Living Waters for the World
Installs First Unit in Africa

by Bill Williams

"God led us to Africa," the Rev. Chris Scruggs believes.

For the first time, a Living Waters for the World water purification system is in operation on the African continent. Scruggs was part of a nine person team from Advent Presbyterian Church in the Memphis suburb of Cordova who installed a system in mid-March at the national training center of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

It may well be the first of many. While in Ghana, the Advent team examined at least four potential sites in need of water treatment systems. Other church groups that have attended the LWW training camp, called Clean Water U, have indicated they plan systems in Kenya, Sudan, Madagascar and possibly other nations.

Previous LWW systems have all been in North and South America and in Asia.

Advent's team had a strong connection to the Ramseyer Training Center in the town of Abetifi in southcentral Ghana. The Rev. Robert Crumpton, a retired Presbyterian missionary who worships at Advent, had served in Ghana and spent time at the Ramseyer center. He was a member of a team from Advent that went to Ghana last year to survey the situation and develop a partnership.

The Presbyterian Church of Ghana suggested the Ramseyer center, and since virtually every minister in that church goes to the center sooner or later, the water system will have lots of visitors, Scruggs explained.

"We had a hitchless trip," he said. "When we got there, they had built a building and a water tower for the system and had the connections in place."

The team spent 12 days on the African trip, which Scruggs called the most successful of the numerous foreign mission trips in which the congregation has been involved. It provided health and hygiene training to over a hundred people, including some 100 school children and 28 adults who will serve as trainers of others.

The Ramseyer Training Center has running water only once a week, he explained, and depends mostly on rain water collected in a cistern. The LWW system will serve some 300 people who use the center.

The Advent team was well trained for its mission: Five of its nine members were trained at Clean Water U. Before leaving the country, the team invited the moderator and stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana to send representatives to CWU training this fall.

The national newspaper of Ghana reported on the Abetifi water system, and included credit both to the Advent church and to the Synod of Living Waters.

Construction of the system as it was ongoing.

The team with the Abetifi Chief and his council of elders.