Water.

Every once in a while I turn my faucet on and the water comes out like this….


Anyone care to take a sip? It would probably knock you out for a few days, just one glass of this. The nice thing is is that I have a filter to filter this water and make it drinkable. Its probably a 20 minute purifying process, and yet I complain. I often think how easy it was to just turn the faucet on at home and put my glass under and drink away…. Or better yet, skip the glass, put my head under the faucet, and drink away!

But imagine if THAT glass of water above was the only option you had?
Hmm, lets put ourselves in another world for a moment.
Lets imagine...

Imagine yourself in the middle of Africa, with a family… 5 or 6 children perhaps? All of which are relying on you to sustain them and provide. What is essential to life? Water. But what if there wasn’t any around? How far would you go to provide this simple thing for your family? Would you walk a half a day’s walk to the nearest hole in the ground and sit there as the water trickles into your cup, slowly, slowly filling until you can dump that cup into your can and watch it slowly fill up?


What if you spent the next half of the day under the heat of the sun with a 25 lbs can of water on your back, returning to your home hoping that your children made it through the day?


And what if that water that you just spent half of your day searching for was as brown as the glass of water above?



What if you had to worry as you gave it to your children if that water would give them the nourishment they need, or take their life because of disease?

How can something so simple, be so complicated?

Its just water….right?

I spent a few days with these people who are in constant search for water. They live in the desert and their lives are enslaved to finding water. They walk miles and miles a day to find gather water. Sometimes they reach the well to find that it is empty and have to return home with nothing. Other times they reach the well to find out that it is poisoned, and again return home with nothing.

I complain that it takes 20 minutes to filter my water.

I complain that the water sometimes runs brown.

Is something wrong with this picture?

….of course.

I might feel like I can “relate” to these people who have dirty water, but reality is, I walk 10 steps, turn on a faucet and out comes dirty water. They walk miles and miles for hours and hours, get on their hands and knees and pull water up from a well with their blistered hands and aching backs… to get that dirty water.


If you are like me, you see these huge world issues and want to tackle them all, get really fired up, but then have no idea how to approach the issue, feel defeated, and go on with your life wishing you could have figured out a way. But, there are organizations out there to help with these issues. They show you how you can help in little baby steps. And helping one person’s life is better than giving up because you couldn’t help everyone’s!



This isn’t me saying “Go do this or else!” but I know what its like to feel helpless yet want to help. Here’s an organization that was introduced to me by my friend’s sister.




Its called “Water4Christmas.” Give water for Christmas. Just $20 can provide water for someone for 20 years. And not water like they are used to, but the type of water that makes you fit your head under the faucet and let the water fill your mouth.

THAT kind of water!

Water4Christmas is a fundraiser through the organization, “Charity Water.” I just love their idea of giving water for Christmas. And it makes it so easy to do so! You can give water yourself, or how about for those people that are hard to buy for, why not give water to someone for $20 in the name of that person?

To find out more, click ((((here))))