Greenville Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 15)

Non-Profit Hydromissions PHOTO COURTSEY OF JENNIFER LORCH life, and you’re still going to die.” But he house at 403 Hill Lane bringing clean drinking water to in Mauldin, S.C., Carolina those who have never had it, or to looks pretty normal from those who walk miles each day for it, the outside. Pull up the garage door, provides a platform for talking about though, and you won’t find a car or the Holy Spirit. an SUV. Instead, you’ll find a soap The idea for Hydromissions factory. “We can make 700 bars in a came to Steve about five years ago. day,” says Jennifer Lorch. Jennifer and Steve, a surgical nurse, went to the her husband, Steve, manage the soapDominican Republic to help out making operations. Jennifer got started after checking out a book from the library about soap-making. On just about every Saturday, volunteers show up to help Jennifer and Steve pump out hundreds of bars with global names like Moroccan Moonlight and Peruvian Pumice. Once it’s manufactured, the soap is sent to dozens of stores (including big names like Whole Foods and 10,000 Villages) in 17 states, where an average of 300 bars are sold each week. By the end of the year, the Lorches hope to be sending the soap to 20 states. But it’s not the thought of sales projections or profit margins that’s motivating this couple. It’s the thought of what that money can Hydromissions helps bring soap and fund. Much of it pays for clean water to people worldwide. trips. Not extravagant ones to the Bahamas or the French Riviera. These trips are to some of the most remote areas at a medical clinic. “We saw 800 of some of the poorest countries in patients in three days and 85 percent the world. Their organization is called of those patients had problems that Hydromissions, and their goal is to were water-related,” he explains. provide clean drinking water to those “We were treating a lot of symptoms who don’t have it, while sharing the but not the core of the problem.” Christian gospel. “I would say the Steve and Jennifer started looking at biggest thing for us is keeping the the problem in a very practical way. focus on Jesus Christ,” Steve says. They knew the people that didn’t “You can drink clean water all your have access to clean water didn’t have T money to pay for equipment or the knowledge to keep it running. “As we’ve traveled all over the world, what we look at is what’s available. And that’s not much,” says Steve. “We like to say, necessity and poverty are the mother and father of invention.” Using sets of 100-year-old encyclopedias as research tools, Jennifer and Steve started inventing pumps and drills out of bicycle parts and cheap items you might find at Home Depot. “The main piece will actually fit into two 40-pound backpacks that you can check onto a plane,” explains Jennifer. “You can walk off the airplane and drill a well down to 50 feet.” In just five years since the organization formed, Hydromissions has worked with close to 100 agencies in 30 different countries. Missionaries and organizations find them on the Internet or through word of mouth. Steve says a couple of groups in Africa found Hydromissions through a Reuters news article the Lorches never knew existed. Steve and Jennifer would love opportunities to speak in more churches. “We try not to bore people with long missionary stories,” says Steve. “We really want them to know there’s a group called Hydromissions that can help your missionaries in the field.” Even though the Lorches have made dozens of trips to foreign countries, feedback is rare since they serve such remote areas where Internet access is non-existent and communication is spotty. But the Lorches are convinced it’s working. They recently received an update about a remote area in Kenya they visited back in 2006. In the Masai tribe, 300 students attended class for half the day. Then the students had to leave to fetch water. With the help of Hydromissions, the Masai installed a well at the school site. “As a result they have 600 students attending JULY 2008 | GreenviLLe MaGazine 15 PROfile

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Greenville Magazine - July 2008

Greenville Magazine - July 2008 Contents Editor's Letter My Greenville Alone At Last Watercooler Romance Greenwood Tourist in Your Own Town One-Tank Trips In The Lead Keeping Students In-State After Hours From the Pros A Look Back Walk this Way If These Walls Could Talk Viewpoints Attorneys The Bulletin Around Town Parting Words

Greenville Magazine - July 2008

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