Stop reading this and go and get a glass of water. Right now. Did you do it? Good. Now drink it. All of it. Enjoy it. If you did what I asked (which I hope you did) you are among 1/8th of the world’s population that can drink that glass of water without worrying about these things:
- Having to walk miles to a water source, fill your water container, and walk back while carrying it.
- Getting terminally ill from viruses in the water
- Using the same water to drink that has been used to wash clothes and be used as a toilet both by humans and animals
- Forsaking a career and education just so you can get water
It’s Time to Act
Today I wanted to spend some time calling us to action. I hope you’ve learned some things from this blog. I hope you’ve turned it into action and applied it in your life or ministry in the church. But today, right now, while we worry about what restaurant to chose tonight or how much gas costs, there are billions of people who don’t have any way to get clean, healthy, safe drinking water.
Today thousands of bloggers around the world are taking up the call to talk about water and I wanted to join them. However, I didn’t just want to talk about it, I wanted to do something about it.
Charity:water
Among the many charities that are helping provide clean water to the world, I’ve recently come across one that deserves our time and is worthy of our money. Watch this video from charity:water (RSS and email readers, you’ll need to click through) to get to know what they’re doing and the seriousness of the situation (video has some potentially disturbing images), and then read the following details about their organization and facts about water in our world:
- Every penny that you give to charity:water goes directly to providing clean water around the world. None of it pays for overhead or administration which is provided by private sponsors and donors.
- Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water has an amazing testimony and is a faithful follower of Christ that wants to truly change the world.
- The average American uses 150 gallons of water per day. The average person in a developing country struggles to find 5.
- 90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old.
Please Join Me in Proving our Faith isn’t Dead by Providing Water
In the book of James there is a very convicting set of verses talking about the fact that we must have works that accompany our faith:
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17, emphasis mine)
Will you just be saying “Go in peace. Be warm and filled” or will you join me? My initial goal is to try to raise $2000. If we can get 200 people to give $20 we can provide water for 200 people for 20 years. However, if we can increase that goal to $5000 we can build a well that will provide water to an entire village (250+ people). Head over to mycharitywater.org/iamanoffering to donate. You can donate anonymously as well.
Please spread the word. Hit that lovely little F button down there to share this on Facebook. If you’re reading in a reader or in email, hit that lovely little ‘post to Facebook’ link at the bottom of this post and let your friends know and ask them to spread the word as well.
(p.s. This blog post is a part of Blog Action Day. No, I do not stand for many of the causes that are alongside this one on the official website, but if we, as Christians, can’t prove that our faith isn’t dead by not actually doing something about issues like this then the causes that we disagree with are always going to win. Today I want to stop talking and start acting, prove that our faith isn’t just words, and do something about a serious issue.)
