Charity:Water & My 41st Birthday

I learned about Charity:Water a few weeks ago when I read Scott Harrison's book, Thirst: A story of redemption, compassion, and a mission to bring clean water to the world. 

As I neared the end of the book, my heart ached every time I poured myself or my kiddoes a glass of water to drink. I started praying for families around the globe who don't have this simple blessing that I take for granted every day. Clean water.

By God's grace I have never known what it's like to be thirsty or for anyone I love to be thirsty. I really had no idea that every day, about 1,400 children die from diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to communities around the world.

I discovered a simple way that I can help charity:water by I pledging my 41st birthday (coming up next week) to build these types of projects around the world, and I'm looking for anyone who can help me.

Please donate to my birthday campaign -- anything you can give is a huge help.
100% of the money will be used to build clean water projects, and when they’re complete, charity: water will send us photos and GPS coordinates so we can see the exact community we helped.

The teacher in me wanted to visually show my own kids why mommy wants donations to charity:water in stead of birthday gifts this year. So baby Cora and I followed Levi and Joshua over to a pond (actually a field filled with rain water in our neighborhood)  to collect our "drinking water" for the day. I pictured children around the world walking to dirty water holes with their mothers. As my boys made comments like, "Gross" and "This water is disgusting," it was a powerful visual of how blessed we are to have clean water to drink. To take showers in. To cook with. To brush our teeth with. To wash our dog with. To swim in. The list goes on. Always clean water.

Our family didn't drink the filthy pond water, but I will never forget the look of it on my kitchen counter. Watching Savannah pour the murky liquid into our drinking glasses. Thanking the Lord for the gift of clean water and praying that I can help someone else have this life changing gift for my birthday.