Donations made to Water for Christmas have gone directly to help fund water projects in this region and throughout Liberia.
Liberia: soap and healing. from charity: water on Vimeo.
12 People
But I lose more sleep over than anything else we do.
And it’s simply an opportunity for monthly recurring giving.
Giving people an opportunity to easily give $20 (or other amount) a month to clean water.
I don’t know why.
But this just makes sense to me. And I toss and turn.
We decided to do it last year after the Christmas effort ended and people were asking, “what’s next?” “What can we do now?”
None of us had any idea going into last year just how much water would change us. How we were not going to be able to let it go.
And so we developed a monthly giving program (300 Voices) to essentially give people a way to keep water on their hearts throughout the year. To further our commitment and resolve. And prepare a team of Water advocates for the next Christmas season.
I do believe in many respects, it was successful. Our hearts follow our treasure. And many (most) of our Voices (monthly givers) were leaders in the Christmas effort…raising their Voice and inspiring their friends and family in their own part of the country. Not to mention the thousands of people who were given clean water from the monthly giving.
So we’re doing it again… 12 People.
This is your invite.
Your invite to change the lives of 12 people. (Or 24. Or 36.)
Through $20.
One $20 dollar bill a month.
It’s so simple. With a paypal account, it takes maybe 2 minutes.
$20 (or other amount) will be automatically deducted each month.
BUT what we don’t want you to forget is what that represents. What exactly that means.
12 people.
12 real people.
The faces behind the image above are all people in LIberia who were given the gift of clean water this year.
For each person who signs up, it’s 12 more faces.
12 more people.
This is a small sacrifice for most of us.
But huge impact. Life changing for 12 people.
This makes sense to me.
SO let’s do this–just because I like to do things together. (I don’t know… I just do.)–
Think about it. Consider joining us. Talk to your spouse. Blog about it. Email or see if you can rally one other person to join us who wouldn’t otherwise know about the opportunity.
(For those of you without paypal accounts, who still want to join us in this effort–you can:
*make a one-time donation with a credit card here ($240 is equal to a year of monthly giving)
*mail in a check each month to the address listed here–checks are made payable to charity: water with Water For Christmas in the memo line).
This is one of those things that shows the power of a team, the power of people coming together to do something…a simple gift each month.
A gift that changes lives.
$20/month. 12 people.
“When the story of these times gets written, we want it to say that we did all we could, and it was more than anyone could have imagined.” (Bono)
Ready?
In the 14 months that Water For Christmas has been in existence, the total of money raised is $275,000.
Which amounts to $650 dollars a day for 14 months.
In just November and December of 2009: $175,000.
That is equal to 55 community wells.
The total can and will solve very close to 1% of Liberia’s water crisis. (that’s more amazing than it sounds.
Yes, we still have work to do&hellip
And these are my favorite:
That’s 13,750 people.
32 people a day for the last 14 months have received the life-changing gift of clean water.
How did this happen?
Because you all acted. You all allowed your heart to break and your hands to move. You raised your voices with us. You held your resources in generous, open hands. You rallied your friends and family. You spoke. You gave. You changed the world for 13,750 people.
This is amazing. We thank God for allowing us to be a part of His heart.
And more than ever, I feel like we are only at the tip of the iceberg. That it goes to show that we do not need titles or positions or large resources to do something. That we can come together to dream dreams of compassion. We can collectively raise our voice, combine our efforts. We can join together as mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters in America to fight and change the reality for mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters across the ocean. There is power not in celebrity and economic status and prestige…but in passion. You have taught me that.
And I cannot wait to see where 2010 takes us.
It’s funny because I was talking to a friend about needing to get myself some marketable skills. I was thinking perhaps at some point I would need to get a paying job and I’m not exactly sure what skills I have. This friend suggested, “Well, you could do fundraising.”
My response: “Oh my gosh, NO! I would HATE that. That is probably the job I would dislike most in the world.”
Her response: “Oh. Isn’t that what you do now? What you spend 40 hours a week doing already?”
Me: “Um. No….Um. I guess. Geez.”
I have never thought about it that way. Honestly never occurred to me in the last 14 months that we were ‘fundraising’. It has always been about clean water. About wanting to see that mothers around the world do not bury their children due to contaminated water when clean water waits beneath the surface. And it just so happens the way to help them is to fund the drilling of wells. That is what they needed. And that’s what we do.
It’s not about fundraising.
It’s about water.
It’s about making right what is wrong.
"Water for Christmas"
“A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half empty; an
optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person
sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might
be thirsty.”
(G. Donald Gale)
You guys ready?
We’re digging for water.
The lack of access to clean water is the leading cause of death 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 death. 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 charity: water 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.
We were 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 a third of that 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. Details coming.
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.
And so this year I am asking for Water For Christmas.
I know these issues are on the heart of many of you as well. If we joined forces we could begin to make a serious dent.
And sometimes we just need the opportunity.
So that is the point of Water For Christmas…to unite people from all across the country in a common goal. Clean water for all people.
We also know that when we come together in heart and mind, “there will be no needy persons among them.” (Acts 4:32-34)
Clean water is within the reach of this generation.
For goodness sake, it’s 2% of American’s annual Christmas spending.
We can do that.
And we’re starting with Water For Christmas.
Our friend Pastor Larry in Maryland was one of the first to join us in Water For Christmas commitment. It’s a cool story and you can read it here. He says this perfectly –”So, if you want to join me in saying, “All I want for Christmas is water,” great, but don’t do it out of guilt or obligation or anything like that or else you will have a miserable Christmas. Do it because you want to. Maybe you will want to give up one gift for water. Or simplify Christmas dinner and give the savings to Water for Christmas.”
This is going to look different for everyone.
But we can all put water on our radar of things to care about.
We do not see this as another token charity that we pull out at Christmas time–appease our conscience–and then carry on as normal. This is not meant to replace or compete with the programs already in place in your churches and family traditions. I guess I kind of want us to feel it. To give up something. Not to do this in addition to overindulgence. Sacrifice something. Make it’s absence felt. Mother Teresa said, “I hope you are not giving only your surplus. You must give what costs you, make a sacrifice, go without something you like, that your gift may have some value before God. Then you will be truly brothers and sisters to the poor who are deprived of even the things they need.” (Believe me, I’m squirming as I type that too.)
$20 gives one African clean water for life. $5,000 dollars digs a well for a whole village.
10 billion dollars gives the WHOLE WORLD clean water.
So the only thing standing in the way of life and health for millions of people in Africa the inability to pay for the drilling to clean water.
We can do that, people.
In Africa, “Water is Life.”
We can give life.
And that’s what we are going to do.
Water For Christmas.
(OK, details later today on how to get started! Lots of fun things for you to use to get Water For Christmas started. Stay tuned).