Suited up!

Yes, this is me---Becky. Director of Living Water. United Way began their fund raising campaign this month and since we receive United Way funds, we were asked to help speak at all of the businesses to raise awareness. This week, we have been speaking at Conoco Phillips. In order to go to all of the areas of the plant, we had to suit out in this. I wasn't alone...there were four of us and we were asked a few times if we were part of a chain gang somewhere.
I'm so amazed as I walk around the plant. It's HUGE! Whoever thought of how to make that plant work is a genius--as are the people who keep it working. There are pipes everywhere. It also made me realize I don't pray enough for the men and women who work out there. I'm sure it would be a dangerous place to be if they weren't so safety-conscious.
But those same men and women have been very generous in their giving. So thank you to all of you who have given towards United Way and in turn, helped us.

Living Water Craftsmanship

We have some really talented men who volunteer at Living Water. I just wanted to showcase some of their handiwork.

Larry Barnes made this business card holder for Living Water. Can you believe he even cut out each letter?

Jess Bonner made this nameplate for me. I was thrilled when he brought it to me!

Larry Rider handcrafted this cross. It starts with the birth of Jesus at the bottom of the cross and works it way up to the ascension. It is just incredible!

We are very proud of the craftsmanship of our volunteers.

New floor coming!

Living Water is about to take on some updates in our chapel. Right now, that room is covered in commercial carpet. But because of the many spills on the carpet and the cost of carpet cleaning, we've decided to go to wood flooring. We had a rough estimate of $1500 to lay the flooring--before we knew how many feet we actually had in that room. But when we got the final bid, it's going to be about $1000 more than we'd estimated. We hope to get the flooring laid before winter gets here. If you'd like to be a part of this project, just contact us. It's going to make a huge difference in our ministry. This will be our new flooring. We're excited!

Friday is Food Day

On Fridays at Living Water, we give food to families in Hutchinson County. Today, we served 52 families. We have a great group of volunteers who spend part of the morning filling the grocery bags. During that time, we also have a chapel service. Today, Gib Welch preached after Cairl Horst and Roger Smith sang. Two people prayed to receive Christ today! Part of our philosophy at Living Water is to treat every person who comes with dignity. So our guys push the grocery carts out to the cars for our clients.

Cyndy Lyons & Jess Bonner taking carts to cars.

Mack Shirley

Larry Rider

Duane Snyder

While the guys are pushinging carts out to the cars, Arnie Torio, Gib Welch and Sandy West are refilling the carts.

George Nies pushes a cart while Dennis Hood calls numbers. It's a very orderly process.

David West

Cairl Horst

Larry Barnes

Kelvin Hall
In a matter of minutes, every family has been served.

Thursday

Thursdays are busy at Living Water. We usually get a truck in from High Plains Food Bank, but there's always one week a month that we don't get a delivery. Today was that day. But the guys still show up to fill our grocery bags, rearrange food, and drink coffee.

This is Larry Barnes looking at the camera. He's a snowbird, so he'll disappear from here in a few months.

Closest to the camera is Jess Bonner. He's a recent volunteer that has jumped in with both feet. Gesturing with his hands is Larry Rider...also a snowbird. He's leaving sooner than Larry Rider. We won't see him til Christmas. He's leaving next week.

From left to right: Larry Barnes, Larry Rider, Mack Shirley, Jess Bonner, Gib Welch, George Snider (another resident clown, as you can see!), Cairl Horst, George Nies, Gracie Boyett & Betty Terry. We wouldn't have a food ministry without these folks!

Today was also the kick-off luncheon for United Way. We invited our board and their spouses to join us there. These are 2 of the spouses. Andy Dietz & Les Sharp.

From left to right: Mary Jean Nies, Suzanne Coffey, Andy Coffey (vice-president of board), Melanie Sharp (board member).

From left to right: Burton Williams (secretary of board), Dennis Hood (board member), Marietta Hood, George Nies (board member).

Again...Marietta Hood, George Nies & Mary Jean Nies.

Melanie & Les Sharp and Burton Williams

Jay Ricci was the guest speaker at the luncheon.

Becky Dietz & Living Water's rock--the rock was donated by Andy Coffey.

We had to have a rock that had our agencies name and "rock solid" on it. Andy Dietz painted this graffiti on the rock for me at 9:00 last night! 150 points to Andy! It's been a great day!

Wednesdays at Living Water

Wednesday is one of my favorite days here at Living Water. When I get here, Gib, George & Cairl have already done a day's work by pulling stock from the shelves to fill the grocery bags. (And these guys just think they're retired!) And also by the time I get here, they're usually sitting at this table, drinking coffee. They are hard workers! Gib keeps a well-organized food pantry for us and knows exactly what we have at all times and exactly what we need to order. We give groceries to an average of about 60 families per week. And did I tell you that we're on target to give away 71 TONS of food this year??

We also get our food list from High Plains Food Bank on Wednesday mornings. We buy our food from them at $.16/lb. Gib looks over the list and decides what we need to fill our bags. By the way, we're always in need of grocery sacks! When you go to the grocery store and they say, "Paper or plastic?" we hope you'll think of us and say, "PAPER!"

Cairl usually scoots out of here first because he usually has babysitting duties (he's a wonderful granddad!), so I didn't get his picture this morning. I'm so grateful for these guys. Gib does a great job of keeping our food organized and he's lots of fun---he always has a joke handy. And he's doing a good job of training George and Cairl. The thing I love about the group of men that helps us is that they have an open-door policy---any new volunteer is welcome and quickly finds their place to help. We'd love for you to come join us!

Tuesday is our Clothing Day

Janice & Sandra begin our morning registering shoppers.

They are the first friendly faces you'll see on shopping day.


Gracie is a volunteer who also helps with repackaging our bulk food.


Sharon stepped up to help in our clothing room when our clothing director, Zella, had back surgery.


Gracie & Betty make quite a team. They can work circles around the rest of us!

Betty keeps us all laughing. She's a fun person to have around!!

Gracie arranging those cute girls' clothes.

We have happy volunteers!

Some days, the clothing all comes in at once. That would be a problem if we didn't have such efficient help. These ladies keep a tight-running ship here at Living Water.

Carol is adding a prayer request to our prayer board here at Living Water.

You can see how well-organized our clothing room is. Cindy helps keep it that way.

Carol is sorting pants. (We always need men's jeans at Living Water.)

We always have room for more volunteers

...happy volunteers--like Cindy, Betty & Gracie!

The Founding of Living Water

Living Water Benevolence, Inc. was incorporated in September of 2002. The ministry was conceptualized by First Baptist Church of Borger, TX. Being over the benevolent ministry of this church, Andy Dietz, minister to students, saw the need for a place where people could go for help instead of going from church to church to get the help they needed. Andy took his vision to the deacons of First Baptist and Conny Moore, the owner and pharmacist of Moore's Pharmacy, became the man who birthed the ministry into fruition. From the beginning, their desire was to get as many churches in Borger as possible involved in the ministry.
Many people gave to get the ministry started. Maxine Stuller donated the building on 4th & Main and the church took on the project of restoring the building for Living Water's use. The doors were opened for ministry in October of 2002. Vonna Humphries was the first Executive Director of Living Water. Dru Grogan began donating his time as the director of the food pantry. This was a perfect fit since he had been the manager of the local United Supermarket.
Vonna Humphries resigned in February of 2007 and Becky Dietz became the new Executive Director. Dru has gone to be with the Lord, but trained Gib Welch who is the current director of our food pantry.
As of September 2009, the Board of Trustees consists of:
Clarence McDaniel, President
Andy Coffey, Vice President
Burton Williams, Secretary
Bill Sizemore, Treasurer
Dennis Hood
Melanie Sharp
George Nies
As of 2009, there are 9 churches involved in supporting Living Water:
Bunavista Baptist Church
Cornerstone Church
Fairlanes Baptist Church
Faith Covenant Church
Fellowship Baptist Church
First Baptist Church
Fortress Baptist Church
Keeler Baptist Church
Riverview Baptist Church
Living Water also receives funds from Hutchinson County United Way.