Living Waters for the World featured
in 2008 VBS curriculum

by Bill Williams

When the hymnist William Cowper wrote, “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform,” he could well have been talking about how a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) vacation Bible school theme on the rain forests of Peru wound up linking so neatly with Living Waters for the World.

“An amazing story worth telling — one of the many that seem to surround this project,” LWW administrator Steve Young called it.

The theme for PCUSA's planned 2008 VBS curriculum is "Rainforest Adventure: A Tree Top Bible Blast," which is set in Peru. The curriculum is expected to be used by some 1,500 congregations across the denomination.

In one of those coincidences in which God seems to be pulling the strings, Young and Joanie Lukins of Danville, Ky., chief designer of LWW's health and hygiene education teaching materials, had been discussing ways to promote the water mission's own VBS curriculum, called “Clean Water for All God's Children.” They decided to ask the denomination's educational office in Louisville to help promote the project by placing a reference to LWW's curriculum in the PCUSA catalog of educational materials.

“During the call,” Young said, “they mentioned that they were one week away from having to send the publisher of the Rainforest Adventure curriculum (Augsburg Fortress) specific information about a Presbyterian mission project that could be tied to the curriculum. They had not yet been able to nail down anything that was a good fit, and adding to the challenge was the fact that the Rainforest Adventure theme is set in the country of Peru.

“Imagine how they reacted when I shared with them that, just weeks ago, the first two LWW clean water systems were installed in Peru!”

So it was decided. The Rainforest Adventure curriculum will use LWW as its mission example. Mrs. Lukins hastily prepared a two-page promotional piece for the denomination’s information guide, and two initiating partners in the Peruvian water projects, William Milam of Knoxville, Tenn., and Maggie Hendrix of Dunnellon, Fla., (whose teams trained at the April 2007 session of Clean Water U) are providing photos of their recent trips.

As the featured mission of the denomination's VBS curriculum, LWW will receive any contributions that come from use of the curriculum in vacation Bible schools across the nation. In addition, part of the suggested use of the curriculum will be to show the new LWW video, which also uses the name, “Clean Water for All of God's Children.”

“Please join us in giving thanks for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon Living Waters for the World,” Young said.