The idea behind Healing Waters International was born in 1999 at Lookout Mountain Community Church in Golden, Colorado.  Steve Willner, an inventor and engineer who specializes in creating commercial water purification systems, approached Tom Larson about the possibility of building a drinking water system at their sister church in La Victoria, Dominican Republic.  Tom and his wife, Dana, had previously served as missionaries in La Victoria and Tom was in charge of supervising the relationship between Lookout Mountain and La Victoria.

Having seen firsthand the problem of poor people drinking contaminated tap water, Tom jumped at the opportunity to work with Steve to try and address the need.  With the help of volunteers from both churches, a system was soon built at the church in La Victoria.  The church began to sell safe and good-tasting drinking water to the community at a very low cost, charging the minimum possible to keep the system financially self-sustaining.

Much to everyone’s surprise and delight, that system in La Victoria far exceeded even the most optimistic expectations.  Because the church could sell the water at less than half the price of water sold in the local stores, the system introduced the possibility of clean drinking water to a large number of people who had never been able to afford it before.  Due to the ever growing demand, the two churches had to enhance the system to be able to produce more water.

The system in La Victoria is still in operation and has often distributed over 1000 gallons of clean drinking water in a single day.  The church also began providing free water to the public school, a Catholic school and an orphanage.  Best of all, this service to the community is 100% self sustaining.

In the fall of 2001, Tom began to explore the idea expanding the systems to other churches.  After doing extensive research and determining that there is a great need in semi-developed communities that is not being met, Tom and Dana began the process of starting a new ministry.  Healing Waters International was officially incorporated in February 2002.