Our journey into water purification started over a year ago, when we sent three church members to the 2006 Edge Outreach
Water Purification Training Conference. Our initial thought was to find a location in Costa Rica for our first church project.
However, a week later, our congregation listened to Tracy Nolan, Director of Community
Outreach in the Redbird Mission District—near Beverly, Kentucky. As she described the
human condition in Appalachia today, Tracy mentioned that many folks do not have clean drinking
water. What an ideal opportunity for our newly trained water purification team! At the end of
the church service, we shared an idea with Tracy—a water purification “filling” station. Who
would have guessed where this thought would take us.
Our first trip to Appalachia came in January. With us, we had Beth—a microbiologist, Al—a
retired member of the Army Corp of engineers who specialized in large-scale water treatment
facilities, John—who specialized in home water treatment systems, Dale & Shelli—recently
trained on the McGuire Purifier, and me. All these folks came forward from our congregation,
once the word got out. All were excited about this idea, but were also realists. Together, they offered a unique perspective that
no single individual could have brought to the table.
We had intended to meet with nine water representatives from a 3-county area. Unfortunately, the audience was much smaller, and
the reception was cooler than expected. Thankfully, our team quickly adapted to the situation, and after about an hour of frank
discussion, you could sense a change in the mood—they were willing to explore the idea of a water purification filling station. Not a
100% buy-in at this point, but a positive start to the process. It was at this meeting where we first met Pastor Charles Parks—a
man with vision for his small church, the Kelly Rock Church.
On the second day of our trip to Appalachia, we took water samples from seven different
locations. After running a series of tests, we found two locations had unacceptable levels of
bacteria and coli-form. Almost all the water samples had iron and sulfur. We wanted the local
folks to trust our results, so we had an independent water testing company out of Pikeville
validate our results. They re-tested two sites, and confirmed what we had found. While this
cost us extra money, it proved to be a pivotal point. From that point onward, we had “buy-in”
from the locals.
Charles Parks, the pastor of the Kelly Rock Church, has a small congregation—probably no
more than 50 members on the best of Sundays. Yet, the church is very accessible to hundreds
of folks who travel up and down the two-lane mountain road. What’s more, Kelly Rock Church has
a large parking lot—an ideal site for the water purification filling station. However, it was Pastor Parks who convinced us that this
was the right place. He saw a need to bring pure water to his parishioners and all who cared to stop by and fill up their water
containers. So, he offered us a partnership. And, we promised to deliver.