I am going to squeeze 9 months into one post.
After working in NYC, I continued deploying for Samaritan’s Purse (SP) for the remainder of 2020.
I was able to remotely manage Hydromissions projects, but since I could not personally travel abroad for Hydromissions’ development work due to covid, I just continued to support the covid response efforts with SP.
I worked in Alaska, where I was on a small team providing education programs for remote indigenous clinics. After that, I went to South Sudan where I was the program manager for a covid program that trained, equipped and improved remote medical clinics.
On the Hydromissions side, I was very happy with how well all of our field trainers did throughout the year. Although 2020 did not go as originally planned (and even this first half of 2021 has been challenging), we continue to praise God for His provision and protection for our associates, communities, families and National field trainers. Two of our National field trainers became ill with covid for a few weeks, but they (and their families) recovered!
Although a different type of year for us, Hydromissions was still able to meet needs for over 5,000 people in 2020!
As you all know, I was in Uganda (January and February of 2020), retuned to the USA (as scheduled), but once the Pandemic hit, I cancelled the rest of my travels for the year (Panama, Guatemala, EL Salvador, Tanzania, and Kenya). The Hydromissions Board and I prayed about the best ways to support immediate needs as the abrupt lockdowns put some of the people we serve in emergency situations. Through donors, we provided 30-day food bundles in India and Haiti. Our National field trainers continued to work as their countries lifted lockdowns (it was a lot of “starting and stopping” as different waves sent countries back into lockdowns). In India, we provided 15 water wells. In Uganda, we provided medical clinics, schools and churches with rainwater catchment systems and drilled two borehole water wells. A multi-stall latrine in Tanzania for a children’s home. A community rainwater catchment system in Kenya and two borehole water wells in Nepal.
I still have not travelled internationally for Hydromissions, but have been spending my time promoting and working on the business side of the organization. The website needed a lot of work, so although I have been ignoring my blog, I have spent months working on the Hydromissions website so it is easier to find us on google 😉 I have also increased speaking engagements – sharing about what we do to schools, churches and rotary clubs. With the increase in donors from these talks and the website, we have been able to expand our programs in Uganda, India and Nepal! I am super excited to announce that we are partnering with a ministry in Nepal to provide 50 borehole water wells over the next year! We have ongoing work in India to provide 25 wells! We have also doubled our efforts in Uganda so now we are constructing two projects per month instead of just one per month as years past.
Seeing work be able to increase abroad while I am investing in the organization in the US has been good, but difficult. I miss training and equipping communities. I miss setting up programs to develop new National field trainers for Hydromissions. I am not very good at the “business” side (grants, website, etc) so it has stretched me for sure, but it is helping us expand which has been great!
I am also excited to be working on a new program in Tanzania for September (where I will be traveling again!).
How Many Cows 