Samaritan’s Purse worked with local churches—establishing water points on their properties—to provide clean water for hurting communities and strengthen the ministry of local congregations.
Years ago, when Milton Heredia was a cartel member, he might have seen the devastation of Acapulco as a “business” opportunity. Hurricane Otis left people vulnerable, and gangs prey on the desperate.
Pastor Milton Heredia served the people of Acapulco in Jesus’ Name in the wake of Hurricane Otis.
But now, a decade into his new life—“10 years walking together with God”—Pastor Milton sees the hurting people of Acapulco with compassion and concern. When he realized their needs in the wake of the storm, he quickly wanted to provide them clean water.
Families had been sleeping outside because of the heat for weeks. Gathering swarms of mosquitoes had also invaded their homes due to standing water throughout coastal Guerrero State. Stores were shut down. And the price of clean water had skyrocketed.
“They were charging double or more to buy water,” Pastor Milton said.
This was when he saw an opportunity to show the love of Jesus to the people of his neighborhood.
So, the pastor borrowed a car and drove three hours away to bring back a gasoline generator and about 16 gallons (60 liters) of fuel. When he returned, he powered up his well pump and invited the neighborhood to enjoy his water for free—and charge their phones.
“We were pulling water from the well and giving water to all the neighbors,” he said. “We were pouring water to this side, to this side, to this side. And we were charging phones and lamps for people. We worked [the generator] three hours, let it rest for one hour, turned it on again, three hours.”
Turning Around to See God at Work
Then he met a team from Samaritan’s Purse.
Pastor Milton was zipping through Acapulco on a motorcycle, with a chainsaw slung over his shoulder. He’d been cutting away fallen trees from around his church and neighborhood and was returning the saw to a friend downtown.
Families gather water at a local church in Acapulco where we established a water collection point.
“I remember thinking, ‘Why are five Americans walking in the street downtown with orange shirts on,’” he said. Then, he said, he heard from God to turn around.
“You know how the Lord speaks to your heart sometimes?” he said. “He spoke to my heart and said ‘turn around.’ And I pulled over and I said ‘Do I have to turn around?’ Again He said, ‘Turn around.’
“I turned around.”
Closer in he recognized the logo on the five orange shirts, because he’d seen a Samaritan’s Purse commercial a year before.
“I asked them what they were doing in Acapulco. I told them I am a pastor of a church,” he said. Then Pastor Milton described what was happening in his community and about the water situation. “One of them said, ‘OK, Give me your number. We are coming to your church tomorrow.’”
The pastor didn’t realize the man that God had led him to was part of our water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) team working to establish water points at local churches. By then, Samaritan’s Purse had been working in the coastal region for a couple of weeks.
What our team didn’t realize was what an operation Pastor Milton already had going with that single gasoline generator, his well pump, and a long hose he’d rigged with multiple spouts. They were also surprised to see the church had lost its roof.
Samaritan’s Purse provides clean water to communiities in the wake of natural disasters or other calamities, saving many lives and preventing waterborne illness, especially in young children.
Within days of their meeting, Samaritan’s Purse replaced the roof with heavy duty shingles, and on top they installed multiple solar panels. They replaced the older well pump with a state-of-the-art version along with a reverse osmosis filtration system—all wired to the solar panels and powered by the sun.
“Now you have infinite water,” said Mike Morningstar, our WASH engineer. “Now your community has clean water for a very long time.”
They ran the water to a metal stand with faucets so that multiple people at once can fill jugs and jerry cans for their families.
Pointing to the Living Water
The water has made the church a bright light in the community.
“We have had people accept Jesus when they come to get water,” Pastor Milton said. “We can use this blessing to bless others and encourage them to come to the feet of the Lord. If they don’t have a church, we tell them they can come here. But they don’t have to. We just encourage them to go to church somewhere.
Clean water provides opportunities to point people to the Living Water, our Lord Jesus Christ.
“We just want to let the light of the Lord shine in people’s lives. It’s a hard moment right now, and now we have plenty. Thousands of liters. So, we just give to people freely as God gave to us.”
Feb. 9 of this year marked a decade since Pastor Milton gave his life to Jesus Christ and left the cartels. Some in his community are a bit perplexed by the generosity shown them in the wake of Otis. But the pastor has a simple answer that goes back decades.
“People might ask why are the Christians doing that? Giving water away for free?” he said. “I spent 20 years of my life with money. Cars. Doing drugs. I hurt a lot of people. But it was a fake life. Sin is a pleasure for a moment. But that’s it. Just for a moment. I threw 20 years into the garbage.
“I don’t have much money now, but He is always faithful. My children always have food on the table. And this has been the best 10 years of my life. It was Feb. 9, 10 years ago, that I prayed. I remember it as clear as the water. ‘Lord, if you exist, just help me. Hear my prayer, help me.’ And I said, ‘Just grab my hand and don’t let me go back.’
“He has been faithful. That is why we are doing this,” Pastor Milton concluded. “That is why it is a pleasure to do this work. I am thankful to all my brothers and sisters at Samaritan’s Purse for what they did for us in this hard situation.”
During our Hurricane Otis response from Oct. 2023 to February of this year, Samaritan’s Purse sent over 180,000 pounds of relief aboard four airlifts to Acapulco. We distributed more than 238,000 pounds of food, including hot meals. Serving through local churches, teams handed out over 12,000 shelter kits; more than 8,000 solar lamps; more than 10,000 household water filters/buckets; over 1,400 hygiene kits; and more than 480 cooking kits. We established 10 solar-powered water points at church sites throughout the city to provide communities with access to clean water. We also deployed four FreshSpring systems. In addition, Samaritan’s Purse teams tarped more than 200 homes and provided new roofs to dozens of churches. We praise God for the work He did in these hurting communities. Almost 400 people prayed to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
