BY LAUREN BEARDEN
Local businessman and ministry organizer, Bill Iverson began donating SpringPure water filtration systems and ministering to countries hit by catastrophic disasters over a decade ago.
He went expecting to help the people secure safe drinking water and share his love of the Lord, but he’s learned that these wonderful people can help him just as much as he helped them.
“We, as a people, tend to be a bit arrogant,” he said. “We look at things from an American perspective in that we feel we have to help everybody. But, we don’t seem to pay attention to how we can be helped.”
A trip to Ecuador drove the point home for Iverson. His church-to-
church ministry. “Nation 2 Nation,” made the trek to Ecuador several months after a 7.8 earthquake shook the country in the spring of 2016.
The team, partnering with a Latin American church. constructed six water purification systems and taught the locals how to use and maintain the water systems.
Now one year later, Iverson reported that all the systems were working well but he discovered the local pastor had not been taking any of the clean water for himself and his family.
Since the water was only pumped from the river for one hour a day and the village had only a 200 gallon storage tank, the pastor chose to provide for the villagers before himself.
Iverson said he nearly cried at the selflessness of the man and let the gentlemen know he’d make sure the village received larger tanks.
Additionally, the Health Department of Ecuador had been conducting tests due to the high number of children with water borne parasites throughout the country
When the health department tested the children of one of the SpringPure villages, they found that there was an 85 percent reduction of parasites.
Government officials went to the village asking where they got their water, Iverson said. The villagers showed them one of the six water purification systems. Iverson said, “Often we never know qualitatively, how people have been helped, and this was certainly some great feedback.” It also opened the door to potentially working with the Ecuadorian government as well as area churches.
Once Iverson returned to Blue Ridge, he wanted to bring some of the Ecuadorian culture to his home church and reach out to the Latino population locally He contacted his pastor-friend. David Carrera, in Tennessee who is from Ecuador. Together, they coordinated a Good Friday musical event at New Life Community Church with many of the songs sung in Spanish.
Iverson said he is thankful for the opportunities and experiences he’s been given and expressed the importance of being willing to learn about other cultures.