I stood at the water fountain yesterday filling up the large half gallon jug I keep in my office fridge. As I stared idly at the wall the realization of what I was really doing hit me. I was getting water. From a fountain. Clean water from a fountain inside a nice building. The blessing of that started to sink in.
Do you know how many people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water? I didn’t so I looked it up. Over 1 billion people drink from unsafe water sources. 4,000 children die every day from preventable, water-borne diseases. Those are some horrible statistics aren’t they?
My Dad loves to tell the story of when he and my Mom were in Kenya for a month on a missions trip. In most places they had to sanitize the water before it could be drunk. About half-way through the trip they spent a few days in a village that had a huge tank that collected rain water. It was quite the treat to just be able to drink clean water from a spigot. The village was in the process of setting up a new tank as the existing one was pretty beat up. My parents helped transfer the water, gathering it bucket by bucket. When the tank was almost empty someone got on a ladder to look down into the tall tank. At the bottom lay a decayed animal. (1..2..3…Ewwwww!) Point being what some communities may assume is clean might not be so clean.
Today as you stand at the kitchen sink to get a drink or when you bath your children tonight or wash the dishes remember to thank God for the extreme privilege of being able to have clean water. Then pray for those in other places who can’t do that and for the scientists who are searching for ways to help the world have more clean water.
I think about this a lot when I awake from a dull morning stupor because of a warm shower. I always think that it seems like such a smart place to begin with developing countries - if we could just get them clean water . . .
Posted by: Serenity | March 20, 2009 at 02:11 PM
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Posted by: Simone | March 26, 2009 at 11:22 PM
This is very good. Thank you.
Posted by: Eleanor | April 03, 2009 at 04:50 PM