Share the Wealth

I learned this week that $1 provides one year of clean water for an African. Talk about stretching your dollars! I can't think of too much I can do with a dollar. I mean, for a dollar I could buy a bottle of water and that could quench my thirst for an afternoon. But quench someone's thirst for a year with buck - that's amazing.

If you're like me, you've flipped straight through those infomercials about the poor and hungry folks in Africa. Those kids with the swollen bellies kill me every time, so I change the channel. Out of site. Out of mind. Right?

But the truth is millions of Africans lack access to clean water. What access some villages do have requires women and children to travel miles to carry home heavy gallons of diseased water. And since 80 percent of all deaths in developing countries are caused by water-borne illnesses, people there with HIV/AIDS must have clean water to survive.

I don't know about you, but I can't think of a time in my life that I didn't have access to water. And I've certainly never had to drink dirty water. That's why it's always been hard for me to identify with this sort of need. But now that I have the facts, I can't help but respond.

So obviously I'm quite inspired about doing my part in overcoming social injustices, both at home and abroad. And while I don't necessarily plan to sell all of my things and live like a hermit, I think it's important to share the wealth. There are many people and organizations that will lay the guilt on thick, which totally turns me off and is quite generally ineffective. But when our motivation is love for God and others, people become more important than the things of this world.

I encourage you to follow this link and learn more. Blood:Water Mission seeks to provide clean blood and water to a country that is often forgotten - Africa. Share the wealth, friends!

Love.

Randi