Little Juan and the Magic Filter
If you had to evacuate your home on a moments notice, what would you take with you? Juan realized he had forgotten something very important when he fled the floods with his family. He decided to go back—and he helped many families because he did.
He needed to go back to his flooded house to get one thing
Juan thought hard about what to do next. He and his sons had escaped the floods by hiking to the mountains above his town.
Their situation was dire. He knew he had to go back through the floodwaters to his house and bring back something his family needed. Their lives might depend on it.
Juan was one of thousands of Hondurans who had to flee their homes In November of 2020. In the middle of the Covid pandemic, Honduras also had to deal with two massive hurricanes.
Clean Water for Flood Victims
Pastor René Arellano lived in neighboring Costa Rica and was in contact with pastors he knew in Honduras when he learned about the devastation. In the weeks afterward, Pastor René also learned that the city water systems had been decimated. People were drinking water from the dirty rivers and getting very sick.
As part of the Living Water Project, Filter of Hope shipped 400 filters to Honduras and in late January, Pastor René went to help with the distribution.
When he arrived, he found families in dire conditions, even living in the median of four lane roads. His heart broke for children begging for coins on the streets.
Four churches worked with Pastor René to distribute the filters. While the filters don’t help in the rebuilding directly, they provide clean water to reduce sickness, improve the health of families and neighbors, and give strength and hope for the rebuilding process.
Hopefully, many will also find that Jesus can give them lasting hope and peace.
He Decided to Go Back
During the distribution, Pastor René met Juan, a short man with a big heart, and heard his distressing story.
“The day the city was flooded, the waters started rising in our house in the middle of the night. By 3 A.M. I decided to leave the house and get to higher ground in the mountains despite the storm and darkness (the city had lost power). I had to save my children.”
After sunrise he decided to go back and see what he could save from his belongings at the house.
But it wasn’t valuables that concerned him—at least not the usual kind.
“The thing I knew I needed most was the water filter.” More than a year earlier, a Filter of Hope team had visited Juan’s house in Urraco Pueblo and given his family a water filter.
Juan made his way back home, partly walking and partly swimming.
“When I got inside, I looked and looked in the muddy waters. It took some time, but I finally I found it!”
Juan Performed “Magic” for Many Families
When he returned to the mountains, he was able to not only give his own family clean water, but many others who were also stranded by the floods. “Everyone was amazed to see muddy dirty water become clean water.”
They called him “little Juan with the magic filter.”
Pray for places that need clean water, especially during crises. The “magic” filter the families receive will not only provide clean water now, but also for the next 10 years.
Juan would be the first to tell you the filter is not magic, but it’s a prized possession for every family who receives one—in good times and bad.
Clean water + the gospel
Write the next story.
One $50 filter gives a family clean water and a chance to hear about Jesus, the Living Water.
