I saw her on my second day in Hato Grande Numero Dos, a small rural village outside of Leon, Nicaragua. She was laboring over a rope pump, working to gather the water from an open, contaminated water well that would be used to prepare lunch for the village school. It was obvious this was a daily routine for her. And, in routine fashion, she lifted the 5-gallon, 40-pound bucket of dirty water on her head to begin the first leg of five 100- yard trips to the cooking area.

Even now, a month after returning from this trip with Living Water International, this is the story that I cannot seem to forget. I will never forget the smile on this woman’s face while I carried her water every morning. I will never forget her silent strength. As this woman showed, any poverty in this village â€" as in much of the world - is purely circumstantial. No outsider could bring more strength to this determined woman. No visitor could bring more joy to the carefree, playing children. In addition, I am willing to bet that no one reading this article could teach any of the older boys how to play soccer.

Hato Grande Numero Dos, along with approximately 1.1 billion other people around the world, has a water problem. For a week, a LWI team worked with the community to drill a water well that would bring safe, clean water to the immediate village, as well as surrounding areas. While “Nica� and American hands joined together to complete a well, others from the LWI team worked with the women and children of the village to discuss health and hygiene principles that you and I probably take for granted.

The message in the work of LWI resembles the message of redemption. Safe, clean water was 80 feet underneath this village. It had been there all along. As we worked with this village to bring access to the water that rested beneath their feet, another message could maybe make a little more sense to those with whom we worked. Just as clean water was closer than this village could have imagined, so, too, is redemption closer than they might think.

For the last 15 years, Living Water International has worked in more than 22 developing countries to bring daily access to safe, clean water to than 5 million people. To learn more about LWI and how you can be purposeful in responding to the 1.1 billion people that lack access to safe, clean water, visit www.water.cc.

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