The Journey Continues: Bruce Hinds
My journey this week took me to meet Bruce Hinds because my friend, Stan Finch, had been on a mission trip with him to Belize and suggested a visit. Finch said “he’s had an interesting journey,” I stopped in Athens to see and was glad I did.
During our time together Hinds shared that he wast the project coordinator for Hope Springs Water (HSW) Central America, which is an Athens nonprofit enterprise established in 2012. It is the vision of Dr. Ted Mettetal to provide clean water worldwide through drilling and cleaning water wells. HSW has done well projects in Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Cambodia.
“I have made over 20 trips to Belize with mission groups like San Marcos First Baptist to drill and refurbish water wells, i.e.: replace rusty pipes and hand-pumps. We find that sometimes replacing a $8 gasket can restore a water well,” Hinds said.
Hope Springs Water uses the sale of its own labeled natural spring water in cases of 24-0.5-liter plastic bottles as their economic engine. All of the profits of sales is donated to their water projects. Brookshires and Brookshire Brothers are their primary outlet.
The following stats are written on every bottle’s label:
- 1.2 billon people worldwide have no access to pure water
- 4 million people die every year from waterborne illness
- 200 million hours of labor are lost each day to people fetching water
- Less than 1 percent of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use.
On any Hope Springs mission trip, the team trains villagers how to care for the water well, to keep it in working order and the leaves the necessary equipment behind to maintain it.
A program called “Good Hygiene - Bad Hygiene” is taught at the water well site and in local village schools – modeled after the USAID “Water and Sanitation Hygiene” program – to encourage basic hygiene health practices. Volunteers also use a lesson entitled “Clean Hands Clean Heart” to explain sin and the forgiveness of Christ. The follow-up to our Christian witness in Belize is done by Bob Farley, a missionary with 18 years in country with the only established Bible College in Belize.
Hinds, the only one to be drafted from a family of five sons, graduated from U.S. Army Officers Candidate School (OCS) at age 19 – commissioned a 2LT, Infantry. He was assigned to the First Air Cavalry Division, Vietnam, where he served as a platoon leader and after his 12-month tour ended, volunteered to extend for an additional six months assignment with Military Intelligence, Saigon.
“I had a believer’s baptism in the Mekong River in Vietnam and my faith has remained strong,” Hinds said.
Hinds was discharged at Fort Benning, however, discouraged by the Vietnam experience and witnessing the turmoil in American, decided to travel in Greece, Turkey and Israel.
“I used that time overseas to process my experience and what was happening back home," Hinds said. "I returned to the University of Florida and graduated in 1973 with a master’s degree in architectural design. I have never been to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. because I know too many of the names.”
“Several years after coming to Athens, I began searching for a mission-minded church that did outreach. The Lord brought me to this church, and to Steve Akins the Minister of Missions (formally at First Baptist Church, San Marcos).”
Hinds is married to Dorothy and they have a daughter Hillary and a son Dashiel.
His life verse is:
“If a man asks you to go one mile, go two miles with him instead”
Matthew 5:41
It seems like a way of life for this man who gives more than asked for to mission work. Hinds is happy to include individuals as well as church groups. His email is bhinds48@gmail.com.
