“Water is Life”
Water – One of the greatest needs among developing countries today. The Bible speaks of both physical water necessary for life here on earth, and living water necessary for eternal life. One is for temporary relief, the other for eternal satisfaction. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “Everyone who drinks this water (physical water) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Everyone needs water, physical and living. It is our mission to make both available to the impoverished and forgotten in developing countries.
With that mission, Neverthirst supports churches and other Christian organizations in developing nations through water and sanitation projects in their communities. ‘Water is life’ is not an exaggeration. Without access to clean water, over a billion people in the world are forced to drink from unclean sources. Millions drink from hand dug holes in the ground, muddy rivers or stagnate ponds shared with local livestock. Our abundance of resources combined with clear Biblical mandates to serve the poor and spread the Gospel, make this is an unacceptable reality.
I will never forget walking with a group of Sudanese approximately one mile to their water source. We walked along a worn path where the women and children travel each day to gather their daily water – usually in 40 pound fuel containers. As we approached the creek bed, I experienced for the first time their drastic need. The water source from which they sacrificed desperately just to access was little more than a filthy pond. The truth was they had no clean water.
We then traveled 45 minutes down a dirt road to a town called Lui where Samaritan’s Purse operated a hospital. We walked through the wards and prayed over the rows of children dying from dehydration. The majority had diseases caused by the dirty water they were drinking. These little boys and girls were about to join the 4,500 children that die each day – all from preventable waterborne diseases.
It is hard for us to appreciate the magnitude and desperation. Simplistically, 1 in 6 people on the planet do not have access to safe drinking water. As a result, thousands of adults and children will die today. And tomorrow. And the next. This necessarily alters the way we see the world. Couple this dramatic physical need with over 1 billion people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, and it creates an undeniable responsibility to act. Life centered around bettering ourselves, our careers, our toys, and even our families, suddenly pales. Our God-given resources provide the opportunity to both sustain life and spread the knowledge of eternal life. Could there be any greater use?
The incredible truth is that everyone can be involved in this mission. It will look different based on individual circumstances. Some will have the ability to fund a portion of a water project, while others can share our work with their friends. Some will be able to contribute creatively to our web/video/photography endeavors to tell the stories of how God is working, and others can support the ‘back office’ of our operation. Whatever the case, we welcome you to be a part of what God is doing to show His love and provision in some of the world’s neediest places.