by Sue Edison–Swift

It was a (Peruvian) mountaintop experience. The extended family — farm families, local partners, and staff from Lutheran World Relief and the ELCA World Hunger Appeal — gathered to celebrate a hope–filled reservoir. "I brought the children here today," the community’s schoolteacher explained, "to see what their parents and so many others are doing for their future."

For me, the image of justice rolling down like waters has always been powerful and noisy — like a tumbling waterfall or a surging river. A recent visit to projects funded by the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, though, blessed me with a new, powerful, and quiet image to pair with this text.

In November 2006, Kathryn Sime, director of the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, and I found ourselves high on a mountain in Peru — some 9,000 feet above sea level. We were up there with our Lutheran World Relief partners and hosts, a gathering of farm families from the mountain, school children and their teacher, and representatives from local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

We were there to see a project that will irrigate 30 hectares (74 acres) of land planted with quinoa, a high–protein grain cultivated since ancient times. It had taken some effort to get to this place, a 10–hour drive from Lima, often on tracks only loosely recognizable as roads, followed by a long walk on a mountain path to the project site. That high–altitude walk offered a physical illustration of the global mission ideal of accompaniment. One or two staff people from San Javier, a local NGO, always had my arm. These companions, and all who walked behind me, adopted my slow pace. When I needed to stop and catch my breath, the whole group stopped and took in the view as though such pauses were on the schedule.

For the past three years, drought has caused the quinoa crop to fail. But now, with the promise of irrigation, the community hopes that this season will produce three bountiful crops instead of one. Sixty families came together to share the labor of building the system and to share the land and its fruits. These families, along with an association of local NGOs and an investment of $7,000 from the ELCA World Hunger Appeal through partner Lutheran World Relief, came together to make this life–affirming effort happen.

We gathered around the nearly ready 33,000–gallon reservoir. A hand-dug trench ran down along the mountainside, housing a flexible hose that will carry the water from the reservoir. Orange tubes stick up from the trench at regular intervals, ready for the sprayers that will shower water across the fields.

It was a celebratory moment. The air itself seemed rich with hope, thankfulness, joy, and expectation. Elias Fernandez Quispe was chosen by the community to speak to us. "Thank you for working together with us. Thank you for being a part of this project with us. We will care for this investment... like a bank."

It never occurred to me to wonder how the reservoir would be filled with water, but some questions are answered before they’re asked. Pedro Veliz Marquez, one of our LWR hosts, pointed up and said, "You should take a picture of the spring." Quickly realizing how unlikely it would be for me to get to where he was pointing, I tried to hand him my camera. "No," Pedro said. "You should take a picture of the spring."

Before anyone had a chance to think better of the plan, I found myself hoisted four or five feet straight up and carefully placed on a level patch of ground.

And there it was. The Little Spring That Could. This unassuming little oasis will quietly, steadily, faithfully fill a 33,000–gallon reservoir that will in turn irrigate 74 acres of quinoa fields, growing more crops and bringing a better present and future to 60 families.

It’s justice rolling down like waters, like an ever–lowing stream.

Sue Edison–Swift is communication director ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.

See photos from this visit at www.imageevent.com/elcahunger/peru.

To learn more about ELCA World Hunger, go to www.elca.org/hunger.