It is the smallest country in Central America—riddled with poverty and environmental degradation. A place where rocks and sticks hold the roofs of houses together and when it rains, the roof blows off and water fills the home— where people travel miles to reach a local river in search of water for their family— a place where many families live on less than $2 a day.

But it is also a place where the spirits of people are strong and where faith is continuing to grow. It is the country of El Salvador— the place where 24-year-old Melissa Mefford has been called by God to serve the local churches and community.

“I just know that’s where God wants me and that’s cool, so it’s the first time I feel I’m doing what I need to be doing,” said Melissa. “God’s hands [are] all over it.”

When Melissa was 18-years-old, she lived in El Salvador for six months where she worked with abandoned children. It was this experience that exposed her to the reality of poverty and opened up her heart to the Salvadorian people. During Celebration of Hope 2009, Melissa attended Willow Creek South Barrington where she was training to work with Royal Family Kids—an organization for foster children. It was during Teaching Pastor Darren Whitehead’s sermon on the ‘Good Samaritan’ that God whispered to Melissa, “You are going back to El Salvador.”

Her second confirmation came in October 2010, during Willow Creek’s 35^th Anniversary—God whispered, “you are going back, and you are going back now.” But it wasn’t until she was reading Bill Hybel’s ‘The Power of a Whisper,’ that Melissa received her final confirmation. This was also when she realized that she would leave for El Salvador before finishing her undergrad at DePaul University.

A friend introduced her to ENLACE—an organization that partners with local churches to provide biblical training to leaders so the local church can provide for the physical and spiritual needs of the people. Melissa spent six months fundraising before she returned to work with ENLACE in El Salvador in October 2011. As of now, she is doing a year of service with the organization.

She works in the Communications Department where she writes proposals and impact stories, and works developing the ENLACE website. She also works in the Mission Team Department where she translates and hosts meetings. Her work exposes her to the daily stress of the people she comes in contact with, giving her reassurance that her service is vital.

“They are the hardest working people I ever met in my life,” said Melissa. “They are smart and gifted, but when you don’t have opportunities, don’t have access to good education and healthcare, it’s impossible to get out of that.”

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t know God,” said Melissa. “I get overwhelmed, too. It’s very overwhelming. It’s heartbreaking when you see these kids that are malnourished and parents need to work.”

Her faith in God has helped her through many hurdles; she says that she is completely dependent on God for wisdom, energy, and financial provisions. “God will show up in big ways and that if you trust him and take that step to serve, even for a week, you will be forever changed—God will show it in big ways.”

While Melissa acknowledges that not everyone is called to do what she is doing, she believes that everyone is called to use their gifts to bless the poor. She encourages people to answer their own whispers from God, locally or internationally, but for people who are grappling with the decision to serve abroad, it will be an experience that is both inspiring and satisfying.

“I think every North American needs to see it first hand. Pictures, videos, and books can do the best they can to convey it, but until you see it, smell it, you will never understand what that is like,” said Melissa. “We’re responsible to leverage our blessing to bless others. Whatever the blessing—resources, time—we are insanely blessed and we need to bless others.”

Willow Creek offers encouragement and coaching to members, like Melissa, who are interested in longer term global serving. To learn more about these opportunities, contact longtermserving@willowcreek.org.

A self-proclaimed “world traveler geek,” Jeffrey Smith signed up for his first mission trip in January 2011. Jeff co-led the team headed to Chile to provide relief after the February 2010 earthquake. It ignited his passion for international ministry so much that he decided to lead a second team to Chile this past January. The January 2012 mission team built a community center for Collin Alto, one of Willow’s local church partners.

Collin Alto is a “mentor church” for the surrounding communities in the Araucania region. For the past several years, the pastor and congregation of Collin Alto had been praying for another building to house the many programs it offers. From the ground up, the team built a community center adjoining the church, laying a foundation, creating a frame, and installing a roof.

Building More than a Building
Jeff admits that before serving on a mission trip, he belonged to a different camp of thinking. With an education in economics, he asked himself why it was necessary to spend the money and time traveling to another country instead of writing out a check. But after his first trip to Chile, Jeff had an epiphany. What if efficient economics is not the end all/be all? Instead, what if it is building relationships, or “relational currency,” that matters?

The indigenous or “Mapuche” people in Chile live in a rural, isolated, but picturesque area. While historically skeptical of outsiders, the gracious Mapuche people have welcomed Willow’s commitment to build long-term relationships. As they work alongside the mission trip teams, Jeff says the project itself is secondary to the sharing of each others lives, hopes, and dreams. It is the building of relationships, not just structures, that changes hearts and leaves an indelible mark.

On the last day of the trip, for example, the team ate in the kitchen of Roberto, a longstanding member of Collin Alto. As they prepared to go back to work, Roberto, moved to tears, said he hoped “we can do more of this.”  The Mapuche people still find it hard to believe that people from the other side of the world travel to Chile to serve them.

For Jeff, Chile is not just a place on the map. It is 80-degree weather, rolling green hills, and real people. It is also proof that the local church is the hope of the world.

Serving trips will be offered in conjunction with Celebration of Hope. These specialized trips will focus specifically on the areas of providing shelter, healthcare, and education. For more information, check out the opportunities at http://www.willowcreek.org/shorttermteams.

“She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.” (Proverbs 31:20)

ONLY GOD could build a well out of used old sweaters and fleece recycled into beautiful wool mittens. We are a small group of Willow Creek women who were looking for our next service project. One of our dear ladies visited a friend who was making beautiful mittens from used sweaters. At first Mary thought it might be a way to bring in additional family income; however God, in a powerful whisper, had other plans. “Why couldn’t we make mittens, sell them, and use the profits to buy a well in an under-resourced village that has no access to clean water?” she thought. We loved the cause, but truth be told, some of us thought it was a pretty far fetched idea. Mittens? Really? Even so, we all agreed to honor the whisper and Paws for Pure Water was born. We started resale shopping, washing sweaters, cutting, sewing, selling and learning to run a business. Our small group of nine women had no idea how much we would learn… or how successful we would be.

Building our First Well

To our amazement, our high quality Paws Mittens have been selling at such a fast rate that in a few short months we have raised over $6,000. We are currently in the planning process with Compassion and Justice for our first well. “I applaud the willingness of the team to make a huge difference in such a unique way. Because of their crazy creativity, a community in either the Chitipa region of Malawi or a community in Zambia will be the recipients of a borehole that will change everything for them,” said staff member Scott Pederson. “The entire community will receive the benefits attached to clean and accessible water, but especially the girls and women…. Now rather than walking miles to the nearest contaminated water source, a clean water source will be minutes away. This will allow the girls to go to school and will provide the ladies the chance to do other needed chores. But the fact is a group of ladies from Willow Creek who have turned over to God their hobby and skills will make an enormous difference in a faraway community.  I look forward to seeing the borehole and the community that will have water flowing because of a group of Willow Creek ladies who were just crazy enough to say ‘let’s do this’.”.

How You Can Get Involved

We hope to build many more wells with your help. We are currently looking for donations of wool sweaters (60% wool or more), fleece and thread. We also are looking for needed space for a workshop.

For more information, contact < paws.for.pure.water@gmail.com>

“As a church, it never crossed our minds that we had a role to play to prevent the epidemic of cholera, even though as pastors, we often presided over funerals of people who died from it,” stated Bishop Nixon Tembo, a pastor at Faith Bible Church in Zambia. “What we did not know,” continued Bishop Tembo, “was that prevention of such deaths was within our hands.”

When a health reform project introduced by the Zambian government and other partner organizations first began in 1994, people were acutely aware of the hold cholera had on communities throughout Zambia. In fact, rainy season was known as “cholera season.”

From 1992 to 1995, more than 19,600 people were infected with cholera and roughly 3,200 people died. Cholera afflicted numerous communities in Zambia, but the worst hit by the disease was George Compound. The severity of the epidemic in George was due to several shallow wells from which people drew water. Because of George’s poor sanitary conditions, cholera epidemics started from George and spread to other communities in the Lusaka province.

In 1994, the Zambian government, in partnership with the Japanese Government, introduced water points in the community where people could draw clean water for a fee. This solution, however, was grossly insufficient due to restrictions that limited the number of containers each family could fill and the short windows of time when people were allowed access. User fees were also beyond what most people could afford and people were forced to go back to shallow well water that resulted in new outbreaks.

Local churches had no idea that improving access to water sanitation and hygiene education was a biblical mandate until they began to partner with the Jubilee Centre in 2005. “What distinguishes Jubilee Centre from other Christian organizations is its dedication to build on the strengths and hopes of local churches to make a difference through evangelism, discipleship, development, relief, and advocacy work,” argues Bishop Tembo.

By improving health through clean water initiatives, Jubilee Centre and Willow Creek have supplemented the work of the government by sinking nine boreholes at various churches. The boreholes are serving 40,000 people in George Compound. The borehole water has been sampled by the Zambian Ministry of Health and has been declared clean and safe to drink.

Because the church has been equipped to meet this need, George Compound no longer has a cholera season!

Not only have the boreholes solved countless sanitation and hygiene issues, they have also opened up evangelistic opportunities for the local churches. “We have a borehole at our church, and when people come here to get water, we use the opportunity for evangelism and counseling,” said Bishop Tembo. “One person told me this is no longer Faith Bible Church but River of Life Church. This has changed the face of the community creating a level trust in the church because of what they have seen.” Bishop Tembo has selected a team from the community to provide security and sustainability, and because they want to build relationships with the unchurched, the team includes believers and non-believers.

Through the training provided by Jubilee Centre, the mindset of Faith Bible Church has been transformed from focusing only on spiritual matters to having a holistic approach.  Bishop Tembo confessed that the church has benefited from leadership training, couples retreats, educational support for school children, agricultural farming products, and nutritional support for people living with HIV/AIDS. “People have hope for a better future because Faith Bible Church is here,” he said. “The unity of the church is fulfilling the African proverb that says together we go further. And we are going further.”