Marcia gives an overview of Todd's most recent trip to provide people with clean water

Hello everyone~

2 suitcases and 1 tired Todd made it home from the airport last evening around 8 pm. He was very grateful to wake up this morning and have his coffee the way he likes it instead of someone else's version.

Hearing the stories and looking through over 500 photos.....WOW is actually an understatement.

I still find myself stunned at the connections that God orchestrated and how many more doors He opened.

I have attached a couple photos.

The first is of a Cambodian village, Todd standing with the children in front of the communities water source.
20 water units were placed here

Next is the infamous tuk tuk that Todd was in when it lost power, brakes then control and wrecked.

Then Laos. 20 units. Todd met with top government officials. The Health Departments top official was more than impressed with how the water units can help aid the villagers up in the Laotian hills.

Thank you for your support, and your prayers.

Looking forward to see what God has in store next.....All I know is it's just the beginning!

Marcia

A report from the Pure Heart International Team

The Burmese Refugees project was a huge success as we were able to provide clean water as well as deliver basic medical supplies and donated clothes.

The Pure Heart team traveled on October 2nd & 3rd along the Thai-Burma border to visit 3 Karen Hill Tribe villages. They were able to help refugees who lived out in the jungle and drank water from a fish pond as their drinking water. They were thrilled to be able to provide this community with safe drinking water!


"At our first stop, we met a Karen lady named Tessanee who used her personal land to start an orphanage for Karen children and housing for widows. She has opened a small facility to take in 75 Karen who have fled from Burma with basically nothing. She also created jobs for the women and children by hand-weaving scarves and hand-painted cards to bring in funds to help provide their basic needs. Pure Heart purchased all the scarves she had on hand and just sold all of them at a recent jewelry party. They were a hot item!

Currently Tessanee cares for 125 people including the original orphans who lived there before this crisis

While we were there we prayed over 5 teenage girls that were very sick with Malaria and we gave Tessanee some medical supplies to use for the camp. She also introduced us to their newest addition, Syrah, a sweet little baby that was dropped off just a week before abandoned by her parents. One of the widows in the camp offered to tend to her day and night. We prayed over Tessanee that God would continue to equip her to run the camp and multiply what little they have. The whole camp gathers 3 times a day to worship God and study the Bible together. They are in the process of building a small church for the camp."

"There was a huge need to help them with clean water. To see the brown muddy pond from which they drink turned our stomachs. The clean water machine we had would be perfect for them so they could make chlorine at the camp and then deliver it to families all over the mountain. We also gave them basic medical supplies and donated clothing, and assisted another team that accompanied us on the trip to hand out blankets, rice, and Bibles."

"God is abounding in love and faithfulness and we can't help but shout it out! We are excited about all the opportunities God is putting before us to expand our reach in Northern Thailand and in other countries, but we cannot do it alone. Thank you for standing with us while we reach out to those who are hurting and for celebrating the lives that are being changed!"

Pure Heart International Team

Cambodia

We have had a lot of fun in Cambodia! We have set up many Puride Machines, with many more on the way. we've spent a lot of time praying for the sick in the hospitals, ministering into the dump and slums areas. We've done a lot of outreach and evangelism partnering with Heartland Community Church - a really cool local church - http://channatouch.blogspot.com/. We love these guys and have been blessed to work with them. Chad and Tash feel a real call to minister into Cambodia long-term. They've been doing a lot of language studies in their time in Cambodia in order to be more effective in the long-run. Khmer (Cambodian) people are resilient to say the least. After many years of war (look up the Khmer Rouge and read about what this nation has been through), these people are hungry for good news and receptive to God's Spirit. Cambodia is ripe for revival! God loves this place. We want to see people set free. We want to see every person have clean, accessible water; every child free from the evils of the sex-trade; every home in walking distance from a local-church meeting place; and for everyone to experience the unconditional love of the Father. Miraculous, passionate joy-love extravaganza!
Up and coming, we'll be joining Burn in Cambodia - http://burn24-7.com/locations/asia/cambodia. Also, we're planning a bit of a pastor's training seminar, focusing on passionate worship, along with supplying Puride machines to the pastors (about 50) to take back to their villages. That means a lot of people getting safe drinking water! There's a lot in store!


in Cambodia we spent a short time in the city of siem reap, and then a short time in the capital, phnom penh. the most impacting time here for me (tash) was mothers day, we visited the dump with a guy that owns one of the many sex bars in the city. he takes donations and buys fruit and bread at the market to feed 100's of kids that scavenge and live at the dump. most of them are bare foot walking on smoldering trash and exposed syringes. we ran a 1st aid clinic, but it poured rain and i just cried and held one girl as she shivered alone. their were ones younger than my Isa who is 17 months. the toxic stench was sickening, one girl who came to help went to step on what she thought was grass and fell chest deep in black waste and came out all cut up. its a scary place and i was gutted to see what i saw there. we later learned of some christian organizations who are impacting that area, trying to teach the next generation to come out of that poverty mindset and lifestyle.
we then went to the country side and worked with a bunch of passionate Christians that daily show the love of Jesus at a church called heartland in the city of kampong cham. we got a bunch more water machines out to various villages while we were in kampong cham. we have a different ministry activity each day of the week. for example, Tuesday and Friday afternoons we go to the aids ward at the hospital to give bags of fruit to each patient, pray for healing, and share truth. we have seen heaps of people healed and saved just over the last couple months from there! one cool thing also is that the people that come to this hospital are from all over the countryside. some of the people that have given their hearts to Jesus tell us that there is no church in their village. then we are invited to go to their village and start a church in their home! we have three different villages to start new churches so far when we get back to Cambodia. on Wednesdays we go to one of the islands in the middle of the Mekong river. we just got house to house, meet people, pray for healing where there is sickness, and share truth. we have two new churches on the island now. we met one couple on the island that were already quite interested in Jesus. they had been married for seven years but unable to have children. we laid hands on her and broke the power of barrenness. two months later we got the news that she was two months pregnant! they have feeding programs in one poor village and in the slums area, and have started a school for the kids in the slums that are forced by their parents to go out late at night and beg. these kids captured my heart, they run at u and climb on u and give u the biggest tightest hugs and laugh and play, they are also very rough and tough to survive the conditions and families they live in. 'resilient' is the best describing word i can think of for Cambodians, to still have the ability to laugh and love and forgive after surviving the most horrific war experienced in our life time. still the land mines remain, there was a little boy at the hospital with no leg and when asked what happened he said he was playing with his 3 friends throwing a ball that they had found and catching it, he saw his friends die as the ball dropped and exploded. however the people of Cambodia are still not bitter. they are resilient. they bounce back. also, every other Thursday i (chad) and a few others from the church go out on the motorbikes on a circuit of far-away villages where we have churches planted as well. the first time i went out with them, one of the bikes got a flat tire, so while we were waiting in a small village on the dirt road i said "lets find some sick people". so we went to the first house we saw and asked if they knew anyone sick. the man said his neighbor was sick with a tumor. we went and prayed for her. a few other people came to the house, and they were all quite interested in Jesus as we spoke. we were invited back, so now we go there every time we go out. two people there had been saved so far by the time we left, and many more are on the way. we have a house church there now.
this is quite long, so stop reading if you need to, but this is my (Chad's) favorite testimony from our time in Asia: at heartland church we start every morning with prayer and worship. we start at 7, and it usually goes for about an hour, but one Monday we just kept singing and praying. the presence of god came on us all really heavy and we ended up worshiping all day. after this Monday, god started giving us amazing opportunities to minister! the next day we got a call about a woman who was severely possessed by a demon. four of us went to her house to get the thing out. i don't want to describe a lot of what the demon did, because i want to glorify the work of god, not the work of the devil, but i will describe a little bit for the sake of showing the reality of the spiritual realm. it said it wanted to drink blood. it said it wanted to kill the woman is was in. it spoke to me in English (the woman with the spirit cant read and write her own language, and she definitely does not know a word of English). it made the woman flail around and it took three people to hold her body down. when we showed up it wasn't so violent anymore. it was scared of the presence of god in us. it took about three hours to get it out. what we ended up doing to get it out was just make it angry by glorifying Jesus! we brought the guitar and worshiped god with all our hearts. the song it hated the most was the old song "the joy of the lord is my strength. ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hallelujah". the thing hated the joy that we expressed and it eventually just left because it hated the presence of Christians worshiping Jesus! another thing that made it feel unwelcome was another testimony of god's power. while we were there worshiping 5 or 6 more Christians from the church came to help us. they had just been at the aids ward praying for the sick and one of them shared this testimony that they had just learned the details of that day: about two months previous to this they met a woman named maria at the aids ward. she was a Muslim woman. she got saved. she went home and got sick again and the hospital would not take her back so she died. she had been dead for three days when her all-Muslim were burying her. her mother put a bible on her chest because she knew that maria loved the bible. they opened the coffin to see her for the last time and she came back to life! oh man isn't that cool!! she then went around her muslim village with her bible in her hand preaching the gospel. i met her after all this and she described to me a little bit of what she saw during those three days. she saw heaven, she saw hell, and she said Jesus brought her back to life. woohoo! anyway, this testimony was spoken while we were worshiping god, and the demon hated it. we continued to worship for a while, and then it just left. the woman had had this spirit in her for about 2 years. she changed her name the "Ruth", which in the Cambodian language is really similar to the word for "resurrection". she has a new life. she is a christian now, as well as heaps of her family including family members in other villages that have heard the story of god's love now! one of her sisters who gave her heart to Jesus is already a passionate evangelist now! so after the demon was gone, we stayed at the house talking for a while, and a woman ran into the house weeping. she said she heard the voice of god tell her read a bible verse, and she didn't understand what it meant - Matthew 10:8 - "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. freely you have received freely give." she was freaked out just that she heard god's voice, and she had no idea what this verse meant, but she knew that the Christians were at this house. we explained it to her and she said one of her neighbors was really sick. so we went to his house. his name is Howng. he crashed his motorbike and broke his neck. he was paralyzed and there was fluid coming up his throat that was choking him. he was expected to die any minute, in fact they had already started the funeral. all the family was there in their funeral clothes. he was laying on the bed with a bunch of incense and Buddhist sacrifice stuff in his hands. we said we wanted to pray for him. they said OK. we laid hands on him, imparted god's strength, and left. the next morning they called us and said "you Christians gotta come back 'cause he's not dead". we continued to go back and pray for him almost daily. he improved and improved so much. after a couple weeks he was sitting up, eating, talking, moving his arms, and saved. one of his somes also got saved. however, his wife continued to trust in Buddhist witchcraft stuff as well as having the Christians come and pray to make him better. so he was doing so good, and then the Buddhist priest came and did some sort of ceremony on him, and in the middle of the ceremony he died. bad stuff happens when you mix trust in god with trust in other gods (read 2 kings 1:1-6). so they sent two men to go dig his grave. one hour later howng came back into his body, sat up straight and said to his family "you tell those two guys to stop digging my grave. I'm going to that christian church, and if i cant walk there then you put me in a wheel chair and take me there." he started eating, and he seemed even better than ever again. then one hour later fluid came up his throat again and he died and stayed dead. he is a christian. his son is a christian. the whole village around his house is hearing about what god was doing. god uses all things for good. after that good stuff kept happening, but I'm going to stop writing now and you can ask me about it next time i see you! peace! we are in the states for another month and then we are coming back to Australia on September 18th. we'll be in Australia for 1 month before returning to Cambodia.
the stories go on and on. but hope is coming and things are changing in Cambodia.

Made for His Glory, forgiven by His Grace,

Eddie D. Roach

Haiti

In Haiti we have set up 16 puride machines in various villages, providing clean water for thousands. We've had extraordinary favor with key people in leadership positions, and have set up contacts that make it easy for future teams to set up more puride machines. So far, two new teams have utilized our contacts to take more machines to the hurting in Haiti.
We have seen many touched and transformed by God's love there - many healed and saved. On our trips to Haiti, miracles have been prevalent. The Father has been so generous in showing his extravagant, irresistible love in powerful ways!
We have also run medical clinics. People line up all day just to be seen by Tash. Some people start walking from far-away homes at three in the morning because they've heard that a nurse is in town. Our clinics have run from sun-up till sun-down, and sometimes a bit longer.
In Haiti there are Big needs, but an even bigger Solution.
We have also built a children's home in Haiti. Man, these kids are loved by the Father, and in need of knowing it! If you are impressed to do something for these kids let us know. Here's Tash's write-up on it:

A Home For The Children
"May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!" Psalms 72:2-4

During February 2009, our team of 3 visited a small remote mountain village, Baie D'Orange, in Haiti. It is an extremely dry and forsaken place. By 4WD it takes more than two hours from the nearest town (Jacmel) over large rock boulders, up a steep climb. We discovered this place after consulting the regional medical board asking them to name the sickest, poorest and most neglected village. Upon arrival we treated endless crowds (mostly children) suffering from water related diseases and malnutrition. We presented the village with a Puride machine and trained them in its use. We saw many sick people recover, some as a result of the medical assistance we provided, some as a result of prayer and the laying on of hands. Their conditions were appalling, in every aspect. Our hearts broke for these people as we heard story after story of loss and suffering. The previous month, this village alone had lost more than 30 members due to starvation. Although they are hard working people and the soil is fertile, hurricanes wipe out a lifetime of work in a moment and leave them with nothing, and there is hardly enough water to keep everything going. There was mention of folks selling a son or daughter for the price of a meal in order to feed the remaining hungry mouths in the family. We saw many children that had no parents, and as I prayed I felt the Lord ask what I would do in response. A christian man was highlighted to me as a possible source of help to the situation. He had already opened His tiny home to take in three abandoned children, and was trying to care for them the best he could. After speaking together about the problem, he offered his land as a site to build a children home to care for the orphans. We funded the building of a 6 room home on his property, built by the locals. We saw the villagers come together and dream and plan as they took the future of their children into their hands. We stood back and watched them move from helplessness to become empowered and proud of this project. The children came. There are currently 7 kids in the home, 3 boys and 4 girls. The youngest is 4 yrs and the oldest is 8 yrs. In addition to the building funds we had beans and rice purchased for the first few months, these funds have now been used, and a local Haitian Christian church is attempting to help them. Our Haitian doctor friend who oversees this project has a huge heart for the kids but is an extremely busy man in high demand. There is a women who does the cooking and cleaning for the children, and also helps care for the goats and chickens we purchased for them. The children are involved in the local church.
The greatest need for the children is food. Most locals eat rice and beans. Fresh fruit, vegetables and meat are extremely rare and expensive. They also need clothes and medical supplies and toiletries. As they enter school, education for a child is about $100 p/yr. This includes uniforms, books and tuition. I've currently collected clothes, toys, toiletries and baby formula to send over with the next team to visit. Collectively, to feed, educate and clothe a child for a year would cost about $1000. They can and have survived on less but its our heart to bless these little ones with value and hope. When you ask many kids in Haiti about their future dreams, many look at you blankly. We desire for these kids to rise up as leaders who have vision for their village and nation. I would love to see more teams go and visit and play with the kids, teach them and love on them. They are extremely beautiful and thankful. If God is speaking to your heart to bless these guys it would change their future. They are worth it!!


Made for His Glory, forgiven by His Grace,

Eddie D. Roach

Burma

When we arrived in SE Asia we were not sure if it was worth the time and money to make a trip to Burma. It was difficult to get visas and last minute tickets. It was going to cost extra money, and we were tired of dragging heavy bags all over Asia. But if you can see the faces of the hurting you can't stop helping, YOU WONT STOP. Our team saw a window and God flung open the doors. In two days we had visas and tickets to Burma, for 3 days. An American contact was in Burma as a teacher for a week. He had welcomed us to come but we had lost contact with him once he was in Burma. His last contact was through his wife that only told us his Hotel and when he was leaving. We wanted to met his students and pastors in his classes. So they could learn about how to clean water and take it back to there villages. God got us through Customs with 6 Puride machines and many gospel tracks. When we arrived at the hotel we waited in the lobby for over 5 hours. I had concerns because he was not looking for me and I had not seen him in over 8 years. Then, as I gave up, walking outside I saw our contact. The only white person besides me. We met and he introduced me to the Pastor, who was organizing the school. After briefing him on the machines the Pastor asked if I could come with him to the orphanage to show the children the machine and fellowship. I said yes, and was introduced to my family in Burma. There were about 40 kids, from all ages, looking at me with eyes open and ready to hear from God. The eyes would blaze as I shared how God loved me, and they connected. Here in a country where singing to Jesus to loud or talking about him outside of the small building results in losing your church and home. Kids with no physical parents, no house to go to, are willing to worship Jesus at the risk of losing what little they have. After I spoke, I got the real gift...listening. Listening to there prayers. I still have one 11 year old girl infused in my heart, that prayed with such dedication and passion. It was like she believed God of the universe could hear her. When we were finished they wanted to take me to show there rooms. It was an open room with bamboo mats for beds. Someone had donated stuffed animals so they used them for pillows. I never saw so many teenage boys so proud of there "home". It brought tears to my eyes as a little boy smiled and showed me his bed. He grabbed my hand, looked at me, and gave me an even bigger smile. The kind of smile where your eyes get big and shine. "Why are you smiling?", I asked. He pointed to the middle of the room and said, "A few weeks ago we were all in our beds worshiping. Wind stared blowing and a glowing green cross floated through the ceiling into the middle of the room. Right here. We all saw it and then it disappeared in the morning." I asked him, "What does that mean." He said, "It means he cares about us." Of the 6 Puride machines 1 is cleaning their water today. 5 were taking to the Delta and are being used by Pastors. This Winter we are planing to take 10 more without being sure of how to get them in to Burma, because we care.


Made for His Glory, forgiven by His Grace,

Eddie D. Roach

Children's Water Festival

Todd, Cole and Owen Baldridge along with John and Mary Hays were in Des Moines, IA May 14 for the Children's Water Festival.

Cole shared their experiences of his trips to Burma and Nicaragua and showed the wonderful video that Marcia put together.

150 children heard his talk and all had a great time.

Sudan March 2009

All Plans Changed

The group, Covenant Church, Omaha, Nebraska asked me to go to Sudan in order to set a pump and chlorination system. No well was drilled and no central chlorine system could be set up.

I was left to test water in the refugee camp, including the United Nations compound and the Southern Sudanese Army compound. I traveled on motorcycle with Samuel one and Samuel two. My other water team's name was John, he became John one and I was John two.

Eight out of 10 wells and were contaminated. This lead to a training on how to make chlorine from salt, I am sure over fifty people attended and all wanted a system. I brought only eight. Each were given as a micro business with plans for reports on their activities. Up to three teams share one generator and lazy on site engineers will be replaced. Samuel one, age 23, a BO soldier since age 12 is over seeing the operation. He is a gifted leader.

Unexpected Army and Baptist Friends

We met with the Army commander. I gave him a handful of Bibles and offered to make their water safe to drink. He showed us a well that was not working because of a bad pump. He indicated the Baptist church installed this, he asked us to fix it. We went to the Church and interrupted a prayer meeting among the pastors. We asked their help on the repairs. They said to return later to talk with the well driller who lived with them and he would help. They said they were praying for Bibles for the army camp. I told them they have a handful and they asked for more for the entire group of 100.

We offered what Bibles we had.

The well was fixed and every soldier and family now have Bibles, an answer to prayers.

The Church also has started 14 churches, we have set up at least for one new church to have clean water. Also, a class of 29 pastors were being taught at the Church as they being prepared to enter service as pastors all over Africa. I taught them on water purification, each one wants a chlorine generator for their villages. Plans are under way to provide each one by July, 2009, plus another 20 for the surrounding 400 villages to share. Even the top Army general wants them for their Army.

I heard a baby cry into the night. The people live in a refugee camp with nothing. The child had a stomach ache from drinking bad water. I checked with the doctors and the Bishop, they said this is common. The village is 10,000 and there are 400 more villages close by. I did all I could to stop this child from yelling pain songs into the otherwise silent night and thousands more.

John Hays