Image courtesy of Episcopal Life online

Even in chronically drought-stricken states like California and Texas, most Americans have easy access to clean water for drinking and doing household chores.  This is not true in much of the developing world. When I lived in Micronesia as a child it took a lot of work to make sure that our water was safe; we collected and filtered rain water (it rained there every afternoon, all year long), because all the other water that was available to us needed to be boiled or bleached before it could be consumed or even used for washing dishes.  Most of us can’t imagine living like this.  Nor can we imagine having to walk miles to the nearest water source, and then being able to use only as much water as we can carry home with us.

And yet, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council “one billion people around the world don’t have access to clean, safe water.”  This results in millions of preventable deaths every year, including the deaths of between 4,000 and 6,000 children a day.  Thousands of children. Every day.

Waters of Hope logo, courtesy of the Diocese of Iowa website

The folks who started Waters of Hope want to change that statistic.  Waters of Hope is a classic grassroots effort; a bunch of people from the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri are raising money through sponsorships and donations as they ride their bikes over 600 miles in a big loop around the Diocese.  The money raised will go to clean water projects in Sudan and Swaziland.  Last year a Waters of Hope ride in Iowa raised over $60,000.

Our diocese has had a companion diocese relationship with the Diocese of Lui in Sudan since 2006, which has prompted many of us to learn more about the lives of people in southern Africa.  One of our outreach efforts has been to raise funds to drill deep water wells; I believe that to date we have completed seven wells, and that two more are planned for this year.

A couple of years ago at our parish’s Vacation Bible School we set up a “wishing well” and asked children to drop change into it every day; at the end of the week all of our coins were donated the the Diocese to help build a well.  Over those five days the children learned about how difficult it was for our brothers and sisters in Lui to gain access to water from a deacon who had been to Lui herself, and they took turns carrying around a symbolic jug of water to help them imagine what it would be like to live somewhere without plentiful, clean water at every turn.  I love how a seemingly abstract thing like a “companion diocese relationship” can turn into such concrete acts of service, learning, and love.  I wish that at the time I had had the following prayer, which I found on the Waters of Hope website:

O God, pour out the water of life that we may quench our thirst and draw our strength from you.  Help us to stand alongside those who struggle daily for clean water so that all may be refreshed and renewed by your love.  Amen.

Waters of Hope riders left from Lake St. Louis on Monday, May 25, and will end their ride on Sunday, May 31 (Pentecost) at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown St. Louis.  I’m sure they would welcome your support along the way, either literally or virtually (they’re on Facebook and Twitter).  They’re scheduled to arrive at the Cathedral between 10 and 11 am.  One of the organizers, the Rev. Joe Chambers, will be preaching at the 11:15 service and afterward there will be a discussion about ongoing fundraising efforts.  I wish them good luck on the last few days of their journey–and maybe a little less rain along the way!

Note: here’s the link to the January Episcopal Life story about our relationship with Lui; I mistakenly had it in the caption for the first photo.

Another update: I was alerted that I’d referred to the NRDC as the “National Resources Defense Council” rather than the “Natural Resources Defense Council.”  Thanks for the sharp eyes!  Again, the perils of working without an editor…