Water for Christmas

A friend of mine, Jody, has come up with several different projects to help bring the kingdom of God to this earth. Her latest project has really captured my attention and think that it is a great thing to get on board with. The following is taken from her blog, which you should definitly check out. Click on the link of the side of my blog titled Jody. Please read this and consider getting involved and check out the website for the organization. You can click on the water for Christmas link of the side of my blog.

The lack of access to clean water is the leading cause of in underdeveloped countries.
Try to imagine walking on a three hour journey…twice a day…to collect a liquid which shares “two diabolical identities–life mixed with . It is both cure and poison.”(Dan Haseltine)
Inside the containers of millions of people around the world is a mixture of “water, dirt, algae, cow and goat feces, bacteria, mosquito larvae and other insect eggs and parasites and various waterborne diseases waiting for a host.” (Haseltine)

They are forced every day to make the choice…drink and die.
Or don’t drink and die.
And die they do.

4500 children die EVERY day due to water related diseases.

Did you get that?
4500 children every day.
And the solution lies simply below the surface…in a relatively inexpensive and permanent solution.

And for these reasons, we knew from the beginning one of our projects was going to be an attempt to dig a fresh water well.

This is hard for us to imagine because WATER is NOT something we worry about.
But again, please try. Eyes open.
We found the above mentioned organization to partner with and were so excited about a well-digging opportunity.

But as the holidays approached, we got nervous. We feared everyone (including ourselves) would start holding their money a bit tighter as Christmas approached. We didn’t want to commit to building a well and then have to come up short.

We thought about it and prayed about it for several weeks.

I was absolutely consumed by it.

Then it hit us.

Isn’t that the point?

It’s the point of all these things. All these projects. To force us to loosen our grip on earthly consumption. To strengthen our resolve to issues of justice. To keep our eyes open. To give more. Sacrifice more. To keep the world from changing us.

Then it was these statistics that sealed the deal—

Americans spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas every year.

It would cost 10 billion dollars to give the whole world clean water.

Are you kidding me?

Unacceptable.

That was it. We were no longer digging one well. We were launching in the middle of holiday season. And we’re going for 10 billion.

Water For Christmas.

We’re buying Water For Christmas.

We are doing it because we want to. Because it resonates with who we want to be.

And we are inviting everyone to join us.

If you want…individuals, families, churches, businesses.

We can all give up something.

Little somethings.

Big somethings.

This holiday season.

In order that people can have clean water.
We have a web page set up with Charity Water where donations can be made. water4christmas.com. 100% of our donations go directly to digging wells. Donations can be made there or by check and/or cash collection. Through them, we will be able to track our progress.

They said they have a huge need in Liberia right now. And well, where the needs are is where we want to be.So we are working on well projects in Liberia.

Charity Water provides the post-drill training in maintenance and repair to the local community. A very important piece of long term impact.

We will wrap this campaign up on Dec. 31st.

It’s not hard to imagine what Jesus would desire from us in the celebration of His birthday–

“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me….To the extent that you did it to one of these, even the least of them, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:35,40)

It’s His heart. And I want it to be mine.