Blood Water Mission

Five years ago, the group Jars of Clay appeared on K-LOVE radio with a proposal for the listening audience. That proposal was simple, to donate money and build one thousand wells in African villages which had never known clean water. They called this proposal the Blood Water Mission .

I know that if you, my readers, are like many Americans, you probably get tired of hearing about the plight of others in other nations. That they should be taken care of second, and America should come first. Water is a basic essential for life; 70% of our bodies are made out of water, most of our world's surface is covered with it. Lack of clean drinking water isn't something we struggle with a great deal in our nation, rather we turn on a faucet in even a public restroom and it's there.

That is not the case in some portions of this world. That is the purpose of Blood Water Mission. As I said before, villages which have never known clean water, receive wells. The stories one hears are heartbreaking, and almost unbelievable to a person like myself who can walk twelve feet to a water fountain and get potable water. Children trying to drink mud for a sip of moisture, people walking over an hour to get dirty water, just so their family doesn't die of dehydration, etc.

Over the past five years, the Blood Water Mission has managed to raise money for almost 9/10ths of their goal of 1000 wells for African villages with over half a million separate private donors. It takes $9,000 to build each well. Today, K-LOVE and Air1 are hosting the Well Done Project, in hopes of raising the money needed to finish the last 100 wells. I doubt they can do it, but they do have my prayers. Clean drinking water, in my personal view of the world, is a basic human right.

As I get off my soapbox I can already hear the objections of a number of people I know about the "hand out" system. How it will just make these unfortunate people dependent on the West. For those people, I give you the "How We Work" page of Blood Water Mission, whose goal is to "empower communities to fight against..." rather than giving them a handout.

Now personally? I'm a poor young college student, so I can't give monetarily. However, I would encourage you, my readers, to at least pray for Blood Water Mission as I do, even if you can't or won't give monetarily.