Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Seeing our World in 3-D
A few years ago, a friend gave me a book of pictures called stereograms. You have probably seen them, even if you didn't know what they are called. Each picture has a hidden 3-D image. When one completely focuses on the picture, the 3-D image appears. Seeing beyond the surface picture and noticing the 3-D image is called parallel viewing, which is like seeing in stereo.
I was thinking about the water crisis in Sub Saharan Africa in terms of a stereogram. In America, many people live myopic, self-concerned lives. In a world of 24-7 news, most of it is superficial and focuses on the sensational, and unless we seek it out, we know very little of what is happening in the world. This affluent American life is so far removed from the everyday oppression of living in grinding Third World poverty, that most people here have no frame of reference and cannot relate. We see, but we don't see.
Today, I want to show you a picture of our world. The surface picture has a Four Bucks on the corner and bottled crystal clear water in the fridge, nice car, nice house, a good life. But, look again. Look deeper.. .
As you look intently the picture emerges, the effect of a billion people on this planet having no clean water.
What do you see? Children who are dying from water borne diseases, one every 15 seconds, women and girls who are lacking educational and economic opportunity because they must travel long distances to obtain water --any water. Poverty, pain, and oppression. Two million people dying each year, all for the lack of clean water. People slipping into eternity without ever having heard of Jesus.
When I first saw a stereogram, I couldn't make out the 3-D image, but once I saw it, I couldn't miss it. I had the same experience when I saw that the water problem in Sub Saharan Africa is the poverty problem. I cannot go back to not knowing. But merely knowing that there is deep poverty that is caused by the lack of clean water in Sub Saharan Africa is not enough.
I challenge all of us to not only be people who see this world as God sees it and who care, but to be living expressions of His hands and heart of compassion toward that world.
Between now and May 15, you have opportunity to get involved in Walk for Water Africa to effect real change in our world that is life-saving and life-changing, and hope-giving.
http://www.walkforwaterafrica.com/
On the website you can learn more about the need and what we are doing about it. You can learn about how you can get involved.
Walk for Water Africa
May 15, 2010
5 K Walk and 11 K Race
Salem Lake Park
Winston-Salem, NC
I was thinking about the water crisis in Sub Saharan Africa in terms of a stereogram. In America, many people live myopic, self-concerned lives. In a world of 24-7 news, most of it is superficial and focuses on the sensational, and unless we seek it out, we know very little of what is happening in the world. This affluent American life is so far removed from the everyday oppression of living in grinding Third World poverty, that most people here have no frame of reference and cannot relate. We see, but we don't see.
Today, I want to show you a picture of our world. The surface picture has a Four Bucks on the corner and bottled crystal clear water in the fridge, nice car, nice house, a good life. But, look again. Look deeper.. .
As you look intently the picture emerges, the effect of a billion people on this planet having no clean water.
What do you see? Children who are dying from water borne diseases, one every 15 seconds, women and girls who are lacking educational and economic opportunity because they must travel long distances to obtain water --any water. Poverty, pain, and oppression. Two million people dying each year, all for the lack of clean water. People slipping into eternity without ever having heard of Jesus.
When I first saw a stereogram, I couldn't make out the 3-D image, but once I saw it, I couldn't miss it. I had the same experience when I saw that the water problem in Sub Saharan Africa is the poverty problem. I cannot go back to not knowing. But merely knowing that there is deep poverty that is caused by the lack of clean water in Sub Saharan Africa is not enough.
I challenge all of us to not only be people who see this world as God sees it and who care, but to be living expressions of His hands and heart of compassion toward that world.
Between now and May 15, you have opportunity to get involved in Walk for Water Africa to effect real change in our world that is life-saving and life-changing, and hope-giving.
http://www.walkforwaterafrica.com/
On the website you can learn more about the need and what we are doing about it. You can learn about how you can get involved.
Walk for Water Africa
May 15, 2010
5 K Walk and 11 K Race
Salem Lake Park
Winston-Salem, NC
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Why Participate in the Walk and Why Encourage Others to Give?
Over a billion people in the developing world have no clean water.
No clean water to drink or to wash their hands or their food
2.4 billion people have no adequate sanitation.
Because people do not have access to clean water they have...
More people are dying from easily preventable water-borne diseases than are dying from AIDS.
Most of the people who die from water-borne diseases are children under the age of five with one person dying every 8 seconds.
Diarrhea is the leading killer of children in Sub Saharan Africa. A baby born in Africa is 520 times more likely to die of diarrhea than a child born in Europe.
2 in 5 people in sub Saharan Africa lack safe water.
East Africa is in a 5-year drought, and the lack of water has led to the death of 500,000 cattle, conflict, and food shortages..
We desire to give hope to and to relieve the suffering of people in villages throughout Sub-Saharan Africa by making clean water sources available to them.
Clean water makes possible the education of young girls and the gainful employment and industry of women who would otherwise spend hours a day searching for water --any water, even disease laden water.
We know to give the gift of clean water is a wonderful thing, but to offer with it the Living Water, the Lord Jesus Christ, will have eternal impact.
Matthew 10:42, "And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no
means lose his reward."
No clean water to drink or to wash their hands or their food
2.4 billion people have no adequate sanitation.
Because people do not have access to clean water they have...
- limited educational opportunities
- limited economic opportunities
- poverty
- disease
- death
More people are dying from easily preventable water-borne diseases than are dying from AIDS.
Most of the people who die from water-borne diseases are children under the age of five with one person dying every 8 seconds.
Diarrhea is the leading killer of children in Sub Saharan Africa. A baby born in Africa is 520 times more likely to die of diarrhea than a child born in Europe.
2 in 5 people in sub Saharan Africa lack safe water.
East Africa is in a 5-year drought, and the lack of water has led to the death of 500,000 cattle, conflict, and food shortages..
About the Need for Water
We desire to give hope to and to relieve the suffering of people in villages throughout Sub-Saharan Africa by making clean water sources available to them.
Clean water makes possible the education of young girls and the gainful employment and industry of women who would otherwise spend hours a day searching for water --any water, even disease laden water.
We know to give the gift of clean water is a wonderful thing, but to offer with it the Living Water, the Lord Jesus Christ, will have eternal impact.
Matthew 10:42, "And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no
means lose his reward."
5K Walk and 11 K Run Saturday, May 15, 2010
5 K Walk and 11 K Race
at
Salem Lake Park and Salem Creek Trail
Salem Lake Road
off Reynolds Park Road
Winston-Salem, NC
9:00 AM
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Tee shirt pickup and late registration
begins at 8:00 AM
In this event walkers and runners solicit pledges
to raise funds
to build water wells
and protected springs in Kenya.
Registration and Pledges
can be made at
We invite individuals, families,
church and athletic groups to get involved.
Prizes will be awarded in these categories:
Under 18:
1st, 2nd and 3rd place
Over 18:
1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Prizes will also be awarded to the
top fundraisers.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Solving the Water Crisis in Sub Saharan Africa is a Good Investment
Every US dollar invested in improving water and sanitation provides us an economic return of $8.
At any one time it is estimated that over half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from a water related diseases. The US spends $7,000,000,000 a year on world health agencies.
To reach the goal of providing clean water sources and sanitation to people in the developing world would cost $11 billion, but it would produce a return of $84 billion a year.
Well, none of us have the resources to singlehandedly solve the water and sanitation crises worldwide, but we can make the world a better place to live for hundreds of people by being involved in the Walk for Water Africa.
Here's how our dollars are cost effective in rural villages throughout Sub Saharan Africa:
Providing clean water sources and sanitation means...
-hope for a better future for all
-less time sick or caring for the sick from water related diseases
-girls able to attend school rather than spending hours fetching water
-fewer children dying from water related diseases
-better educational opportunity for all
-women able to spend their days on productive work that generates income for the family
It is amazing how a well transforms a village and makes other improvements in quality of life possible.
That is exactly what we want to do for villages in Kenya.
May 15 at the Walk for Water Africa 5K Walk and 11K Race we are going to show some love for Kenya. We are going to invest in saving and improving the quality of life for hundreds of people.
We believe that God's heart is a heart of compassion and that He wants us to be the living, breathing expression of His love to the needy and oppressed people of this world. So, I invite you to invest in something that is on God's heart.
Every US dollar invested in improving water and sanitation provides us an economic return of $8.
At any one time it is estimated that over half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from a water related diseases. The US spends $7,000,000,000 a year on world health agencies.
To reach the goal of providing clean water sources and sanitation to people in the developing world would cost $11 billion, but it would produce a return of $84 billion a year.
Well, none of us have the resources to singlehandedly solve the water and sanitation crises worldwide, but we can make the world a better place to live for hundreds of people by being involved in the Walk for Water Africa.
Here's how our dollars are cost effective in rural villages throughout Sub Saharan Africa:
Providing clean water sources and sanitation means...
-hope for a better future for all
-less time sick or caring for the sick from water related diseases
-girls able to attend school rather than spending hours fetching water
-fewer children dying from water related diseases
-better educational opportunity for all
-women able to spend their days on productive work that generates income for the family
It is amazing how a well transforms a village and makes other improvements in quality of life possible.
That is exactly what we want to do for villages in Kenya.
May 15 at the Walk for Water Africa 5K Walk and 11K Race we are going to show some love for Kenya. We are going to invest in saving and improving the quality of life for hundreds of people.
We believe that God's heart is a heart of compassion and that He wants us to be the living, breathing expression of His love to the needy and oppressed people of this world. So, I invite you to invest in something that is on God's heart.
In Sub Saharan Africa the Water Problem is the Poverty Problem
Cost in time:
884 million people do not have safe water. Every day in Africa, women and girls spend hours walking long distances to get water from any available sources- including polluted lakes, rivers, and even puddles of ground water. It is estimated that in Sub Saharan Africa alone all of this acquiring of water consumes 40 billion hours of labor each year.
Cost in dollars:
Cost in health care:
Health care cost correlated to water borne and water related diseases is tremendous. At any one time it is estimated that people suffering from water related illnesses occupy one half of the world’s hospital beds, and 84% of these are children under the age of 14.
Cost in human lives:
Water related diseases take the lives of over 3.575 million people each year, taking the life of a child every 15 seconds.
Cost in US foreign aid:
It is estimated that the US would save $7 billion a year in foreign aid if the need for clean water in these countries was fully addressed. Every dollar spent on remedying the water, hygiene, and sanitation problems in developing countries yields eight dollars in return in the form of foreign aid that does not have to be spent.
Cost in productivity:
A tremendous amount of time is spent being sick or caring for the sick in countries affected by water borne diseases. Women are responsible for half the world’s food production, and in developing countries, women's labor accounts for 60-80% of food production. But when so much labor is invested in obtaining water and so much time is involved in either being sick or caring for the sick, the lack of clean water greatly reduces food production. When a village has a readily available source of clean water it makes possible not only more productive gardening, but larger scale farming with irrigation, thus increasing food production, income, and quality of life.
Cost in hope for a better future:
In the United States more than 50% of all college students are women, and women now comprise a large portion of the professional and skilled workforce; however, in most Third World countries these opportunities don’t exist. In Sub Saharan Africa, girls have limited access to an education because they routinely start early in the day, often before sunrise, traveling long distances to get water for their families; so although they value education, they are unable to regularly attend school. Each year, 272 million school days are missed because of time spent acquiring water or because of water related illnesses. This greatly limits girls’ potential for better jobs and a better future. However, when a village has a readily available source of clean water, girls have the same educational opportunities as the boys, which makes it possible to dream big and to think of a bright future in which they are no longer living in poverty.
884 million people do not have safe water. Every day in Africa, women and girls spend hours walking long distances to get water from any available sources- including polluted lakes, rivers, and even puddles of ground water. It is estimated that in Sub Saharan Africa alone all of this acquiring of water consumes 40 billion hours of labor each year.
Cost in dollars:
That much labor is equivalent to the entire workforce of California (16,951,000 people) working 45 hours per week for an entire year. If the 40 billion hours spent acquiring water were spent in work at minimum wage, it would have a value of $320,000,000,000. That is the cost per year in lost wages because of time consumed in acquiring water to simply survive. Also, the urban poor living in Nairobi slums and other region of poverty must buy their water, and they often pay five to ten times more per liter than their neighbors within the city who do not live in poverty.
Cost in quality of life:
Were there a readily available clean water source, the hours spent obtaining water could be spent nurturing young children, enjoying family life, creativity, business, gardening, and other life-enriching and income-producing activities.
Cost in health care:
Health care cost correlated to water borne and water related diseases is tremendous. At any one time it is estimated that people suffering from water related illnesses occupy one half of the world’s hospital beds, and 84% of these are children under the age of 14.
Cost in human lives:
Water related diseases take the lives of over 3.575 million people each year, taking the life of a child every 15 seconds.
Cost in US foreign aid:
It is estimated that the US would save $7 billion a year in foreign aid if the need for clean water in these countries was fully addressed. Every dollar spent on remedying the water, hygiene, and sanitation problems in developing countries yields eight dollars in return in the form of foreign aid that does not have to be spent.
Cost in productivity:
A tremendous amount of time is spent being sick or caring for the sick in countries affected by water borne diseases. Women are responsible for half the world’s food production, and in developing countries, women's labor accounts for 60-80% of food production. But when so much labor is invested in obtaining water and so much time is involved in either being sick or caring for the sick, the lack of clean water greatly reduces food production. When a village has a readily available source of clean water it makes possible not only more productive gardening, but larger scale farming with irrigation, thus increasing food production, income, and quality of life.
Cost in hope for a better future:
In the United States more than 50% of all college students are women, and women now comprise a large portion of the professional and skilled workforce; however, in most Third World countries these opportunities don’t exist. In Sub Saharan Africa, girls have limited access to an education because they routinely start early in the day, often before sunrise, traveling long distances to get water for their families; so although they value education, they are unable to regularly attend school. Each year, 272 million school days are missed because of time spent acquiring water or because of water related illnesses. This greatly limits girls’ potential for better jobs and a better future. However, when a village has a readily available source of clean water, girls have the same educational opportunities as the boys, which makes it possible to dream big and to think of a bright future in which they are no longer living in poverty.
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