"Ser para servir"

Today we were supposed to demonstrate the purifier for some people at the university, but it didn’t happen because they were in meetings or something like that. So instead Arturo and I put together a spreadsheet of the investments we’ve already put into the project, the fixed and variable costs of operation, and the profit that will be made. We can purify 1000 liters at a time and a maximum of 4000 liters a day. That’s 50 to 200 20-liter bottles every day, at a price of 3 pesos each, which means a profit of 150 to 600 pesos a day. Less the variable and fixed costs of the electricity, the water, the salt, the cost of labor, and a reserve for repairs, the net profit will be somewhere in the ball park of 50 – 250 pesos per day ($3-18). We also calculated that EDGE and the donors to my project will have put in $2250 once the system is installed. $770 has been spent to set up the water and electricity utilities in the little house where we will install the system, which I think Arturo and Maria have paid for. The Universida Marista has or will put in $1300 (salary for Arturo, professional tests of the water, and installation expenses). The women who will be purifying the water can make a little bit more money working in their usual jobs as domestic workers, so they will be giving up about $830 over the next year. And finally, Centre College (and me) has invested about $1200 in airplane tickets and paying for me to stay with Arturo and Maria. So that makes a total of $6360 already invested in this project! It’s kind of neat to step back and take a look at the big picture of how many different parties are invested in this project and how we are all coming together to make it happen.

I’ve also been thinking today about the Universidad Marista’s slogan, “Ser para Servir,” which means, “to be in order to serve.” The more I do this kind of work, the more I am sure of the fact that it is my vocation to serve and to serve totally. I can’t imagine myself working in an office every day and I don’t want to imagine myself doing the same, mundane task for the rest of my life. And I especially don’t want to find myself working for the sole reason of lining someone’s pockets – my own included. The kind of work I am doing here invigorates me, it makes me come alive. Working for and with EDGE Outreach has fulfilled me like nothing else has ever come close to. And I know God has equipped me with the skills, the intelligence, and the opportunity to earn a degree from Centre College for a reason – for His reasons.

I can’t wait to see what adventure He has in store for me next.