The gift of water to Puerto Rico from Abilene

Loretta Fulton
Special to the Reporter-News
John-Mark Woodard, front, and Russell Weathersby help install a water purification system on a rooftop in Puerto Rico.

Providing a sustainable means of getting safe water would have been enough for the people of Puerto Rico who still are struggling from the devastation of Hurricane Maria, which struck Sept. 20.

But there was more.

Members of Southwest Park Baptist Church in Abilene made arrangements with Tomas Morales, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Utuado to bring water purification systems  in December. A followup trip is coming Feb. 19-23.

Before departing, the pastor at Southwest Park, Mike Woodard, alerted Morales that his team would bring the equipment but that Morales and others would have to provide storage tanks for the purified water.

Something symbolic happened. The first storage tank wasn’t what you would expect. It wasn’t a galvanized or rubberized tank. 

“For the first unit,” Woodard said, “we set it up in the baptistry at the church.”

The water was distributed to church members and to residents of the community. When arrangements were made to install a second system at the local campus of the University of Puerto Rico, the team members met with school officials in the chancellor’s office. In addition to using the purified water on campus, the school will be a distribution point so that fellow Puerto Ricans can have safe water. Sharing was important to them, too, Woodard said.

Russell Weathersby, right, and Tomas Morales, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Utuado, Puerto Rico, prepare to fill the church baptistry with purified water.

“They saw this as part of God’s solution,” he said.

Indeed, that’s how members of Southwest Park view this mission effort. The church and Hendrick Medical Center are providing funding for the equipment, at $1,400 per unit, and cost of flying to Puerto Rico with the units and installing them.

Southwest Park members who went to Puerto Rico in December to install the first two units were Woodard, Russell Weathersby and Woodard’s son, John-Mark Woodard. John-Mark won’t be going on the second trip, but Adam McKinney, a church member, and Ben Gray will join Mike Woodard and Weathersby.

Gray trains people in how to install and operate the water purification systems provided by Global Samaritan Resources. Michael Bob Starr, executive director of Global Samaritan, also may join the group. 

Weathersby, owner of Weathersby Roofing Co., was touched by what he saw in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake that rocked the country. That experience primed him for the current response in Puerto Rico.

“If you’ve ever experienced someone without fresh water,” he said, “it’s kind of a life-changing experience.”

The need is still great in Puerto Rico, five months after Hurricane Maria, and probably will be for months to come. Woodard said 35 percent of the population still has no electrical power, and 40 percent is without safe drinking water. 

But Woodard and his team are doing something about the water situation, at least for part of the population.

In December, the team installed a system at the university campus in Utuado. That water goes into the campus distribution system for use in the cafeteria. Students also fill containers of safe water from the system. 

Morales is scouting locations for the next six units, that are small enough to pack into Rubbermaid bins that can be carried as checked luggage on the plane. 

The units are somewhat miraculous themselves. They use basic table salt to purify water and operate off solar power, stored in a 12-volt battery. It takes one-half cup of table salt to purify 10,000 gallons of water, Woodward said. 

Mike Woodard, center, and two members of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Utuado, Puerto Rico, take a break from installing a water purification system that filled the baptistry with fresh water.

“That’s the (entire) expense,” he said. 

The team from Abilene not only installs the units, they train local residents on how to keep the system running after they leave. The gift of the water purification systems comes with no strings attached, except for one. The purified water can not be sold. It must be given away.

“It’s a gift,” Woodard said. “It’s a part of turning safe water into living water.”