I Can Live Without

Today I stopped at Starbucks after a morning of errands. Just the other day I got a massage and met a friend for lunch. This weekend, our family will likely go out to dinner and catch the latest release at our local movie theatre.

Can I live without my daily coffee and the latest fad in jeans? Will I survive without having my feet massaged and my food served to me at a restaurant? Is it possible to go on one more day without seeing the latest, just released movie?

The answer is of course, YES. Life will go on without all these things. They are not necessities…they are in fact, luxuries…and these luxuries add up over time.

But the fact is, no one can live without water.

Right now, almost 1 billion people are currently living without clean, safe drinking water and basic sanitation. 4500 children die each day from the lack of clean drinking water. This is unacceptable.

The average American spends around $500 each year on coffee. That’s over $40 per month! But did you know that just $40 can provide clean, life-saving water to 2 people for an estimated 20+ years?

So what if I gave up my coffee (a luxury) and in turn gave that money to help give someone clean water (a necessity). Really not a big sacrifice for me, but life changing for someone else. Now, imagine if we all join together and give up our coffee? Maybe we can help provide clean water to an entire village!

So today, on the first day of Lent, we ask you to join us as we prepare our hearts and minds for a challenge. A challenge to live without....so others don’t have to.

Here’s how the 6 month giving challenge will work:

Starting in April we will join together; challenging one other, each month, to give up something...something we can easily live without.

We will kick it all off by giving up coffee. If you don’t drink coffee, live without your daily soda, bottled waters etc. At the end of April, please calculate the amount of money you would have spent on coffee (or other drinks), and make your donation here.*

Your donation each month may be $5 or $100…either way, it’s each of us giving up something we can live without, so someone who can’t live without clean water, can live.

The monthly breakdown will be as follows:
April: Coffee (soda, bottled water, unnecessary drinks, in general)
May: Lunch (eat out for lunch? ‘brown bag it’ instead)
June: Entertainment (movies, music etc.)
July: Pampering services (massages, mani/pedi, hair services, etc.)
July: Shopping (pass up new clothes, shoes, purses etc.)
August: Dining Out (eat at home instead)


Here’s how you can help:
Learn more about the water crisis
Invest in this cause. make a donation
Viral...post about this campaign on facebook, twitter, blogs etc.
Encourage your friends, family, co-workers etc. to get involved.

Please check back often as we will continue to provide tools and encouragement leading to the April 1st kick off.

Join us. Live without.

“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)

OK, here we go.

Sometime in December, I did some rough math. I was all excited because I thought I was onto something. I wondered, “So if we raise $60,000 every year at Water For Christmas, how many years would it take us to give Liberia clean water?” I furiously typed numbers into the calculator. Hit the equal button….

300 years.

Hmmm.

That’s a little discouraging.

But it haunted me. And I couldn’t shake it.

We have to use this. This is too important.

I might be busy in 300 years. And more importantly, the thirsty cannot wait that long.

Wrestled with it. Heard from so many of you that said, “Now what?”

And settled that we simply will kick it up a notch…or 300.

We will expand our borders, involve more people…300 times.

And then it won’t take 300 years, we can do it in one year.

So here’s the plan. Stay with me.

We need 300 people.

300 people to make a committment to 300 Voices…Water for all Seasons. This will be a commitment of $20/month. (that’s $5 a week, $240 for the whole year). WFC fund will stay open all year. We get 300 people to commit to $20 a month for 2009 and that’s an additional $72,000.(Did you get that? For your $20 a month, combined with 299 others and their $20 a month that is $72,000 in 2009. That’s 15 wells!) That’s a lot of money. For little sacrifice personally. (as always, 100% of money goes to charity: water. They use 100% to drill fresh water wells and clean water solutions).

But beyond that the idea is to keep water on the hearts and minds of a 300 person team. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be. So we give all year. We pray. We dream. We plan. And then in November 2009, we kick off Water For Christmas with a team of 300. (Now, you are not committing to anything as far as next years campaign goes…you don’t have to do anything. But I think you will want to. But there will be no obligation to be involved in Water For Christmas 2009).

This is how it will work:

water4christmas.com is being developed. And will be ready for launch later in the year.

But for now, go here to sign up. (Kari has been working extremely hard to get this ready. Many, many thanks.) Give us your name and location. We will start of list of people around the country who are committing to Water. (you can do your donations with $5 weekly, or $20 a month, or a $240 donation for the whole year–whatever is best for your budgets). We will not bombard with emails–but if you want monthly or weekly reminders to donate we will do that. If you don’t do online giving, and would like to mail in checks, you can still do that by making checks payable to Charity Global with Water For Christmas in the memo line. (mailed to 150 Varick St. 5th Floor New York, NY 10013.) I will even send you a set of 12 envelopes if you want to do a monthly $20 donation that way.

We will have a counter showing how close we are to getting 300 people.

There’s a new blog badge for the 300 Voices…use it if you want.

Anyone can join us. Talk about it. Blog about it. I know many of us who participated in WFC 2008 were having a hard time shaking it. A hard time letting it go. So this is for you. But even if you were not a part of WFC at all but would like Water to be one of the things you give to in 2009, you can still join us now.

At this point, all it means is a $20/month commitment. The giving is just to force a us to put action behind our causes. And provide clean water for thousands in the process. And then ideally in November 2009, we have people whose treasure has followed their heart and they are ready to go. We reach 300 times more people with awareness about clean water. The money is multiplied. And clean water will erupt from the dirt of Africa’s floor.

We will be one voice. 300 strong. For clean water. For life.

By signing up you are simply saying, “Water matters.” And we believe that enough to give $20 of my treasure each month. It’s that simple.
I want to make it clear that this is merely part of who we are. It’s simply part of loving people the way Jesus taught us to. We cannot love thirsty people without giving them water to drink.

I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t confident in you guys. I’ve talked to you on the email, on the blogs, in the churches, at the schools. I’ve heard the stories of others that I don’t know. And I just believe there is a force here. A force we can combine and channel. And use to make big impact.

I’m so excited to partner, to team up. 300 times.

Now there will be resources available and developed throughout the year to help us all at WFC time. But right now, I want to see if we can build a team of 300. Simply 300 people willing to give to Water throughout the year. $20 a month.

So. You want in?

Go. Sign up. We’ll add your name to the growing list in the sidebar. (we have to input them manually so it may take a couple hours)
(There will be continued updates about all the WFC wells throughout the year. It looks like I may personally be on the ground in Liberia to report back to you about how the Water money is changing and saving lives. And clarify further why we can’t stop. Why we must keep it fresh on our hearts and minds. Even if it’s only $20/month. Times 300. )