East Africa Mission - April 2009

I will be returning to East Africa, visiting our churches and humanitarian aid projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, from April 28 through May 22, 2009.

Watch for the full agenda coming soon!

howFar to Deliver Rotary WAPI's to Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burindi

The How Far Foundation, Inc., an international humanitarian aid agency, will deliver 400 Water Pasteurization Indicators to rural areas in East Africa in April of 2009. Our partnership with the Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett to deliver a simple and effective means of insuring safe drinking water falls into our mission of improving the quality of life for those living in remote rural villages in Sub-Sahara Africa.

"Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett & North Gwinnett HS Interact Club work to make Water Pasteurization Indicators – A way to improve world health and save the lives of children through safer water!"

"BUFORD, GEORGIA - Rotary recognizes that children are the future of the world. Rotary believes that healthy and happy children are a key to achieving the goal of building international understanding and peace in the world. The Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett continues to celebrate the commitment to World Understanding throughout the month of February.

Together with the Interact Club of North Gwinnet High School, the club made Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs) on Valentine’s Day – February 14th. Water pasteurization is needed in many places around the world where water is contaminated, causing disease and death. The microbes that cause these diseases can be easily killed by heating water before drinking.


WAPIs are short poly-carbonate plastic tubes that are half filled with soy wax and heat sealed on both ends. The soy wax melts at about 158 degrees F, a temperature that kills many microbes including Giardia, Entamoeba, Cryptosporidium Guinea, Worm and other Worms, E Coli, Shigella, Cholera, Rotaviruses, Polioviruses, Hepatitis A virus and pasteurization of milk.

WAPIs are effectively used for water pasteurization in third world countries because they are so simple to understand. The WAPI is put into a bowl of water, which is then heated by the sun or other heat source. The wax melts at the appropriate temperature, indicating that the water is safe to drink.

Rotary recognizes that over one billion people do not have access to safe water. Preventable waterborne diseases are responsible for approximately 80% of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world. Children are especially susceptible, with nearly three million deaths each year. The deaths of three million people every year due to contaminated water is the equivalent of losing as many people every five weeks as the total deaths caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. This is an astonishing number of deaths – with most being children."

(Source: The Gwinnett Citizen)

Carolyn Hill, Rotary Club of Buford/North Gwinnett Founder said, "We are so excited to partner with Mark, and the How Far Foundation, because we can be sure that the WAPI's will be delivered directly into the hands of the people who need them most".


"Demonstrating a WAPI, Water Pasteurization Indicator, in a slum near Bujumbura, Burundi. Clean water is a crucial issue here...children still die because of bad water in this village.

The How Far Foundation, and howFar Ministries, will use the introduction of the Water Pasteurization Indicator as a platform to share the gospel message. As we teach about clean water we will introduce them to the "living water".

John 4:9 Therefore the Samaritan woman *said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
John 4:11 She *said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
John 4:12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

If you would like to contribute to this gospel centered clean water project contact howFar Ministries at mark@howFar.org.