISTIANS FROM
USING THEIR WELL.
SOME ARE HEARING
FOR THE FIRST TIME
CHRIST’S GOSPEL
MESSAGE OF PURE
GRACE POURED OUT.
Below THe
Surface
Bangladesh’s Water Crisis
(continued from pg. 15)
After a hand pump was installed, Baroi called his
congregation together. In a ceremony of thanksgiving,
they dedicated the new well to the glory of
God and thanked God for the provision.
Water for All
Today, Christians in Ballan Chor do not have to
walk far to find water that is safe for children to
drink. They no longer drink polluted pond water,
and as a result, waterborne illness has greatly
decreased. Children miss less school since they
are sick less often, and women are able to spend
time on other valuable activities to care for their
families.
There is now enough clean drinking water for all
the families who are part of Baroi’s congregation.
But beyond that, they share water with their
neighbors. The Ballan Chor Church of the Nazarene
made a decision not to discriminate. They
are living out God’s words through the prophet
Isaiah: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the
waters” (Isaiah 55:1, NIV).
The congregation’s willingness to share has
caught the attention of the same community
members who had banned Christians from using
the central well. Some have even started attending
worship services with the Nazarene congregation
and are hearing for the first time Christ’s
gospel message of pure grace poured out. n
Bangladesh is one of our world’s most densely populated
countries. It is also one of its most water-impoverished. Lack of
clean water is a struggle for the 156 million people living there.
Bangladesh sits in the matrix of three large rivers—the Brahmaputra,
Meghna, and Ganges—and their tributaries that
flow into the Bay of Bengal. During monsoon season, flooding
constantly threatens the low-lying delta, and cyclones wreak
additional havoc on the massive population along the southern
coast. When the bay’s salt waters flood the land, salinization
kills crops and contaminates water sources. Since the
deep wells needed to find fresh water are expensive, many
poorer villages have no source of good drinking water for
months each year.
In the north, poor water quality is a problem for those using
Photo courtesy of NCM Bangladesh
INDIA
Rangpur
BANGLADeSH
Rajhashi
DHAKA
INDIA
Khulna
BAy oF BeNGAL
Chittagong
ponds and shallow wells that are contaminated by waterborne
diseases, such as cholera. The ground water in urban areas is
often dirtied by industrial pollution.
Arsenic contamination complicates the already fragile water
situation. More than a decade ago, arsenic was discovered in
the groundwater—and wells—in much of Bangladesh. While
disease rates connected to waterborne illness have dropped,
a study published in The Lancet medical journal in June 2010
suggests that as many as one in five deaths in Bangladesh is
caused by arsenic poisoning.
Communities can avoid arsenic poisoning by drilling deeper
wells. NCM in Bangladesh always tests water supplies for
arsenic and, when needed, drills deeper wells to find safe
water as part of an effort to provide water for life.

22 NCM MAGAZINE
Tube Wells
A SIMPLE SOLUTION
The Ballan Chor Church of the Nazarene is one
of more than 1,500 Nazarene congregations in
Bangladesh. NCM helps provide the communities
near these congregations with clean water
through a simple approach: tube wells.
Tube wells are the most common water technology
in Bangladesh, in part because they are
easy to sink, and in part because the materials
are available locally. Tube wells also are
the water system that the people know well, so
congregations have the skills to maintain them.
The process is straightforward. A five- to eightinch
(13- to 20-centimeter) borehole is drilled
using metal pipes. The soft river delta ground in
Bangladesh allows drillers easily to go down 100
to 1,500 feet (20 to 457 meters) to the water table.
The hole is lined with clay to prevent it from
caving in, and PVC pipes (or tubes) are placed
down the hole. The bottom section of the pipe
is a “screen” with slits that can be made on
site with a hacksaw. This allows water into the
well but keeps silt and other possible debris
out. Then a sand-and-gravel pack is placed
above the screen to trap additional debris that
could otherwise seep in.
The water supply is kept sanitary with a seal
at the top, so ground-water contamination
does not leak into the well. This seal is created
with grout at the top of the hole and solidified
with a concrete slab that is raised so any
excess water flows away from the well.
Each tube well produces enough water to
serve 100 to 500 people a day. The Nazarene
church in Bangladesh is committed to placing
wells in open areas, making them accessible
to anyone in need.
Photo courtesy of NCM Bangladesh
BoTTom Cap
GrouT/seal
solid TuBe pipes
WaTer TaBle
sand/Gravel paCk
sCreen

Gardeners at Luve not only work the land for their own benefit, but also to
support local ministries and one another. Photo courtesy of Andrew Curry
18 22 NCM NCM MAGAZINE
Shifting
the flow:
Shifting
the
flow:
HoW WATeR IS HeLpING
BReAK THe CyCLe oF poveRTy IN
SWAzILAND CommuNITIeS
by
Beth Clayton Luthye,
NCM
Since they started the Luve garden, the women from the Banqobi HIV/AIDS Support Group
have grown enough food to support their families as well as many in the community.
Photo courtesy of Colleen Copple
Poverty has no quick fixes. Cycles of poverty move under
the weight of their own momentum. Lack of water leads to
people’s inability to grow food. Lack of food leads to people’s
inability to learn. Lack of education leads to people’s inability to
work to support their families. Add to these shortages, waterborne
illnesses and high HIV and AIDS prevalence, and the cycle
of poverty not only turns but speeds up. In such an environment,
children are left vulnerable to hunger, disease, and abandonment.
And then the cycle of poverty circles on to the next generation.
But breaking this cycle is possible. In fact, for communities in
Swaziland where the church has come together to address multiple
needs in multiple ways, it is already happening.
A GARDeN oF CHANGe
In Luve, Swaziland, a group of 50 women has been coming
together for a couple of years to tend a garden. They prepare the
soil and plant the seeds. They cultivate the crops and harvest the
produce. What happens on this plot of land provides more than
just their next meal—it gives the group a way to thrive beyond
simply surviving.
As individuals, each woman has been affected in some way by
HIV and AIDS. Together, they are the Banqobi HIV/AIDS Support
Group. Mary Magagula, who runs the Nazarene Home-Based Care
Task Force in Swaziland through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries,
has been working with these women to develop and run
this life-giving garden.
Swaziland is one of the smallest countries in the world, yet it has
the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS. More than 26 percent
of the million people living there are HIV-positive, but this rate
jumps to 42 percent for women of childbearing age. Due to the
disease’s prevalence, as well as other complicating factors of poverty,
15 percent of the country’s total population is comprised of
children who have been orphaned or are considered vulnerable.
In Swaziland, the stigma attached to those who live with HIV and
AIDS is unyielding. People typically do not speak openly about
their status, but if a woman is known to be living with the dis

ease, she can lose her job and her relationships in the community.
She can even be kicked out of her home.
Before the garden, none of the women in the support group had
enough food for her family or the means to buy it. Not only were
these women desperate for a way to feed their children and grandchildren,
but those living with AIDS also needed consistent nutrition
to fight the opportunistic infections that often accompany the
illness. Through the garden, however, they can now provide meals
for their families. Selling part of the harvest at market even creates
some income for them to cover other necessities, such as school fees
for children. Through pooling profits, they also set aside the money
they need for the next season’s planting so that the cycle of growing
food and improving their daily lives can continue.
Beyond this, the women use the fruit of their labor to care for others
in their community. Some of their produce goes to support ministries
for children who have been orphaned or who are vulnerable,
and some goes to the Nazarene Home-Based Care Task Force to provide
for other families who are affected by HIV and AIDS. The group
also uses profits from selling the produce at the market to help pay
for hospital care and other needs of group members who are now
too sick to work in the garden.
In a country extremely prone to drought, however, none of this
would be possible without a water source.
WATeR INTeRRupTS THe CyCLe oF poveRTy
Dr. Beauty Makhubela, NCM country coordinator for Swaziland,
knows that water is one of the most critical issues in
a country where 70 percent of the people live in a rural
setting with little access to water.
“Now that the climate has changed and there is
little rain again, the crops cannot grow,” she
said. “There is a need for water.”
Through a grant from the Coca-Cola
Foundation, NCM’s Water for a Generation
project, which began in 2009,
is placing solar water wells in 50 Swaziland
communities over three years.
Into their second year of work, they have
completed 19. These wells interrupt the cycle
of poverty in the communities they service.
The Luve garden, for example, could not exist without a reliable
water source. Since it sits on land next to a Water for a Generation
system, the support group has a way to water their crops. According
to Makhubela, the project’s leadership selected solar pump technology
for Luve and the other water systems because many in rural
areas in Swaziland cannot afford electricity. The Luve group, for
example, earned about US $5,000 in their first year from their harvest—a
profit that would have been significantly reduced if they had
to pay US $10 a day to power an electric pump. Free from electricity
costs, communities can pool their resources and save for future
pump maintenance costs and repairs.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
“now thAt the
CliMAte hAS ChAngeD
AnD theRe iS little RAin AgAin,
the CRoPS CAnnot gRow.
theRe iS A neeD foR wAteR.”
~ DR. BeAuty MAkhuBelA,
nCM SwAzilAnD CooRDinAtoR
Water access is one of the crucial issues facing the people of Swaziland,
especially the youngest in the country. Photo courtesy of Andrew Curry

Support group members celebrate the Luve garden’s opening two years ago. Photos courtesy of Colleen Copple
Through the Water for a
Generation project, solar panels
provide the energy needed to
pump water from deep wells.
“the ChuRCh of the nAzARene
hAS foCuSeD on Meeting
it woulD not Be PoSSiBle
to offeR PReAChing when the PeRSon
wAS hungRy oR not leARneD—
20 NCM MAGAZINE
So
when theRe weRe no SChoolS
AnD CollegeS when theRe
weRe no CollegeS.
~ DR. BeAuty MAkhuBelA,
All the neeDS of the PeRSon.
the ChuRCh Built SChoolS
it wAS the SAMe with CliniCS.”
nCM SwAzilAnD CooRDinAtoR
HeALING WATeRS
Access to water affects health in more ways than one. According to
Makhubela, Swaziland’s water crisis is compromising the quality of
rural health clinics.
“Most of the health workers find it risky to stay in rural clinics
because of lack of safe water,” she said. “So though they may be
dedicated to going [to the rural areas], they leave early to go somewhere
with safe water.”
Without clinics, community members have no access to treatment
for HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, and other common diseases. For that
reason, NCM connects all of the Water for a Generation wells to rural
health clinics. Whenever possible, they also connect them to other
ministries, such as schools, gardens, child development ministries,
or support groups for those living with HIV and AIDS or epilepsy.
According to Patience Dlamini, head nurse at the Bhalekane Nazarene
Clinic, before they got a well, they struggled to keep nurses on
staff because there was no water at the clinic or the nurses’ housing.
“They would send tractors down to the river to collect water, but
it was dirty and contaminated,” she said. “They had many cases of
waterborne diseases.”
But people’s health has been better since the well introduced clean
water into the community. Among the greatest changes is a marked
improvement in infection control. Because of its increased capacity
to deliver quality care, this clinic is now a central hub for getting
HIV and tuberculosis treatment to rural communities.
Makhebula said that thanks to efforts like Water for a Generation,
the Church of the Nazarene in Swaziland is known—and
respected—for its holistic Christian approach to ministry.
“The Church of the Nazarene has focused on meeting all the needs
of the person,” she said. “It could not be possible to offer preaching
when the person was hungry or not learned—so the church built
schools when there were no schools and colleges when there were
no colleges. It was the same with clinics.”
Now the church is bringing water to the people in the name of
Jesus. And in this powerful name, the cycle of poverty in Swaziland
is losing momentum. The Water for a Generation wells are bringing
healing waters to Swaziland communities—in the form of physical
and spiritual health.
“We believe that water presents life,” said Cosmos Mutowa, NCM
Africa coordinator. “And as we provide this source of physical life,
we remind people that in Jesus, we have a fountain whose water is
living water.” n
Learn more about NCM’s work with communities to provide clean
water at ncm.org/water.

thirsty for
ExAMINING THE WORLD’S WATER PROBLEM
There is a finite amount of water on this planet. Most
of it is found in the ocean or locked up in glacial
ice, leaving less than one percent of existing fresh
water available for use by people and all other living
organisms. Water is scarce and becoming more so as
population growth leads to increased demand.
But we have heard startling facts like this before—why
should we care now? The simple answer is, we should
care because God asks us to care for the “least of
these,” and some of the world’s most vulnerable are
those who lack access to safe water.
Without good water, people get sick, are more vulnerable
to violence, and are often less able to accomplish
much more than searching for the 20 to 50 liters*
of water a day they require for survival. Water scarcity
affects real people—children, women, families—around
the world. If we love—really love—our neighbors as ourselves,
we should take steps to help them have equitable
access to clean water.
The first step is understanding. So what is the state of
water on God’s blue earth?
Water everywhere But Not enough
Drops to Drink
Water is necessary to support life. That is how God created
it. But there is a limited amount, and it is not distributed
equally. The powerful and wealthy historically
have used their influence to access a disproportionate
amount of this indispensable resource. For example,
each Australian, according to the United Nations (U.N.),
uses about 500 liters of water a day, and every Briton
uses 150 liters. The average person from the United
States uses 575 liters per day, while those living in
Mozambique get by on less than 5 liters. Think about
it this way: A person taking a five-minute shower uses
more fresh water than the average person in a developing
country uses all day.
Who gets to use water and for what purpose is one of
the pivotal issues of this generation. Seventy percent of
CHANGe:
fresh water is used for irrigation, 22 percent for industry,
and eight percent for household use. Almost a billion
people, however, do not get enough of that eight
percent to have sufficient safe drinking water—and the
vast majority of these are living in poverty.
But drinking water is not the only need in water-poor
areas. While each person needs a minimum of two
to four liters of drinking water a day, it takes 2,000
to 4,000 liters to produce the food he or she eats.
And the kind of food makes a difference. Every time
you eat a quarter-pound hamburger from a fast-food
chain, for example, you have used almost 1,900 liters
of water.
The water that is accessible in many developing countries
is often unsafe to consume. Because of a serious
lack of sanitation, human waste contaminates
water supplies such as rivers, causing epidemic rates
by
Jonathan Twining,
Eastern Nazarene
College
*A liter is equal to
0.26 gallons.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 21

22
NCM MAGAZINE
EACH SMALL
ACTION, LIkE A
RIPPLE EFFECT,
WILL BUILD TOWARD
REAL CHANGE.
AS THE CHURCH
PARTICIPATES IN
CARING FOR GOD’S
CREATION, IT HAS
A REAL CHANCE TO
GIvE CUPS OF WATER
TO THE THIRSTy IN
THE NAME OF jESUS.
10 easy Ways to
Reduce your Water use
The global water crisis is someone else’s problem,
right? Well, not really. Water shortages
affect people and places around the world,
including the United States. While those who
live where water is scarce must conserve it by
necessity, some of us with easy access to water
taps could use a little help in safeguarding this
precious—and finite—resource. Check out
these simple ways to reduce your water use at
home (as well as save money).
of waterborne disease. These conditions kill one child
every 20 seconds. There are also manufactured contaminants.
Since water easily dissolves biological and
chemical substances, pollution often renders water
supplies dangerous or unusable. According to the
U.N., 70 percent of industrial wastes in developing
countries are discharged—untreated—into bodies of
water used for household consumption. Since water is
already scarce in many of these places, people have no
choice but to expose themselves and their families to
these killer pollutants.
A Dry and Weary Land
A region’s climate also makes a difference in its access
to water. Some of the poorest areas in the world are
also the most vulnerable to water-related disasters. For
1
Don’t keep the
water running when
hand-washing or
rinsing dishes. Fill
one side of the sink
with wash water and
the other with rinse
water. Or better yet,
scrape the dishes and
use a dishwasher.
example, many arid regions of the world, such as East
Africa, are subject to severe droughts, while other lowlying
areas, such as Bangladesh, are prone to flooding
that further contaminates water supplies.
Changing climate exacerbates these vulnerabilities,
making those who are already at risk even more so. As
temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere rise, evaporation
rates increase, and rainfall patterns change, reducing
the amount of surface water available for drinking and
irrigation. Glaciers in mountainous regions such as the
Himalayas, for example, are melting rapidly due to rising
temperatures. Hundreds of millions of people depend
on the meltwater from these glaciers for consumption
and irrigation, so retreating glaciers are propelling the
region toward a severe water shortage.
2
Run your dishwasher
and clothes washer
only when full. You
can save up to 1,000
gallons a month.
3
Adjust sprinklers so
that only your lawn
is watered—not
the house, sidewalk,
or street.
Learn more
about the
world’s water
problems and
what you can do
about them at
ncm.org/water.
4
Use shrubs and
groundcovers
instead of grass for
hard-to-water areas
such as slopes and
isolated strips.

Rampant land development that causes deforestation
and destruction of wetlands destroys ecosystems and
biodiversity that help regulate and purify water sources.
Forests and wetlands have the potential to store large
volumes of water and keep that water flowing during
dry months of the year. Healthy soils in forests and
wetlands filter out pollution and hold onto it, keeping
the water cleaner. But half of the world’s wetlands have
already been lost to human development and agriculture
since 1900, and according to the World Water
Council, deforestation continues at a rate of about
19 million hectares (47 million acres) every year. This
destruction of natural systems affects water quality for
all of us.
Waste Not, Want Not
The world needs water. Yet, clearly, there are many barriers
to getting enough water for everyone. Despite all
of these complicating factors surrounding water justice,
there are things that we as followers of Christ can do
to help get water to the thirsty. Christians are called to
be good managers of God’s creation—including water.
Wise water usage starts at home. Choose food wisely.
Be aware of how it was cultivated and how much water
was used in the process. Eat fewer portions of meat
in a week. Support organizations that help provide
sustainable water and sanitation solutions around the
world. Speak up for those who are oppressed by water
injustice. Help limit pollution by driving less, conserving
electricity, and buying fewer manufactured items.
Each small action, like a ripple effect, will build toward
real change. As the church participates in caring for
God’s creation, it has a real chance to give cups of
water to the thirsty in the name of Jesus. n
5
Toilets account for
a high percentage
of water use. If your
toilet was installed
before 1992, reduce
your water use with
a displacement
device in the tank.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
6
Turn off the water
while you shave, and
you’ll save up to 300
gallons a month. Turn
it off while brushing
your teeth, and
you’ll save up to 25
gallons a month.
7
If your shower fills a
one-gallon bucket in
less than 20 seconds,
replace the
showerhead with a
water-efficient model.
Growing Larger
and Getting Thirsty
As earth’s population grows beyond seven billion people, the increasing
demand for fresh water has led to what many are calling a water crisis.
There are a lot of us on the planet—all requiring water to live—and we
are using it at highly unsustainable rates. underground aquifers around
the world are being drained at more than double their natural recharge
rate. According to the u.N., human populations use 54 percent of the
available fresh water on the planet. By 2025, water withdrawals from
this same fresh water are expected to increase by 50 percent in developing
countries and 18 percent in developed countries. The u.N. Food and
Agriculture organization estimates that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will
experience water scarcity, and two thirds of the world’s population will
experience water stress—unless we make serious changes now.
8
Shorten your shower
by a minute or two
to save up to 150
gallons per month.
9
Keep a bucket in the
shower to catch water
as it warms up or runs.
Use this water to flush
toilets or water plants.
10
Listen for dripping
faucets and running
toilets. Fixing a leak
can save 300 gallons
a month or more.
Adapted from www.wateruseitwisely.com

ReADy To PARTNeR: The Katwatwa community gave over 120 acres to the Church of the Nazarene
for their church and community development efforts. All photos courtesy of NCM Pastor François Mashau oversees the church building program.
24
NCM MAGAZINE
Surprising
Abundance
SHARED kNOWLEDGE AND RESOURCES BEGIN
TO TRANSFORM kATWATWA, DRC
by
Kelly Becker Tirrill,
NCM Education

Scarcity is overwhelming. When so many lack
access to basic necessities such as clean water,
nutritious food, adequate shelter, accessible education,
and essential medical care, even those who
hunger and thirst for God’s justice can start believing
that there is not enough to go around.
Imagine what Jesus’ disciples must have felt facing the
pressing crowd of 5,000 hungry people in Mark 6. Just
hours before, these same people had followed Jesus
to a remote place across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus
was tired. Still, his heart filled with compassion, and he
spoke words of life to the devoted crowd. As evening
approached, the disciples asked Jesus to send the
crowd away to go buy some food. But Jesus said to
them, “You give them something to eat.”
Their hearts must have pounded. How could they meet
the need of 5,000 people? It would have been natural
for them to feel overwhelmed.
Modern-day followers of Christ in the Church of the
Nazarene in southeast Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) are learning the lesson that Jesus taught
his disciples that day on the banks of the Sea of Galilee:
be faithful, start sharing what you have, and there will be
enough. Even the smallest gift will multiply abundantly.
As God compels followers of Christ in Lubumbashi,
22 NCM MAGAZINE
Community members made these mud
bricks by hand for the church building.
BRICK By BRICK: Rev. Celestin Chishibanji, Pastor François Mashau, and Pastor esperance Chishibanji
stand in front of the church site where community members have already begun building.
Congo, to help new church members outside the city
with their overwhelming needs for clean water, education,
and agricultural development, each group’s gifts
are growing and multiplying.
Katwatwa’s Challenges
Rev. Celestin Chishibanji, district superintendent and
NCM coordinator for the Africa French Equatorial Field,
and Jean Marie Kasongo, a Nazarene pastor in Lubumbashi,
came upon a group of about 200 families eager
to hear and see Jesus’ transformational gospel in an
unlikely new location for the church to take root—Katwatwa,
DRC. Like Jesus and his disciples, when Pastor
Kasongo first visited this remote area in 2008, he
was not looking for a crowd of people in need. He was
simply looking for some agricultural land to buy. But
what he found instead were people living in extreme
poverty—with almost no water, low agricultural yields,
no health clinic, and no school for children.
Only 22 kilometers (14 miles) from Lubumbashi (Congo’s
second largest city), the families in this small village
still live without any of the convenience of the city. Their
rural lives rely almost exclusively on small-scale farming
during the rainy season (November to March) when they
grow subsistence crops such as maize and potatoes.
If their crops produce any excess, they travel the 22
kilometers to Lubumbashi to sell their harvest in the
MOvED By THE
POvERTy HE SAW
WHEN THEy REACHED
THE vILLAGE, BUT
ALSO By THE HOPE
OF THE PEOPLE,
REv. CHISHIBANjI
COMMITTED TO
ESTABLISHING A
LOCAL CONGREGATION
IN THE AREA.
SUMMER 2011 25

This Katwatwa community member bakes bread in a mud brick oven to support her family.
26 NCM MAGAZINE
PEOPLE ARE
BEGINNING TO SEE
WHAT IS POSSIBLE
WHEN THE CHILDREN
OF GOD FAITHFULLy
SHARE WHAT THEy
HAvE IN THE FACE OF
OvERWHELMING NEED.
markets there. The first 14 kilometers (about 9 miles)
are a wooded and, at times, overgrown path, where
cars rarely pass and public transportation never ventures.
The journey is formidable, especially when carrying
a heavy load.
Katwatwa’s children walk these same 14 kilometers
daily to Kanyaka, the area’s only school. Depending on
the size and strength of the child, this trip takes two to
three hours one way. The walk is even more tiresome
for the many children in the area who experience malnutrition
from the significant lack of protein, fruit, and
vegetables in their meager diets.
One of the biggest challenges for those in this community,
both adults and children, is the lack of water.
Katwatwa’s nearest river is eight kilometers (five miles)
away and is extremely dirty. Most people rely on water
from a few shallow wells that have been dug by the
community. Families, including children, work hard to
harvest this water using only a bucket, a rope, and the
strength of their own arms.
While these few wells are a source of water, because they
are shallow, they are not a clean source. And what water
the community can harvest there is simply not enough.
Hope Builds as the Community Gathers
The second time Pastor Kasongo went to Katwatwa,
he took along his good friend, Rev. Chishibanji. They
traveled the 22 kilometers to Katwatwa by foot.
Moved by the poverty he saw when they reached
the village, but also by the hope of the people, Rev.
Chishibanji committed to establishing a local congregation
in the area.
“This country went through the scourge of war for many
years,” Rev. Chishibanji said. “The message of entire
sanctification is most needed, and our ministers will
preach this message in boldness for God’s glory even if
they have to go and spend weeks in villages far away.”
Rev. Chishibanji soon began mobilizing the community
to start to change their situation. They would begin by
sharing the resources they already had.
On their next visit, the village chief called the community
members together to share their dreams for the future with
Rev. Chishibanji, Pastor Kasongo, and a team of people
from the church in Lubumbashi. The people of Katwatwa
identified their needs for a church, a school, a clinic, clean
water, electricity, and new agricultural and animal rearing
opportunities. But the community was not looking for a
handout—they were looking for partnership.

NeVeR eNoUGH: Shallow community wells like this one are dug by hand and
do not provide enough water to keep Katwatwa healthy.
The needs in Katwatwa have become less overwhelming
as the local community and the church in Lubumbashi
have begun to share their skills and resources.
The community has begun to focus more on what
they have to offer and less on what they lack. To build
church and school buildings, they have the land, labor,
skills, and materials to make bricks. The local chief
even offered the Church of the Nazarene almost 50
hectares (123 acres) of land at an extremely low price.
To build a well, they have people-power. To expand
their animal rearing, they can start with the animals
they already have to contribute to those most in need
in the community. The church in Lubumbashi along,
with the local NCM leadership, has offered guidance,
support, and the organization the community needed
to start seeing what they had to offer and begin pooling
their resources.
“God is planting new churches using his people who
are using what they have available in their hands and
counting on God’s mercy,” Rev. Chishibanji said. “Local
people have made land available and are making bricks
for the building.”
In November 2010, the Katwatwa Church of the Nazarene
officially opened with François Mashau, a local resi-
MULTIPLICATIoN: Through an animal rearing project, goats are given to the most
vulnerable community members to provide them with milk and meat.
dent, serving as pastor. The church has already dedicated
the land for the church building and begun construction.
While roofs in the area are traditionally made from
grass, the church hopes to raise money for iron sheets,
which will better resist termites.
The church has already started the animal rearing
project, too. They received 10 goats from NCM Canada
and added those to what they already had through
locally donated goats and chickens. Now, the community
has developed a system of sharing the animal
offspring with the most vulnerable in the community—
those who have been orphaned or affected by HIV and
AIDS. They hope that within the next few years every
family in the community will have a goat that will provide
them milk and other offspring.
In addition to animal rearing, the church’s agricultural
plan also includes crop cultivation. Because of Lubumbashi’s
industrial emphasis on the mining of copper,
cobalt, zinc, and other metals, its agricultural sector is
less developed than neighboring Zambia. As a result,
Lubumbashi has become dependent on Zambia for
food imports. A fruitful agricultural project near the city
could benefit both community members and those in
need of cheaper food in the city.
THE NEEDS IN
kATWATWA HAvE
BECOME LESS
OvERWHELMING AS
THE LOCAL COMMUNITy
AND THE CHURCH IN
LUBUMBASHI HAvE
BEGUN TO SHARE
THEIR SkILLS AND
RESOURCES. THE
COMMUNITy HAS
BEGUN TO FOCUS MORE
ON WHAT THEy HAvE
TO OFFER AND LESS
ON WHAT THEy LACk.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 27

A RoAD Too LoNG: Children in Katwatwa must walk more than 17 miles round trip to go to
school. The Church of the Nazarene, however, is planning to start a school in their village.
GIve A DRINK
Are you interested in partnering
with the church in Katwatwa
to build a well? You can do
so by donating online at
www.ncm.org/katwatwa or by
sending a check. Please include
“Katwatwa Water Well Project
ACM1638” in the memo line.
In the US:
Make checks payable to “General
Treasurer,” and send them to:
Global Treasury Services
Church of the Nazarene
P.O. Box 843116
Kansas City, MO 64184-3116
In Canada:
Make checks payable “Church
of the Nazarene Canada,” and
send them to:
Church of the Nazarene Canada
20 Regan Road, Unit 9
Brampton, Ontario L7A 1C3.
28 NCM MAGAZINE
Old Problems, New Solutions
The next steps for the church in Katwatwa are clear.
Clean water is the priority. The church in Lubumbashi
is working to raise money for a new well that will be
deep enough to provide clean, abundant water to the
parched area.
The church will also continue to provide education
about HIV and AIDS prevention, voluntary testing,
care-giving, counseling, and destigmatization for those
living with HIV and AIDS. The church has already sponsored
one seminar on these subjects and is partnering
with NCM Africa and DRC’s national AIDS program to
expand these activities.
The church also plans to begin primary school classes
in Katwatwa as early as September. They will begin
with grades one through three—to keep the littlest
ones from having to walk 28 kilometers each day—
and then add additional classes as resources develop.
As Jesus blessed, broke, and shared bread with the
5,000 who gathered, all were fed. There was enough.
In fact, there was more than enough—there was an
abundance. Through God’s faithfulness in the church
in southeast DRC, people are beginning to see what is
possible when the children of God faithfully share what
they have in the face of overwhelming need. Working
together, step by step, the church is preaching the salvation
that comes through Christ while demonstrating
the way his love transforms lives and communities. n
Learn more about the church’s work in
Lubumbashi at ncm.org/lubumbashi.
The Water We Eat:
It’s Not Just
for Drinking
• The daily drinking water requirement per person
is 2* to 4 liters, but it takes 2,000 to 5,000 liters of
water to produce one person’s daily food.
• It takes 1,000 to 3,000 liters of water to produce just
1 kilogram (35 ounces) of rice, but 13,000 to 15,000
liters to produce 1 kilogram of grain-fed beef.
• In 2007, the estimated number of people without
enough food to eat worldwide was 923 million.
• Poor drainage and irrigation practices have led to
waterlogging and salinization of approximately 10
percent of the world’s irrigated lands.
Adapted from www.unwater.org.
*One liter is approximately 0.26 gallons.

grounds for
GRoWTH
A Rooftop Garden at jerusalem Church of the Nazarene
Is yielding Hope for Food Security
The results from a six-month agricultural research
project at the Jerusalem Church of the Nazarene
suggest that the future looks promising for household
rooftop gardens for the region’s most food-insecure
families.
In the heart of Jerusalem, the Church of the Nazarene’s
rooftop has become a fertile garden, cultivating food
that the church hopes will one day contribute to meeting
the region’s increasing need for affordable nutrition.
The flat rooftop is lined with 16 aquaponic systems
that grow tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, rocket (arugula),
peas, and basil, as well as fish.
In a region where violent conflict, economic disparity,
and religious tension are intimate companions, the
church’s sustainable agriculture initiative is designed to
support the area’s most vulnerable people—irrespective
of race, creed, or political leanings. The goal is food
that can be sustained with less water and little land
and that will strengthen the fragile livelihoods of those
exposed to the stresses of poverty and inequality.
The rooftop garden started through the initiative of
three men from Ireland: Christopher Somerville, Kyle
Petrie, and Tim Evans, one of the authors of this article.
The project brought together their academic interests,
passion for humanitarian work, and relationship to the
church. In spring 2010, Somerville and Petrie volunteered
at an agricultural project in the region for four
weeks and returned with Evans in the fall to begin this
research. Evans also started pastoring the Church of
the Nazarene in Jerusalem.
Why Aquaponics?
High food prices, limited access to fertile agricultural
land, unsustainable farming techniques, inadequate
food distribution, disease, and drought threaten millions
of people’s ability worldwide to buy or grow nutritional
food for their families. Aquaponics sidesteps two
of the largest of these inhibitors—lack of access to land
and water.
By eliminating the need for agricultural land to grow
food and by constantly reusing water, aquaponics has
the potential of providing a sustainable food source for
many of the world’s food-insecure people. The system
can be built on rooftops, on concrete, or in any open
area, making it an important technique to explore for
use in refugee camps, poor urban areas, and other
less-fertile parts of the world.
The agricultural method combines growing fruit and
vegetable plants with raising fish in a no-soil enclosed
system where water is constantly recycled and conserved.
Fruits and vegetables are planted in plastic
cups filled with gravel, and these cups have holes in the
bottom. The cups rest in wide, long plastic tubes, and
water from the fish tank flows along the plant’s roots.
The water constantly cycles between the fish tank and
the pipes where plants are rooted. The fish waste acts
as the plants’ natural fertilizer.
Unlike conventionally grown plants, aquaponically grown plants like
these peas do not require soil to grow and are a part of a system that
recycles water. All photos courtesy of Tim Evans
by
Tim evans and
Kelly Becker Tirrill,
NCM Education
The goal is
food that can
be sustained
with less
water and
little land
and that will
strengthen
the fragile
livelihoods
of those
exposed
to the
stresses of
poverty and
inequality.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 29

Aquaponically grown plants like this lettuce mature up to
10 times faster than ones planted in standard soil.
Church members helped with research by harvesting plants from the rooftop systems to measure their length and weight.
30
NCM MAGAZINE
The research team (left to right):
Chris Somerville, Tim evans, and Kyle Petrie
Jerusalem: A place to Learn
The Jerusalem Church of the Nazarene provided the
perfect environment for the pilot aquaponics project.
The Jerusalem municipality has sufficient water,
although services to East Jerusalem (the Palestinian
section of the city) are not as comprehensive as they
are in the Jewish areas. Though it does not experience
severe water scarcity, Jerusalem has similar climate to
water-scarce areas in the region, particularly the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip. In Jerusalem, the research
team found a place to test aquaponics systems where
plants would grow and react similarly to areas that are
potentially more water-scarce.
Many people came together to make the project happen.
The church in Jerusalem donated the rooftop
growing space as well as a place for the researchers
to live. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries provided a
grant to help with the trial systems’ building cost, and
the Leprosy Mission Ireland and Tearfund Ireland also
helped with funding. Church members helped with the
research and were, of course, willing taste testers of
the garden’s harvest.
“We really see [the aquaponics trial] as an investment
to develop the right methods for our context and produce
manuals [about aquaponics] so that we can
begin teaching families how to do this in their backyards
or on their roofs,” said Rod Green, NCM Middle
East coordinator.
The research team built 16 aquaponics systems on the
church’s roof and planted the same 40 plants in each
system. Each one had different environmental factors,
such as number of fish or amount of fish food, which
the researchers tested for their impact on plant growth.
They also grew another set of these 40 plants in local
soil without fertilizers and pesticides so that they could
compare the results.
After six months, church members gathered to help the
research team harvest, weigh, and measure the length
of every plant from each system. The results were staggering.
The aquaponically grown plants grew up to 10
times faster than those grown in the local soil, and they
used half the amount of water.
expanding the Work
This successful growing trial in a semi-arid climate is
hopeful. The next step, however, is to figure out how
to train families with limited formal education to successfully
run aquaponics systems in their own homes
and to see if these systems can provide enough food
to support families’ nutritional needs.
By eliminating the need for agricultural land to grow food and by
constantly reusing water, aquaponics has the potential of providing a
sustainable food source for many of the world’s food-insecure people.

In April 2011, Somerville began this process by going to
Kerak in southern Jordan to work with a Nazarene community-based
organization called Branches of Mercy.
Kerak is located in the ancient area of Moab where
Naomi and her family went during a time of drought in
order to grow food for their family. Branches of Mercy
volunteers have already been teaching life-skills training
to children from underserved schools, organizing
groups of women into business cooperatives, and helping
communities restore their community centers.
The group, which already has experience with farming,
building, engineering, and training, is building two aquaponics
systems. Once fully trained in the gardening
technique, they will then train others in their community.
“They see [aquaponic’s] potential in their region
because the people like to grow food,” Green said.
“The people they serve live in small villages on the margins
of a society where food prices are increasing at
an ever-quickening pace, and their water resources are
lacking,” Green said.
Aquaponics has the prospect of helping people in dry
and food-scarce areas grow the fruits and vegetables
they need to sustain their families. The research team
focused on using locally available plants, fish, and
other materials to show that other people can employ
this same technology using what they already have in
their own areas. Together, the church and the research
team are establishing grounds for growth and making a
way so that all may have enough. n
22 NCM MAGAZINE
Fish provide plants with much needed nutrients and
communities with much needed protein.
The Jerusalem Church of the Nazarene’s roof provided space
for researchers to build 16 aquaponics systems, each using a
different combination of variables.
“We really see [the aquaponics trial] as an
investment to develop the right methods
for our context.” ~Rod Green
6
1
1. Farmers give food, such as worms, duckweed, or commercially produced
fish pellets, to the fish regularly.
2. Fish release ammonia into the water mainly through their gills, but
also through the breakdown of their solid waste. In addition to ammonia,
fish waste contains iron, potassium, and phosphorus—all
nutrients essential to plant growth.
3. Water circulates through the closed system, carrying nutrients and
freshly filtered water.
4. Bacteria convert ammonia to nitrate, which is food for the plants.
5. Plants take up nitrate and other essential nutrients, which originate
in the waste of the fish, for their growth. This process cleans the water
in the system so the fish can thrive and continue to produce waste.
6. oxygen is essential for plant roots, fish, and bacteria. Waterfalls
are strategically designed into the water circulation system to ensure
a good oxygen level for all living organisms in the water. A
small air pump can be installed if extra oxygen is needed.
5
THe
AquApoNIC
CyCLe
2
3
4
SUMMER 2011 31

Steady
Convergence:
32 NCM MAGAZINE
How tHe LocaL cHurcH and a
water weLL transformed a
ruraL community in Zimbabwe
by
Rev. Cosmos mutowa,
NCM Africa
What do drought conditions have to do with the
spread of HIV and AIDS? What does the lack of
clean drinking water have to do with high rates
of childhood illiteracy?
In Monera, Zimbabwe, a rural town in the Mashonaland
East province, the connection is clear. That is why
the local church and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries
are partnering to break the hold that drought and
dirty water have had on this community.
Located in the communal area of the province, Monera
Church of the Nazarene has become a refuge for those
who have experienced perennial drought conditions.
The situation reached a critical point in 2003 when these
droughts led to famine. The church has been taking a
role in the community’s ongoing recovery ever since.
A promise Kept
“At the height of the famine, I saw livestock being
wiped out and rivers drying and crops wilting at knee
high,” said Mubaira, Monera’s village head.
In a region that depends on farming and small-scale
gardening for its food production and economy, water
is the difference between life and death. Severe shortages
have also worn down the region’s social fabric.
Many men, desperate for a way to provide for their
families, have left the province to look for employment
elsewhere, leaving their wives behind to find a way to
care for their children.
“There were no men in my ward because all had gone,
leaving their woman and children to literally die,” Mubaira
said.
Without farming as a way to meet their families’ needs,
many women gave into the pressure of prostitution and
child labor as survival techniques to ensure that their
families could eat. At the same time, men traveled home
from larger cities in Zimbabwe and South Africa where
they may have contracted HIV. These trends accelerated
the spread of HIV and AIDS, from men infecting
women, who in turn spread the disease to others in the
community. This pandemic left Monera with many children
orphaned and living with grandparents or relatives,
or worse, with no adults to care for them.
In Monera, people must walk long distances to haul
water for drinking and daily use from silted rivers and
shallow, open wells that harbor an invisible threat:
waterborne diseases. Often, children must leave
school behind to take care of younger brothers and

sisters while their mothers spend hours traveling to
retrieve water that is not even safe to drink.
As droughts have devastated the land’s ability to produce
crops, Mashonaland East has depended on food
relief to feed its people. Beginning in 2003, NCM partnered
with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank so the local
church could provide cornmeal and peas to 800 of
their community’s most vulnerable families.
“I will never forget the visit from the Church of the Nazarene
when they came to tell me that they had organized
food relief to benefit this ward,” Mubaira said. “The
church did not do like many other organizations who
promised and never came back to fulfill their promise.
The church followed up their promise by bringing food
for eight months, and many lives were saved. And our
school was opened as children in the ward could now
afford to learn.”
Source of Life
The church’s engagement in the community continued
and then deepened in 2006, as the congregation
started caring for children whose parents had died. The
church provided meals for these vulnerable children
through another partnership with Canadian Foodgrains
Bank. The program continues today through the support
of NCM and other donors.
Last year, the church moved one step further in helping
the community develop infrastructure for a sustainable
future and to address the problems of food and water
shortages, low school attendance, and the spread of
HIV. With the support of NCM in Africa, the church
began to lay the groundwork for a community well.
Meanwhile, an adult Sunday School class at Westside
Church of the Nazarene in Indianapolis, Indiana,
U.S.A., under the leadership of Tom Drake, worked to
raise money for it.
With the combined resources raised by the local
church, NCM in Africa, and Westside Church of the
Nazarene, the Monera congregation was able to drill
a hand-pump well in one of Mashonaland East’s most
water-poor areas. The clean water it now provides is a
source of life to the surrounding villages, including the
children who come to the locally supported child development
center and feeding program.
The local church and surrounding communities also
use the water to grow vegetables to eat and to sell as
a way to provide for their families. The church also provides
a nearby clinic with access to free clean water.
Monera’s community well helps keep children in
school, gives families a chance to grow food,
and provides the nearby clinic with clean water.
Jesus’ Words Come Alive
A simple well, established through the love and support
of the local church, continues to bring new life to
the Monera community. Lack of water no longer binds
women to prostitution or children to illiteracy. Since
people have a means to grow and sell food, fewer men
leave the community, and fewer women participate in
prostitution. They now spend their time working in their
small gardens, and HIV rates have slowed. The community
school also has higher student attendance as
fewer children have to watch their siblings and are less
likely to stay home due to waterborne illnesses.
The Church of the Nazarene in Monera has demonstrated
the power of God’s love to transform a community
when people respond to God’s call to love their
neighbors. Rev. Bernard Mukome, pastor of Monera
Church of the Nazarene, said he has witnessed this lifegiving
transformation in his community.
“There is hope in the faces of the villagers who now can
access water for consumption and for small gardens,”
Mukome said. “The words of Jesus have come alive when
he said, ‘I was thirsty and you gave me water to drink’.” n
“THERE IS HOPE
IN THE FACES OF
THE vILLAGERS
WHO NOW CAN
ACCESS WATER
FOR CONSUMPTION
AND FOR SMALL
GARDENS. THE
WORDS OF jESUS
HAvE COME ALIvE
WHEN HE SAID,
‘I WAS THIRSTy
AND yOU GAvE ME
WATER TO DRINk’.”
~PASTOR BERNARD
MUkOME
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 33

34 NCM MAGAZINE
Japan:
The ChurCh STandS aS One
Since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit
Japan on March 11, the Church of the Nazarene has been an
open place of welcome and support for those in need. Many
local church leaders, NCM leaders, and church members have sent
supplies, organized volunteers, and identified those who are most in
need. The Sendai congregation has even provided shelter and supplies
to over 200 displaced people. To help with the country’s rebuilding
efforts, the church is organizing many volunteers from Japan,
especially youth, to clear out mud-filled houses while also helping
local organizations doing relief work.
The church in Japan has been standing as one, not only in their communities,
but also with the church worldwide. Even in the midst of
their disaster and suffering, they collected a US $1,200 offering for
victims of the tornadoes that hit the southern United States in April.
Please join your sisters and brothers in Japan who are coming
together to live out the love of Jesus where they are. Pray for their
work, and pray for Japan’s healing.
If you would like to donate to the ongoing Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami Relief, you may do so
at ncm.org/acm1762.
Learn more about response efforts at ncm.org.
Water That Does Not
Come Bottled
On reading Psalm 104
By Walter Brueggemann
Creator God, we celebrate you:
you make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills,
giving drink to every wild animal,
the wild asses quench their thirst.
You send rain and water the earth, it springs to growth,
we eat and are satisfied,
we thank you and easily push back from the table.
In our comfortable plenty,
we notice drought here
and famine there, the work of human hands.
The lacks seem remote from us,
but in solidarity we register the loss,
and the fear,
and the death.
We count on water and rain and growth and bread.
We count on your regularities,
but then we look for peace but find no good,
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
We do not expect failed rain,
or failed bread,
or failed peace,
or failed healing.
The failure lies deep in the fabric of our common life.
We turn away from that self-destructiveness…back to you.
You—Creator, beginning and end,
first and last.
You—seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter.
You—whose patience we try.
You—whose sovereign will for good
overrides our capacity for self-destruction.
Look to this world of need: restore
recreate,
enliven,
give rain,
give food,
give peace.
For there is no other source.
None except you in your sovereign reliability.
Walter Bruggemann. Prayers for a Privileged People.
Abingdon Press, 2008. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Diagnosis:
Critical shortage of health care
workers & resources globally
Refill
Prescription:
Volunteer Medical Professionals
Recommended Dosage:
2 weeks – long-term
Unlimited
M.D.
NMO links medical professionals and global health care ministries to one another.
Through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, NMO partners in health care using
medical volunteers to support ongoing and emergency needs in communities worldwide.
For more information, or to join NMO, go to www.ncm.org/nmo, or email us at nmo@ncm.org.
22 NCM MAGAZINE
SUMMER 2011 35

NAzAreNe ComPAssIoNAte mINIstrIes
Church of the Nazarene
17001 Prairie Star Pkwy
Lenexa, KS 66220
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
General Board
of the Church of
the Nazarene
Give compassionately. Give wisely. Give today.
Want to give compassionately in a way
that shares your resources with those in
need—and also cares for your family now?
Consider a Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA).
Your CGA gift will enable Nazarene Compassionate
Ministries to continue supporting
local congregations worldwide as they
respond to needs in their communities.
Funding a CGA is simple:
• Write a check
• Use a credit card
• Transfer stock
A CGA is a simple contract between you
and the Nazarene Foundation. You agree
to donate a sum of money to NCM, and the
Nazarene Foundation agrees to pay you a
fixed percentage of that amount every
year for the rest of your life.
To learn more about your CGA, contact the
foundation:
866-273-2549
info@nazarenefoundation.org
www.nazarenefoundation.org
We will provide you a detailed
illustration showing:
• Your personal payment rate
• Your income tax deduction for this year
• Your capital gains tax savings
SAmpLe GIFT
ANNuITy RATeS
Age RAte
70 5.8%
75 6.4%
80 7.2%
85 8.1%
90 9.5%