When members of the Mom Squad came across the charity Living Water International, they saw it as a sign from God.
Shelly Schafer, Danette Meny and Melanie Traver will be taking a trip to Nicaragua for a week in May with Living Water International. They’ll help drill a well for local villagers and educate them on health and hygiene.
The Mom Squad is a group of about 40 mothers ages 20 to 65
who meet at the Clarkston Free Methodist Church, and reach to area mothers . They meet every Tuesday, with a theme every month as part of their weekly meetings.
Some things they have done locally are baby blankets for children’s hospitals, packing goody boxes for soldiers and a community baby shower.
‘Our mission statement is all out reaching out to moms, supporting each other, but also about urging each other to be better moms, to be better friends,? Meny said.
About a year and a half ago they decided to do something internationally. When they started looking, they felt overwhelmed over their number of choices. They couldn’t decide where they should go.
‘So, for about a year we prayed about it and we tried to figure out what we should do, what would be the most impactful,? Meny said. ‘The big thing that we really felt like we wanted to do -whatever we did we wanted to make sure that when we left wherever we went we wanted to make sure that we left it changed.?
When they saw the website for Living Water, and the people in need of clean water, they said, ‘We gotta go.?
‘None of us had any reaction like that to any of the other ones,? Traver. ‘From the first page of that we knew that’s where we were going.?
‘The thing with Living Water is that they go into the communities and they get people to understand what it is that is making the water contaminated,? Meny said.
Living Water International helps provide clean water to villages while educating the people there about their well and health and hygiene.
Going on the trip with the three women are eight or nine men that will drill the well. The women will be teaching the women and children in the village about health.
For the trip, the women have received training so that they can educate people in the village.
‘The health and hygiene team is made up almost primarily of women. The reason why is because culturally, in most of the cultures that they’re coming into, men are not allowed to speak to the women and children. Most of the time it is the women and children that are going to the well to fetch the water,? Meny said.
‘Everybody that receives the training there will receive a special spoon. And it’s written in their language. One side is for sugar and one side is for salt and it’s just an oral rehydration solution that we will teach them to use for their babies,? Traver said.
What’s so cool about Living Water, Meny said, is that they use the men of the village to build the well and teach them how to keep it going and the women are teaching them how to keep it clean and keep each other healthy.
‘It’s just been amazing to learn how we get to teach them, to keep them healthy,? Meny said.
Living Water International is about teaching people about God and providing them with clean water. Everything they do is based in scripture, Meny said.
‘Their purpose and their goal is to bring to these people their life giving need of water but also to teach them about the gospel,? Meny said.
During the trip, Traver and Meny want to make sure they are able to help the people and teach them everything they have learned.
‘For me it was just the amount of information that we got in our two-day training and the amount of information that we have to impart in the short time we’re there,? Traver said.
‘The thing that haunts me is that it’s on our shoulders. The village is getting one chance to hear this message and I think it’s a lot of pressure but in a good way to make sure we get it right,? Meny said.
‘I thoroughly believe that God brought us to this organization. I thoroughly believe that,? Meny said.