Category: Honduras

Assembly of God Feeding Center, Guapinol, Honduras

The Assembly of God Feeding Center in Guapinol, Honduras is a quant fishing village not far for the Pacific Coast.  In communities like this, they work hard and their health is paramount to survival.  Having a good source of purified drinking water enables the community to be more productive and keeps the children in school.

This very poor community has never had access to purified drinking water.  Our new Operating Partners were excited to get started bottling water and distributing water to the surrounding community.

We are now happy to report that the AOGFC is reporting a high water production. After a short time of operations, Pastor Ilmo called requesting more bottler caps and seals. That represents 1,200 bottles in only 3 months. Agua Viva is so pleased that we can do this much good in their community.

In the next couple of weeks, Rigo Rigoberto will performing two additional Site Investigations in the southern part of Honduras; not very far from Guapinol.

2019 Travel Plans

Cuba

• Operating Partner: Iglesia Unidad Metodista
• Location: Baitiquiri, Guantanamo, Cuba
• Approximate price: $2,200.00
• Leaders: Dale Wilson, Dale Bain

Honduras

• MARCH 2, 2019 THROUGH MARCH 9, 2019
• Operating Partner: Telanga Orphanage
• Location: Ojo de Agua
• Approximate Volunteer Cost: $1,800.00
• Leaders: David Watts, Steve Wagner

Guatemala

• MAY 18, 2019 THROUGH MAY 25, 2019
• Operating Partner: Iglesia Monte Sinai Presbyterian
• Location:  Nimasac, San Adres, Xecul, Totonicopan
• All Women Trip
• Approximate Volunteer Cost: $1,800
• Leaders: Nancy Allen, Melissa Caton

Ecuador

• JULY 13, 2019 THROUGH JULY 20, 2019
• Operating Partner: Universidad Estatal Amazonica
• Approximate Volunteer Cost: $2,400
• Leaders: Jerry Johnson, Curt Mader

Kenya

• SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 THROUGH OCTOBER 5, 2019
• This trip is closed. Contact Jim Allen for more information.
• Leaders: Curt Creason, Curt Mader
• Operating Partner: Bernard’s Vision Orphanage
• Location: Wahcarra, Kenya

Notice

• All Volunteer Costs are subject to change without notice.
• Dates may vary.
• Travel is dependent on the state of political affairs in the country.
• Interested Volunteers should complete the application process on our website.
• Indicated leadership may change, based upon availability.
• Volunteer Health Release, Passports, and Vaccinations are required.

2017 Annual Celebration Recap

Curt Mader Receives Honored Buck O’Neil Legacy Seat

Curt Mader, CEO of non-profit Agua Viva International, will be the proud recipient of the Buck O’Neal Legacy Seat when the Kansas City Royals play the Boston

Red Sox  at 7:15 pm, on June 19, 2017.  Please watch us on TV!  Or, better yet, come to the Royals Stadium and watch us on the big screen!  Curt Mader and Agua Viva International have installed 15 water purification systems in poor indigenous communities of Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Tanzania, Africa.  Each system serves a community of about 2,000 people.  More than three million people die each year from water related illnesses and nearly one billion people in our world have no access to clean drinking water.  Agua Viva also brings health and hygiene education and dental serves to these communities touching the lives of thousands.  Curt Mader, in addition to his full time employment at Olsson and Associates, has worked tirelessly to build this Kansas City based humanitarian organization from scratch to lift up and embrace the needy people of our thirsty world.

For more information about the Buck O’Neil Legacy Seat click here:http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/kc/community/buck-oneil-seat/

Houduras 2016; Blog Three

Yesterday it rained. It really rained… like hard. For about two hours. Holy cow! The kids sure had fun playing in the rain. I guess, I used to be a kid, too.

But, today is Thursday. A very big day and the weather is beautiful.

Our Water Install Team produced our first five bottles of pure clean ozonated water. The new water supply is much nicer coming directly from the well. Our team is very confident that our new friends will be able to produce water for a long time coming from this source. All of our new operators are fully trained and Daryl Taylor (lead installer) says they are very happy and motivated.

Our Education Team completed our last day at the school nearby. The principal of the school invited us to return and said they were very happy to have our Agua Viva Educators participate in their classroom educating the young children about health and hygiene.

The Dental Team completed the children yesterday and, so, invited local adults to the clinic. Many adults came were very pleased to receive a checkup. Many procedures were performed… extractions, fillings, cleaning, fluoridations, and more.

Nancy Allen, Les Briner, Jim Allen, Victor Galo, and Pastor Jamilette drove to El Obraje, Honduras, to do a site investigation. This site does NOT have a water purification system. They have 270 members in their local church and over 500 children in the local school. Our team met with Pastor Alejandro for about an hour and then climbed about three kilometers up the mountain to the water source for the community. There in the “rain forest”, Agua Viva was able to prepare a water sample to be tested in the United States. If the water sample proves favorable, Agua Viva hopes to return to this beautiful country to provide yet another purification system.

Tomorrow is the celebration. Pastor Jamilette purchased 15 chickens, 20 pounds of carrots, 100 packages of Roman Noodles, 5 pounds of onions, and six bottles of ketchup. They are making “Chop Suey” for the celebration. What is the ketchup for????? Kelly Briner, Andrea Sester, and Ana Sanders will be assisting the chefs. With a little luck, our team will be climbing a local mountain tomorrow.

Honduras 2016

Houduras 2016
The Agua Viva Team arrived in Quisgualagua, Hoduras, today, Sunday, just in time for church. God was with us and it was such a pleasure to meet our new friends. It was also troubling to see the extreme poverty in the area and I think we were all wondering what God has in store for us this week.

The Water Room is ready. It was painted a pretty blue. The bottling table was completely installed with bottle washer, three floor drains, lights, tanks, bottles, everything. What a surprise and what a blessing. Victor Galo has worked very hard with Pastor Jamileth to get things ready to go!

Volunteer Steve Wagner immediately started assembling the Dental Chair (donated by Church of the Resurrection). Our new dentist, Dr. Isreal Mejia, is ready to go with his own personal assistants Volunteer Andrea Sester and Guatemala Volunteer Ana Van Seumeren. Dr. Mejia is meeting with the local elementary school in the morning to begin fluoridating the children’s little teeth.

All our 16 suitcases are safe at the church and we are ready for an early start tomorrow.
Our two Translators, Paul and Melissa, are doing a great job. Mario Mejia, from Guatemala, is also here and it is a great comfort to us all to see our good friend again.

2016 Year in Review

Writing this post it is hard not to get emotional! God has done so much through this organization, touched so many lives, decreased disease and malnutrition risks for so many children as well as brought us into new uncharted territories! We could never have dreamed 6 years ago that installing one little water purification system at an orphanage in Guatemala would have birthed such an impact just 6 years later.  Agua Viva is reaching more and more poor communities and our capability is expanding rapidly. Our volunteers just got back from Ecuador on September 23 and are now packing for our next trip to Honduras on October 22nd. It is amazing that our Volunteers are able to serve so many people in so many different countries.  “Clean drinking water” truly is a universal necessity! Below is a quick recap of all we have accomplished in 2016.

Guatemala

This year, 10 Agua Viva Volunteers provided our first full installation in an orphanage in Huehuetenago, Guatemala. One hundred orphans are now drinking purified water, literally, for the first time in their lives. It was an amazing trip. Agua Viva provided health, hygiene, and dental care training to a full house of new teachers. Our friends were surprised to see that we came equipped with two “full blown” dentists with a full complement of equipment, materials, and supplies. They are already selling water! It is a real joy to see these concrete results so quickly!

Ecuador

In Ecuador, Curt Mader is leading our next volunteer group to a large school in Pomachaca, Ecuador. The school is beautiful and it is hard to believe that these 500 children have never been taught the importance of clean drinking water; nor have they had the opportunity to drink it. Agua Viva has been so blessed in Ecuador. We have our largest of group of in-country volunteers there and we have very strong group of leaders there are committed to serving the poor.

Honduras

To top it off, we have a large volunteer group headed to Quisgualagua, Honduras, on October 22, 2016. Again, we are providing water purification systems, education, and dental services. And, yes, we are taking precautions against the Zika virus! This is undoubtedly one of the poorest areas we have served. In cooperation with the Methodist Church, Agua Viva will be providing our very first installation in Honduras, just 10 miles from Nicaragua.

Tanzania, Africa

In April of this year, Agua Viva sent a small team to Zinga, Tanzania. In a brand new children’s hospital, Agua Viva signed a covenant and agreed to provide a water purification system there in 2017. This will expand Agua Viva to three continents! That is a big step. There are lots of new challenges there but one thing is NOT different; their need for pure clean ozonated water. Can you imagine a “hospital” with no clean water? Well, we are going to fix that!

Kenya, Africa

The same team visited two orphanages in Kenya. We have great opportunity there and we hope to return… soon… We are building relationships there and we have 1,000 orphans waiting for Agua Viva to grow enough to respond to the needs. One thousand people died in this area in January of this year from Cholera… a water borne disease.

Please, please, please… if you have not already purchased tickets to our Annual Agua Viva Celebration please do so now by clicking on this link: www.aguavivainternational.org. 100% of the proceeds will go directly toward bringing clean water to those in need!

Honduras 2017-2018

In October of 2016, Agua Viva provided our first installation in Quisgualagua, Honduras.  Agua Viva took 10 volunteers to this very rural and poor community to bless them with pure clean ozonated water, health and hygiene education, and full dental services.

During our trip, we were able to consider three possible new sites for future trips in Honduras.  One such possibility is El Obraje.  Several team members split off from the group to visit new friends in this needy community.  Church of the Resurrection has been providing medical missions to this community for several years and they have requested that Agua Viva consider this site for an installation.  Alejandro, the head pastor at the Methodist Church in El Obraje, was pleased to give us a tour of their new construction project where the water system may be installed.

Victor Galo, Nancy Allen, and Alejandro sized up the room and it is looking good for a future trip.  No date has been set, but one possible time frame being considered is January 2018.

Reflexiones de Moises; Blog Three, Water for Quisqualagua, Honduras

Today, Agua Viva International and the Church of the Resurrection team visited a community and Methodist Church in Quisqualagua, Honduras. The poor community of 500 people surrounding the Church, has never had clean drinking water. The Director of Programs for the Honduras United Methodist Church, Rigo Rios, met with Agua Viva and the President of the local Public Water Works to put together a game plan to bring purified drinking water to this Church, the local public school, and the entire surrounding communities.

After lengthy negotiations, all parties agreed that the community needed the Purification System desperately and the Church would be best to administrate the production and distribution of the bottled water. This church is pastored by Pastor Jomi, a woman, and she has been proven to be a strong leader in this community. She was the obvious leader to care for this community and she has already proven to be a great model for gender empowerment. Like Jesus’ parable about the Woman at the Well, we all felt certain that she would understand the importance of sharing the purified water and sharing the “living water”. “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you the Living Water…. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. (John 4:10-13)

Reflexiones de Moises; Blog Two, Great is Thy Faithfulness in Honduras

Today, Sunday, we volunteers set up the clinic in El Obraje, Honduras, where we will provide desperately needed medical and dental attention to hundreds of children and adults. Our leader, Jim Callahan started our week-long efforts by quoting a wonderful bible verse from Lamentations 3:22-23: “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new each morning. Great is your faithfulness.”

It is easy to see how faithful God is while we are driving up a beautiful mountainside in Honduras on the way to the Church. Watching those children singing songs and dancing during the Church service was a wonderful treat. After Church, twelve dedicated volunteers pitched in stringing up makeshift patient rooms and sorting twelve suitcases of prescription drugs purchased by the Church of the Resurrection, and, well, thinking about “Why we are here?”. It is pretty easy to understand this now. Each of the volunteers were faithful to God’s calling to come to Honduras, while God in all of his faitfulness blesses up again and again… new each morning!