Beyond The Plate – A Podcast by Food For The Poor
Food isn't just delicious... it can also change your life! Tune into Beyond the Plate, a new podcast presented by International Charity: Food For The Poor. Get inspired with conversations that nourish the soul. Hear amazing stories of transformation from faith influencers, leaders in the nonprofit sector, and the individuals receiving aid in the 15 countries of Latin America that Food For The Poor serves.
Beyond The Plate – A Podcast by Food For The Poor
Ep.19 - World Water Day: When Water Flows, Life Grows
Mike Mantel, President and CEO of Living Water International, shares his remarkable journey from installing sprinkler systems in California to addressing the global water crisis through physical and spiritual transformation in partnership with Food For The Poor.
At the heart of Living Water International's mission, called "Misión Integral"—the powerful interplay between physical water and the living water of the gospel delivered through local churches. When communities gain access to clean water, children can attend school, women spend less time collecting water and face fewer safety risks, and health improves dramatically. In other words, WHEN WATER FLOWS, LIFE GROWS. More profoundly, when local churches facilitate these water projects, they become more visible and relevant in their communities, delivering living and literal water.
The transformation extends beyond individual lives to entire communities. In Honduras, families once paying thousands of dollars annually for trucked water now pay just hundreds for maintained systems, freeing up resources for education and nutrition. Churches that once competed now collaborate for community good. In addition to water flowing in communities, so does the Gospel message.
Want to be part of this life-changing work? Join us in supporting Food For The Poor and our partner to bring both physical and spiritual water to communities in need.
foodforthepoor.org/waterday
@living_water
#livingwater
Beyond The Plate is a podcast by international charity, Food For The Poor
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This is the one that strikes me, because I've got nieces and nephews, danny's got two small children, one in five. One in five. Children like access to basic water. And here you are now part of Living Water International in the Integral Ministry, or Misión Integral. All right, did I? Perfect, we're good. That was pretty good. I was going to get Danny to help us with some Spanish lessons. If I didn't get it? No, right, did I? Perfect, we're good.
Speaker 2:That was pretty good.
Speaker 1:I was going to get Danny to help us with some Spanish lessons if I didn't get it. No, man, that was perfect, you're fine Welcome to Beyond the Plate I'm Paul Jacobs where food is more than just a meal. It's a powerful way to connect, inspire and transform.
Speaker 3:We call it Tertulia, a gathering where bonds are formed.
Speaker 1:Get ready to dive into real stories that inspire, challenge and nourish the soul.
Speaker 3:I'm Daniel Patino, inviting you to join our tertulia and explore how food and connection can truly transform lives.
Speaker 1:Let's go Beyond the.
Speaker 3:Plate. All right, welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Plate. I'm Danny Patino. I am Paul Jacobs, that'sino. I am Paul Jacobs, that's right. Still are Paul. Jacobs, I still am Because it's season two of Beyond the Plate and I'm loving it just as much as our first episode, and if you haven't checked it out, please go ahead and check us out on YouTube, beyond the Plate, at Food for the Poor Beyond the Plate or your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 1:Do I have to give you another reminder?
Speaker 3:It's our podcast. It's your podcast platform, if you're seeing this. I want to start off with a cool note here. I wanted you to name just your favorite type of water. Oh, still Still water. Let me see Bubbly.
Speaker 1:Bubbly oh, there's ice water. We live in Florida. Are you doubling?
Speaker 3:down on water. That's still water. Water, yeah, but it's got ice in it. That's ice water. Okay, all right, that's fine. Oh, the one I used to drink when I was a kid from the hose a water hose, water from the water hose that gave me superpowers. I remember playing outside. Superpowers, yeah, I remember playing outside with my friends and then I would drink from the water hose and all of a sudden I get to catch the football a lot faster, throw it a lot farther. There's some superpowers in the water.
Speaker 1:That's right, because you couldn't track that mud in from outside to get the ice water.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I couldn't drink from the inside of the house because as soon as my mom saw me, she goes. You know what? Your room isn't as tidy as I thought it was before you left. All right, how about? It's just flavored water. Coffee is flavored water. It's kind of water for adults. I like to think about it. Yeah, let's see Another alkaline water.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's the expensive stuff that I don't buy at Costco.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the one where you put two AA batteries in some water and it gives you that power.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Wait, wait, Purified water for the babies right, You've got two little ones at home.
Speaker 3:Water for the babies right, You've got two little ones at home, that's right. I have two little ones that still need purified water once in a while, and it's great during hurricanes and here in South Florida we have a hurricane almost every other year and that purified water is something that we need. But just go ahead, grab your favorite cup of water tap sparkling or straight from the fancy fridge filter and join me in welcoming our guest on this special water day episode of Beyond the Plate. It's the man who probably knows more about H2O than anyone else we know the president and CEO of Living Water International, Mike Mantel. Mike, thanks for making a splash with us today.
Speaker 2:That's my last dad joke, that's it.
Speaker 1:Delighted, he wrote those himself he did.
Speaker 2:Clearly oh yes.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitress. Welcome, mike.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Paul.
Speaker 3:Great to be here and now. We've had our laughs now, but let's dive into your story, mike, and tell us about the early days of growing up in Modesto, california, and where you weren't just learning about water, you were literally, literally, delivering it to communities. Talk about let's talk about starting from the ground up.
Speaker 2:No, All right, Literally ground up Back in the day long time ago, Modesto, California, in the Central Valley. It's a farming community and it's dry, dry, dry and my dad was an immigrant and he got us to work every day putting in sprinkler systems. So it's hot, hotter even than in Florida. Here it got really, really hot and we'd get on tractors and trenchers and we'd put in PVC pipe, sprinkler pipe, Pipe, Sprinkler pipe and the only thing that sustained me was there was an arch in Modesto, the city arch, and it said water, wealth, contentment, health. And while I was sweating and I hated working for my dad, I was encouraged that what we were doing was transforming the lives of people right here in Modesto, California, that's right. So early on first grade, first grade through the first year in Modesto Junior College, I was putting in sprinkler systems. Wow, that's a first grade.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's a work ethic, because you know, we all have this blue collar dad story right, dad sold cars, dad painted airplanes and then dad installed sprinkler systems and got us to work. Early on, early on, early on, got us to work. That's amazing. So you leave Modesto, california, water, wealth, contentment and health and find yourself in a place with air conditioning.
Speaker 2:You remember that.
Speaker 3:Of course, for a great reason.
Speaker 1:This is interesting because I love your story. So you find yourself in a place where there's only one billionaire in town and that guy mentored you. Now, I actually have read about billionaires, but I don't know anyone personally or anyone that would mentor me. What was going on here with you after college that you jumped right into this amazing relationship with a billionaire?
Speaker 2:Well, the air conditioning is what got me out of California into college, because you know, when you look through a window from the outside to the inside, people are cool on the inside. That's right, you're hot on the outside. When you look through that window you'll see people of the opposite sex. That's right, Because you know as a young man, there's no girls digging trenches on the outside, so I wanted to get on the inside of these buildings. So the only way was to get educated.
Speaker 2:I had to go to college. I had to go to college and so, being a kid of an immigrant, I only heard of one school, and that was Calvin College. I don't know if anybody's of your listeners have heard of Calvin College, but I went there. I thought it was on the East Coast. That's when I discovered I need to learn a little bit about geography, because Michigan is not on the East Coast, michigan's only halfway from California. And I studied business because I wanted to be rich, because I didn't want to be digging trenches anymore, and my goal was to get a job for the owner and founder of Domino's Pizza.
Speaker 2:Now, this man is, and was, such an amazing genius, a business genius, so he didn't complete college. He wanted to be an architect, he wanted to be a priest, he wanted to be a baseball player. He wanted to be a priest, he wanted to be a baseball player, he wanted to be a number of things, but he ended up starting a little pizza store little, at the time there was one domino's pizza well and he discovered that if he put pizzas in boxes and got them to college students, they would pay money. Oh yeah, and so that one pizza store became three pizza stores. So you see, on the logo of Domino's Pizza there's three dots. Those are the three original pizza stores. And then over the years it exploded Thousands, thousands of pizza stores.
Speaker 2:Well, tom wasn't satisfied with just being a great business person. He wanted to develop real estate because he wanted to be an architect. He bought the Detroit Tigers because he loved baseball. He went on to develop the Ave Maria College in Naples, florida. He was a very creative man. I just was fortunate to get a job working for him. And he let us learn, he let us discover. And I started out on the vegetable cart. I thought I was hired because of my business acumen.
Speaker 3:No for your dicing abilities.
Speaker 2:I was hired because I put in sprinkler systems, wow, and probably he thought I knew something about vegetables so I was on the vegetable cart. But because there was so much going on, I got new jobs all the time. I got putting in the telephone systems jobs being a construction expediter job, the director of operations of a real estate organization. I got lots of jobs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but they all were similar to each other. That was outside jobs, outside Right.
Speaker 1:You had to be outside.
Speaker 3:That didn't sound like something in an office where it was air conditioning and you know pretty women walking around, things like that it always led you back outside, always outside, yeah.
Speaker 2:I kept trying to get cool yeah. But it always led you back outside, always outside, I kept trying to get cool, but I kept getting hot.
Speaker 1:Wow, all right. So while we're on the topic of outside, tom Moynihan, founder of Domino's Pizza, your mentor, hires you to do all these outside jobs. And then there comes a project that you have to purchase a windmill. Yes, and you met another interesting character in the story. I like to. When we talked earlier, I remember you know you were telling us some of these stories and it's like these acts right. And here's act two. Act two is this enters in this colorful windmill salesman by the name of Max Keller. Max Keller, tell us about Max.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to buy a windmill to put it outside of Tom Monahan's petting farm. You know he put together a farm. This is outside, right Outside.
Speaker 2:Not an indoor farm, yet Outside farm To teach kids that wheat produced pizza dough and tomatoes produced you know, tomato paste. And I just wanted to show kids that water came from the ground. So you know, if you open up a faucet you can't really see it, but if you put a windmill like the old farm windmills outside, you could see when that vane turns, that the water's coming up out of the ground and I thought, oh, that would be very educational. So how do you get a windmill right? We didn't have the internet in those days. So you start calling around who's got windmills? Two companies back in the what was it? The early eighties that had windmills, and one of them was owned by Max Keller. So Max shows up and he is tough and he's crusty.
Speaker 2:That's not what to be described, as he was a tough man and crusty and you know that was before we all got healthy and he would smoke cigarettes and I had an indoor office. I didn't spend any time in there, but we were in my indoor office he pulls out a cigarette. I just remember him smoking. I was just spend any time in there, but we're in my indoor office he pulls out a cigarette. I just remember him smoking. I was just looking at him and I'm like Max, I want to buy a windmill. Tell me about windmills. And he told me about the vein sizes and where they're used and it sounded very interesting to me and I said well, how much does one of those windmills cost? He said you'd probably get one for $11,957.
Speaker 3:That's specific, you're right, but for you, my man, $11,942.
Speaker 2:I have a special deal for you. But then I bought the windmill for the petting farm and I was talking to Max and I said, max, tell me a little bit about your dreams for your windmill company. And he said Mike, I got the best windmills in the world. He said you know, I've been to Senegal, west Africa, and they got lousy windmills. They're made in Argentina, he tells me. He doesn't know. My father-in-law was made in Argentina. So I'm just it might trigger me a little bit, I'm just listening to him. I said okay, max. He said you know what I'm going to do. He says I'm going to prove out my technology in that desert, in the Sahel Desert. In the Sahel Desert I'm going to string a line of my windmills across that desert because the desert has taken a mile a year of farmland from people. And then he swore and he said and I'm going to take back that desert for Jesus. It blew my mind. I'm still buying, I'm not smiling.
Speaker 3:I'm just listening right, Sure Wow.
Speaker 2:So I wrote him a little letter and I said Max, what do you mean? Water in the name of Jesus? And he told me his marvelous plans. So then of course he put the arm on me. He said but I need $15,000 to drill a water well in Senegal. And he says if you could get me some money to drill a water well, I'll put my windmill on top of that water well, and a story I'll tell you some other time. But we got a little money together. Okay, gave it to Max. Max says I'm going in two weeks. You want to come?
Speaker 1:He invites you to Senegal, okay.
Speaker 3:So the trust factor is high here. It's not like you thought you were going to give him money and then we never see Max again. You know you believe them.
Speaker 2:It's a good story and he was crusty. That's what I mentioned. We're taking this.
Speaker 1:Cinegolf to Jesus. It's like you would trust that guy I don't know, with a I'll probably trust him with a 35-foot pole or something, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, my windmill was up at the petting zoo so I knew it was real. It was real and I, you know, checked him out a little bit. But it was the passion, it was the vision, it was this we can take back this desert, right? I'm like I pick up the phone, I call my wife and I say there is a crazy man in my office. He's inviting me to go to Senegal. And he says we're going in two weeks and we're going to put up a windmill. And I said what do you think? She said you've always wanted to go to Africa. Why not Beautiful? And so you know, I got my boots on and my Serengeti sunglasses and my zip-off pants and I walked up that ramp, got on Air Afrique and then I was in Senegal about nine hours later.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. And then you know, you show up and this is the thing that we were fascinated by. You show up in Senegal, africa, with Krusty Max, and I hope he doesn't get upset that I call him Krusty Max, but you said it we love you, Max.
Speaker 2:You started it.
Speaker 1:You've got. Here's the scene it's a Muslim tribe, it's drillers from the UK. You've got a ex-Vietnamese colonel. You've got a ex-Vietnamese colonel and windmill guy Max. You've got the money from the pizza king of Ann Arbor, michigan, and you yeah, this is like the scene of the A-Team Right Minus the Mohawk and being Baracus. But I'm fascinated because this was this master strategy God had for you all along. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:And sometimes you can't see it in the present right. So I'm on an adventure. I'm traveling through the sands in an old blue Mercedes taxi cab, ancient right, and passing beautiful people. I'm out on the edge of what I knew. And then I discovered these communities, this drilling crew, max, the cast of character, paul, that you just described. And when the crew hit that water and it started gushing up the masthead, all the women started dancing and making these static noises, yeah, and the kids started running and laughing.
Speaker 2:And Krusty old Max I saw a different side of him. He started singing Hallelujah praise Jesus and all these little Muslim kids started following him saying Hallelujah praise Jesus. And then this Vietnamese colonel he was the country director for World Vision he gets up on a rock and he says this water was brought to you not by the God of the Madabu, but by Jesus Christ, and this water will save your life and the living water will save you forever. He says this in a restricted context. It was illegal to talk about Jesus, and he's telling the story because water and the living water were so integral. I'm watching this. It's a miracle because it's impossible, the cast of characters you just described. Nobody could come up with a strategy that says, oh, let's get the drilling crew from the UK and Max the Crushed, windmill, guy and the Pizza.
Speaker 2:Gang and some money. Let's pull it all together and let's change the lives of these 150 nomadic Muslim tribes. Nobody could think of that.
Speaker 3:No, you'd get 100 no's before a yes. No, it's not happening. It's not happening. I don't know.
Speaker 2:How to pull it off. Yeah, so that's when it really hit me, and I think this was divine intervention. This is a guy just loving me. I was just praying God, how's this possible? It's impossible. And you know, I was working for one of the smartest people I'd ever met, most creative people. I said to God I want to work for you because nobody could figure this stuff out, Nobody has a better strategy than you. And so I'm praying this quietly up on this little sand hill. And then it got personal, because I'm in that story. I'm a part of that story. I picked the windmill. You know I ran the organization that produced the resources to fund the well.
Speaker 2:I'm a part of that story and if I'm a part of God's story, then God must know me, he must see me. If he's inviting me to participate in what he's doing in the world, he must love me and I can take along my friends. We can go on adventures that'll change the world. Now that was compelling for me and I said I got home and I started praying, told Natalie, I said I'm going to work for God and I pray every morning. God, let me work for you. I want to work for you. You're the master strategist. There's nobody smarter, stronger, more competitive. I want to work for you. I want to work for you. You're the master strategist. There's nobody smarter, stronger, more compact. I want to work for you. And then, every time, something came my way.
Speaker 1:I said, well, I kind of like working where I'm working. Yeah, because this is the same guy praying that when he went to college he wanted to study business, because he wanted to be rich.
Speaker 3:Get out of that outside sprinkler business. I want to get inside. Okay, I want to get inside. But God says you want to get inside. Okay, I want to get inside.
Speaker 1:But God says you want to work for me. I'm going to choose where we're going.
Speaker 3:Okay, good, this is good.
Speaker 2:I like this. So a few things came my way. I kept saying well, later, later. But Natalie and I were at a little Bible study and we're learning about tithing 10%. You know, you go to the Old Testament. It's very interesting.
Speaker 2:Minimum, you should give 10% of your resources first to God. Then there's all kinds of other things you ought to give too. But we didn't have much money and we thought, well, we should give 10% of our first fruits of our business time. You know why don't we? I was 30. Why don't we give three years, 10% of our work life, to God while we're young? First fruits, let's go do ministry. I'll go work with World Vision if they'll have me. And the reason I said that is because Natalie told me one time she says you pray every morning that God will open a door and then you don't walk through that door. She said either stop praying for the open door or walk through that door when it's open. And so I like, okay, honey. And that's what led me to make a three-year commitment of 10% of my work life 35 years ago to serving the Lord, and I was hoping it would be with.
Speaker 3:Bear brews. Picture this You're brewing an incredible craft beer, but entering the non-alcoholic market feels impossible. Well, we're talking about too much cost, too much risk Sound familiar.
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Speaker 3:Their mobile tech lets you create non-alcoholic beer without losing that flavor. Your fans love Same beer, huge new market.
Speaker 1:Oh, and here's a game changer. All right, they recover the alcohol byproduct. You can use it to create seltzers, cocktails, you name it. More products, more revenue, bear.
Speaker 3:Brews Based in North Carolina. Bear Brews works with craft breweries like yours. Whether you're brewing 2,500 barrels or 200,000, that's a lot.
Speaker 1:They bring the tech to you. Want to test the waters? Oh, I see what you did there. They even do small batch trials to prove the market. No upfront costs, zero risk.
Speaker 3:So stop putting that non-alcoholic market and seltzers on hold. Bear Brews is here to help you grow without breaking the bank.
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Speaker 3:The mobile tech, the results, the partnership. I'm talking about Bearrewscom. The mobile tech, the results, the partnership. I'm talking about bare brews. Let's make your beer the next best thing. I'll applaud to that. Yeah, cheers to that dot com. That's v-a-r-e brews dot com now we're talking with mike mantel, ceo and president of living water. And, mike, let's get real here. Let's get real, all three of us have a latina wife at home very important fact very important fact, my, my uh.
Speaker 1:Nothing to do with world water day, but no no, no, but a very important fact, I know.
Speaker 3:I just want to highlight it. I'm getting brownie points as I say it. Um, my wife is from bogota, which is the capital of Colombia, ciudad de Guatemala, and we know Natalie has a background in. Argentina right and as Latino wives do their best, they can turn anything into a great opportunity. They can turn life on a dime you know, like our Chicagoans, with Walter Payton as a running back, he can turn left and right at just a turn of a dime. And like you, just, they got a special gift, did you just?
Speaker 1:call his wife sweetness, not at all.
Speaker 3:You just said that. Oh sorry. But, I'm pretty sure he says that to her all the time because of, like what you just shared with us, either you stop praying to God and open another door, and when God opens that door, you walk through it, walk, and when God opens that door, you walk through it, walk through it, and that led you into some amazing other opportunities. It did.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so one other little tidbit before we get to water. Back to water. Nana and I, when we got married, we wanted to be on our own. We didn't want to live with our families. I grew up in California. Of course she says we're never going to go live in California. She grew up in California. Of course she says we're never going to go live in California. She grew up in Chicago. I said we're never going to go live in Chicago.
Speaker 2:When I got the job opportunity to move to Chicago and work with World Vision in 1992, I said even Chicago, because I was off the plate, off the plate, it was beyond the plate. She said even Chicago. And so in Chicago we learned about organizing churches Latino churches, african-american churches, anglo churches. We invited churches to work together in the urban areas, in the suburban areas, to develop housing initiatives, to develop youth initiatives. We took Chicagoans and we brought them to Zambia when the HIV AIDS crisis was beginning to be visible and all these great Chicagoans started building a hospital in in in Kitway, zambia.
Speaker 2:And what I saw in Chicago was that people can cross the lines that divide us. We can cross ethnic, economic, geographic lines and the church is at the very center of that and that's what I learned over my 17 years in working out of Chicago and in the states around Illinois. But I always longed to see that first experience again, where water and the gospel would come together and transform the lives of people physically and spiritually. And so 16, 17 years ago that's when I was invited to Texas. So now I'm a Texan, I'm no longer a Chicago, I'm a Texan.
Speaker 3:I'm no longer Chicago, I'm a.
Speaker 2:Texan. Whoa, mike, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, we're down in the land of old Wow. So now I'm a Texan and we live in Water International for these beautiful 17 years.
Speaker 1:So you shift from Cold Lake Michigan to the heart of Texas, deep in the heart of Texas, and you end up seeing a literal sign in terms of bringing you back to this water that you wanted to be a part of at the stats. We're here with Mike Mantel from Living Water International commemorating World Water Day. Some very important statistics before I talk about the integral mission of the World Living Water International More than 820,000 people they are literally estimated to die each year due to water-related illnesses. 200 million hours Women are spending 200 million hours each day, not a year each day around the globe collecting water. This is the one that strikes me, because I've got nieces and nephews. Danny's got two small children one in five. One in five children like access to basic water. And here you are now part of Living Water International in the integral ministry or Mission. Integral, all right, did I Perfect? We're good. I was going to get Danny to help us with I Perfect.
Speaker 3:We're good, that was pretty good.
Speaker 1:I was going to get Danny to help us with some Spanish lessons. If I didn't get it, you're fine, but I love the mission statement. It is investing ourselves in the interplay of water and the gospel delivered through the church, so that the church becomes more visible, relevant in the lives of low income communities, communities so that they can make disciples Key. We're not just delivering water out of a well, like we did in Senegal, africa. There is something happening that's even deeper than that. Let me finish. It says caring about the quality of water, sanitation, hygiene, delivered in concert with the gospel of Jesus. So when we're talking to you about delivering living water, it literally is literal and living water. Amen.
Speaker 2:You know, when you go to the scriptures you see living water throughout the scriptures. You know the Bible begins with the water in the Garden of Eden. It ends with the water flowing out Garden of Eden. It ends with the water flowing out of the throne room of God. You know all of the interventions that we see throughout the Bible with the people leaving Egypt or baptizing water. Water is illustrative throughout the scriptures.
Speaker 2:I didn't come up with the name Living Water, clearly, you know it predated me by about, you know, 5,000 years. But Living Water, the interplay of the gospel, spiritual water and healthy water, physical water, is miraculous that when people have access to water they become healthy. Healthy kids can go to school, educated kids have a chance at developing their economies, at developing their economies. When water is close to a woman's home, she's safer than when she needs to travel out alone. Wars are fought over water. It's all the power of physical water. It's the fundamental first step in human development.
Speaker 2:Jesus came to share the good news of the kingdom of God, to heal the sick. So it is, in deed and word, integral, mission, mission. Integral is the interplay of both the physical and the spiritual water, and so when we pursue the Great Commission. We're sharing health and the gospel together. And when the church is at the very center of that, when the neighborhood looks over and the pastor or the priest or the central organizing woman of that church, when they are seen as the facilitator, the messenger, the guardian of that water point, the church becomes visible and wow, what's up, pastor? What's going on here? Well, we can tell the story of love. Well, we can tell the story of love. The local pastor can tell the story of love, the local parishioners, the local congregants can tell the story of love. And together lives change. They change physically, they change spiritually and through the church, they change socially. And it's a miraculous interplay. And so when we say living water, we mean both at the same time. Not one precedes the other, but together it is the full gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Wow, you know it's interesting. Before I kick it to Danny, the thing I can't get out of my head is you're here with us at Food for the Poor, where we are working with Living Water, international, impacting for Jesus, measuring outcomes, the church being mobilized, moving forward the kingdom of God, but you didn't once tell me how a well was drilled and how the water tastes.
Speaker 3:I find that fascinating Living Water International living up to the standards of the kingdom and how the water tastes.
Speaker 1:I find that fascinating Living water international living up to the standards of the kingdom and not the world system. I love that. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:We love working with food for the poor. You know your spirit, your strategy, your culture is lock Well, they're not lockstep with ours. We are aligned spiritually, sharing the same passion to provide pathways for people to move out of poverty and see transformed lives. That amazes me. How can two individual, independent organizations have the same spirit, the same strategy, the same focus? Only God, you know. When we see the physical and the spiritual water interrelated, I think God is moving his people to not only love God and love neighbor, neighbor here and neighbor there, not only to share the great commission of health in the gospel, but to do so with collaborative commitment. We can do this together. When we work together, the unbelieving world will see the love and unity of the body of Christ. People will follow Jesus just because we're working together and addressing very real needs and caring for people's transformation.
Speaker 3:I can see why he sticks with the company for double digits it's like it's not a three-year plan, four-year plan. You're 17 plus with it. And since we're talking about numbers with this Paul was just sharing with us with numbers, this staggering 700 million. 700 million people without safe water. It's enough to just make anyone feel overwhelmed Now. So where do you find the drive to keep going? I mean to push for another well, another community, another church partner. Seriously, do you drink extra coffee?
Speaker 2:or is it just pure determination? I drink a lot of coffee. I get up early, start my coffee early, go all day long, but it's overwhelming when you look at the global challenge. But across the world, you can shrink to a country and across the country you can shrink to a district or a region and across a district you can focus in on a community and within a community you could focus in on a number of churches who have members right. So unless we link ourselves to a tangible, step-by-step process, it is overwhelming.
Speaker 2:But here's the secret the church of Jesus Christ resides everywhere. That's true. The Spirit of God proceeds, encourages us and follows us. But for the Church we would run out of energy, we would run out of money, we would run out of that passion. But we're just a part of God's effort to love people, to invite people into his kingdom and help them get a healthy life. We're just a part. We don't have to carry the whole thing. We just need to do what we do. And what we do is water, sanitation and hygiene through the local church in 17 countries. That's what we do, and we work in partnership with Food for the Poor Right. And that's what you do. You do more than water, but the water that you do with us is outstanding work and it's the first step.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's the first step. I have something to share with you. When the team was just recently in Honduras excuse me, el Salvador we met a father that just just started getting water in their community, right, and when he told us, he's like, yeah, we just got water. And it's like, oh, so what was the process? He goes no, we had to travel about an hour to a pond that was here and, of course, that water isn't the best. So for 24 years they were doing this same process, day in and day out, and it was like almost a family trip. As many containers as you can take is as much water you can bring back.
Speaker 3:When we got there, this father was showing us that now he had a shower in his home, he now had a toilet in his home, running water, and he even showed us all the ways he used to do it. And the containers were already filled up with dirt because they weren't looking at them anymore, they didn't need them anymore. But it was the excitement in his face, it was just the emotions that were going through, just showing off, like if he just got a new patio or a new grill or, you know, a new car, somebody. For him. It was finally I got water in my home. The safety factor just finally we're going to get water that's not going to make us sick every time we drink it. So the health factor there now our kids he was showing that, as now his nephew, they didn't have to go through this process like he did and his predecessors did. So, yes, water is an amazing, uh just just factor in in most of our lives now.
Speaker 3:And, and the fact that he was showing us that it was now telling me that now he's changing his life for the better. Now he can focus on other things like okay, now I don't have to worry about water every day, now I can worry about maybe getting a job, uh, educating my, my, my, future family, things of that sort. And it was just a heartfelt moment in that. And just those span of five minutes of him just going look, that's a shower, now, that's a bathroom. Now, now I get to drink water in my own home. Would you like some? And it's like it's that push that now they're going to be able to live just a healthier life and a correct life, but that story reminds me of Danny is that he was proud because he was a part of that solution that solution, one of the things that was so interesting to me over these course of these years, the plan that God had for your life, dating back to Modesto, california, in the spring.
Speaker 1:I think you were like the original Aquaman.
Speaker 3:I think they loosely based Aquaman's story on Mike.
Speaker 1:They just change it to Arthur, put him in the ocean, you know. But what is interesting to me is that through all of this, you had these, a community of your own. You had a community of your own, the Tom Moynihans, the Max Kellermans, the Max Kellermans you had men that were in your life at one point, that prayed in and advised you in to your next position. And you are here in this community.
Speaker 1:I'm sure, out of the 25 countries that listened to this podcast, the 270 over, probably over 270 cities where people are listening to this podcast, there are people with ways and means that could do a great work. As we commemorate World Water Day, as we restore communities together Living Water, international Food for the Poor they have a heart for children, with the last word here tell us a story. Give us a picture that brings it all home to the urgency and the need that not only the living water, the thriving community, the thriving church in the community, that it needs to be funded, it needs to be helped along. We cannot do this without that person. Give us a story that would bring it all home for us.
Speaker 2:It's similar to what I shared conceptually a moment ago, but I was in um was in Honduras. It was in Honduras, Chuluteca, and we were visiting. There's a big dry belt that runs up through Central America and it's one of the reasons people leave their rural communities and pursue life in the urban communities because it's so dry you can't make a living, you know. But there's water, there's aquifers under that, and I visited a village that was receiving the trucked water. They're paying like an individual family is paying about two grand a year, my God, On trucked water. And there was a an open uh pool that was part of a government project maybe 25 years prior.
Speaker 2:There was an old rusted tank up on the hill that was disconnected from the pool, and but then I'm walking through this village and I'm seeing all these galvanized pipes. It reminded me of my youth. They're all laying down there on the ground and in front of everybody's house was a little pressure tank, a little pot. People were growing vegetables. Kids were running through the kind of dirt, stony streets, but they were running in their school uniforms. They were happy. I said, well, what happened here? And then I still got the translation, because my Espanol is no bueno.
Speaker 3:Es bueno, bonito y barato.
Speaker 2:And they told me that in our partnership together, Food for the Poor and Living Water International, what we did is we put a settling pit in that old pond, which was a bunch of stones and some charcoal and some gravel.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:And that filtered out some of the larger stuff. And then we, along with the community, we ran a pipe from that pool up to that old tank and we had a bunch of volunteers and local community clean up that old tank and fix anything that's problem with it. Put a submersible solar pump in that pool Wow, solar pump, little screens on top. That was pumping water up the hill to that tank and every one of those families put together their. There was a partnership with a local foundation. They paid for the galvanized pipes coming off the hill and then every family tapped into that water pipe and brought water into their house. And I sat there and I said who organized this? Well, y'all did, and these seven church leaders.
Speaker 2:I said said you all worked together before. No, never worked together. Do you, do you hang out? No, no, everyone just had their own church. You know, they were competing with one another, of course, but they weren't hanging out, they weren't working together. So why are you working together now? Well, because we could affect change in our people's lives. And they all paid a small fee. Right, I think they were paying like $120 a year to keep all the maintenance working, versus $2,000 a year. Now imagine that $1,880 going into education, going into food, improved food. I was blown away. And our parts are relatively small because the resources are there. It's just working together and having a local church presence that can compel the community, encourage the community, sustain the community. Lives are changed Wow.
Speaker 1:Praise the Lord, I'm coining this. I like it. Bueno, bonito, maravilloso. No, that's beautiful, that's awesome. Well, mike Mantel, president and CEO of Living Water International, we are Aquaman, I'm claiming it. Dc Comics can come after me, but I'm claiming it. We've had just an amazing time as we commemorate World Water Day with you. But if you're a fan of Beyond the Plate and our second season, you will know that we always end on a positive note.
Speaker 3:Second season did you practice? You're a bass tenor now, aren't you? Yes, I think I'm a bass tenor. All right, good stuff.
Speaker 3:So is frank sinatra just a little quick note is sharing with your partners. Uh, so this positive note is from a pioneer and a subject matter expert in water. So he says, quote we forget that water cycle and the life cycle are one. Say it again we forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one. And he reminds us of the reliance on water and the need to respect its role in sustaining life. And that person is Chakusto. Wow, knew a lot about water. Yeah, he did. You are the land, chakusto.
Speaker 1:Outside. Well, Mike Mantell, thank you for being a part of Beyond the Plate. God bless you and we definitely look forward to hearing more of some of those Max Kellerman stories.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Paul. Danny, what a joy. Thanks for what you're doing Changing the world, letting people know what's important and you do it so well. This has been fun.
Speaker 1:Team Fistbump, team Fistbump, team Park yeah, thanks, mike.
Speaker 3:You bar. Yeah, thanks, you just went beyond the plate. Don't miss out on a chance to make a real difference. Folks follow us on instagram and tiktok at beyond the plate podcast and subscribe to our youtube channel.
Speaker 1:Stay connected by texting best bite to 51555 you're gonna get a cool link and we look forward to having you with us on the next episode of beyond the plate.
