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by Mark Mueller

For a few years now my family and I have been raising money to drill a water well in India. I’ve been to India seven times and seen the full impact of what a water well can do for a village.

When a well is given through Sower of Seeds, a couple who is trained to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ will oversee the well. All people regardless of caste will have access to the water, and untold hours of labor will be relieved as women and girls no longer have to travel to the nearest river for the nasty groundwater that they find there.

We take for granted so many things living here in America. Access to clean water seems more like a right than a privilege. But if you were to go to the villages that I have seen, you find a different reality: parents feeling helpless as their children suffer from water-borne illness, many who will die without proper medical attention. Little girls who cannot go to school because they are needed as water carriers seem to dot the landscape. Dry and dusty fields reflect their heat, and relief seems so far away.

Now fast forward to a new well site. Smiling faces, happy hearts everywhere you look. I love to see the pictures of kids playing in the water coming out of the pump. It reminds me of the water fights I used to have as a kid. Cool, sweet water spraying them in the face, running down their necks and splashing off their hands.

Please consider helping me as I raise money to drill another well: www.championsforindia.org/muellerswell01

Water-how cool is that?

Mark Mueller is a licensed Certified Public Accountant with over 25 years of financial and accounting experience.

He is a graduate of Oral Roberts University. Mark serves as the CFO for S.O.S. In addition, he provides leadership for the office and staff in the areas of operations and strategic planning. Mark has served as administrative pastor on the staff of a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has owned and operated several businesses including construction companies and accounting practices.

Mark and his wife, Pam, have been married for 24 years and have four children. They are long term supporters of S.O.S. and Mark presently serves on the board of directors.

$4,800 provides one well for a village community
$777 provides water for 100 people
$388 provides water for 50 people
$194 provides water for 25 people
$39 provides water for 5 people
$7.77 can save one life by providing clean water for one person
… for the next 30 years!

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We live in a water bottle nation. In our homes we have access to multiple taps, ice cubes, and cabinets full of plastic tumblers, yet we opt to buy our drinking water in crates at the bulk market and lug it home instead.

An article on MSN estimated that Americans spent more than $15 million on water bottles in 2007, an interesting irony since we can get water virtually free, you know, anywhere. In typical American solipsism, we have chosen to horde and exploit a natural resource Biblically used as a metaphor for Christ Himself.

And the question is why?

The answer is very unphilosophical. It is simply this: we aren’t thirsty.

We aren’t the ones comforting an infant dying of cholera. We aren’t the ones crammed into urban slums vying for access to polluted mains. We have never suffered through months of diarrhea, dehydration, or malaria due to a contaminated water source. Water has lost its inherent value in our lives. It has become a convenience, a fashion statement, an indulgence.

Americans aren’t monsters. (Are we?) We are just too busy tossing–nearly full–plastic bottles from the gym bleachers or identifying whose bottle is whose after dinner. What would we do if an Indian slum resident were to witness this? How could we defend ourselves? We have more than we need, and we have a tendency to forget everybody else.

Fact: “World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water.” (source: water.org)

Fact: “In India, diarrhea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily—the same as if eight 200-person jumbo-jets crashed to the ground each day.” (source: water.org)

Fact: Four children die every MINUTE of waterborne diseases.

Fact: For $7.77 (less than you spend on water bottles!) you can give safe, clean drinking water to ONE PERSON for THIRTY YEARS.

The worldwide water crisis is vast, but we CAN make a change. Without major sacrifice, we could give fresh water to thousands of people. There is no reason why children should die for lack of water while we have it so extravagantly.

If Christ is the water of life, then let’s quit bottling Him up and leaving Him abandoned on our kitchen counters. Let’s give Him freely to all in need!

Learn how easy it is to make a difference at http://www.777water.org.

We live in a water bottle nation. In our homes we have access to multiple taps, ice cubes, and cabinets full of plastic tumblers, yet we opt to buy our drinking water in crates at the bulk market and lug it home instead.

An article on MSN estimated that Americans spent more than $15 million on water bottles in 2007, an interesting irony since we can get water virtually free, you know, anywhere. In typical American solipsism, we have chosen to horde and exploit a natural resource Biblically used as a metaphor for Christ Himself.

And the question is why?

The answer is very unphilosophical. It is simply this: we aren’t thirsty.

We aren’t the ones comforting an infant dying of cholera. We aren’t the ones crammed into urban slums vying for access to polluted mains. We have never suffered through months of diarrhea, dehydration, or malaria due to a contaminated water source. Water has lost its inherent value in our lives. It has become a convenience, a fashion statement, an indulgence.

Americans aren’t monsters. (Are we?) We are just too busy tossing–nearly full–plastic bottles from the gym bleachers or identifying whose bottle is whose after dinner. What would we do if an Indian slum resident were to witness this? How could we defend ourselves? We have more than we need, and we have forgotten everybody else.

Fact: “World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water.” (source: water.org)

Fact: “In India, diarrhea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily—the same as if eight 200-person jumbo-jets crashed to the ground each day.” (source: water.org)

Fact: Four children die every MINUTE of waterborne diseases.

Fact: For $7.77 (less than you spend on water bottles!) you can give safe, clean drinking water to ONE PERSON for THIRTY YEARS.

The worldwide water crisis is vast, but we CAN make a change. Without major sacrifice, we could give fresh water to thousands of people. There is no reason why children should die for lack of water while we have it so extravagantly.

If Christ is the water of life, then let’s quit bottling Him up and leaving Him abandoned on our kitchen counters. Let’s give Him freely to all in need!

Learn how easy it is to make a difference at http://www.777water.org.

by Ian Hamp – Guest Blogger
Water is very important for children.  They need water to keep them alive and well. And if they dont have water they start dying of thirst. It is important for us to do what we can to help them stay well.

Children get access to safe water because of these water wells that we can provide.

In John 4:10 we read:

¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” – The Message

S.O.S. with the help of partners and supporters helps to give water to communities without safe drinking water. Read more at www.sowerofseeds.org/water.

Ian is a volunteer at S.O.S. Ian loves expressing God’s heart for people. Read more at Ian’s blog: http://theiansterscorner.wordpress.com/

In the light to the above article about India’s intensifying water crisis, it is encouraging to see so many new charities spring up rushing to provide water for the world’s thirsty.  It is only with this kind of drastic action and mobilization through awareness that lead to large scale participati0n that we will be able to prevent the water crisis from escalating.

The cost of the crisis is counted in the number of children under 5 that die every year from water-borne illness and diarrhea. Giving someone clean water is not about giving someone convenient access to it, but it is about giving the children in poor communities a chance at life.

Giving someone access to water is also one of the easiest things to do: With a gift of as little as $7.77 you can give someone access to safe, clean water.  It is such a low cost solution to a high cost problem.

The solution is simple. Can you commit to a gift of $7.77 per month this year to give 12 people access to safe water?

Spread the word!