Statistics vary but it seems at least 1.4 billion people, or 21% of the world’s population, lives without access to clean water. This is hard to grasp for most North Americans as we can easily take for granted things like pure tap water (while we drink from plastic bottles of exotic water that purportedly sources from tropical springs inhabited by pixies). There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking advantage of living where and when we do if, and this is a very big if, we periodically stop and recognize our blessings. Easy access to clean drinking water is a commodity that is growing scarcer each year. More and more people become sick and die each year from contaminated, dirty, impure drinking water. A large percentage of the sick are children. These are simply the Clean Water Rules. Where there is clean drinking water people live longer and stronger; and sadly, the converse is true, impure water kills. Several people in our church have seen this harsh life-reality up close in places like Haiti, Africa and the Dominican Republic. It’s much uglier in person. One can only take watching kids play and bathe in disease filled water for so long without running away or deciding to do something about the problem.
JCBC decided to try to impact the Clean Water Rules by providing monies and on-the-ground-support to provide a clean water system in a Barrio or Batey in the Third World portion of the Dominican Republic. In the end, the Brisas del Mar barrio in La Romana was chosen and very soon clean, pure and very inexpensive water will flow to approximately 12,000 people. We, the family of faith known as Johns Creek Baptist Church, all together, as a group, made this happen. We gave to this project and we met our goals. Ten people paid extra to make the trip and do the actual work of getting the building up and in place for the water purification system. We did it. All of us made clean water possible in this barrio. And the people in this poor village know it was done in the name of Christ. To this end lives will be saved…physically and spiritually. And don’t forget, we also altered the reach of the Clean Water Rules, because some rules were meant to be broken!
Thanks to the ten missionaries…you know who you are…and thanks to JCBC for believing we can actually change the world.
Michael McCullar
Formations Pastor
Johns Creek Baptist Church
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We watch TV and admire the heros who come in, fight against the odds for the “little guy” and win. I was previlidged to work next to some heros at our church who did just that… Came in, fought against the odds for the “little guys” and WON! It was a week I will never forget. Thank you all for the opportunity to do something that truely made a difference in this world. May all who want to… get to experience this as well! Great job Heros! DonW