Water For Life

By Alan

"Water, Water, Everywhere and not a drop to drink."

Samuel Coleridge wrote "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" and spoke those famous words, talking about being at sea and surrounded by undrinkable sea water. Imagine the frustration of those sailors, dying of thirst, but unable to partake of billions of gallons in water surrounding them.

For the very short period of time when I was in Mexico with others building simple housing, I had to be constantly aware of water. We were forced to drink water when our bodies told us it wasn't needed. We often had heat stroke cases among our team for those that forgot. We had to truck our own drinkable water in with us, because, as we were constantly reminded, the local water was safe for those that were locally raised, but potentially quite harmful to our non-locally raised bodies. We still had to use local water to mix concrete and stucco for walls, and it was often tempting to just splash it into our mouths to cool off the desert heat. But that would have been risky at the least, and dangerous at the worst. Water, but not to drink.

Most of us reading online with Internet connections have never encountered anything like real thirst or life threatening dehydration. We live in a world of privilege, where drinkable water is not only a common thing, we trivialize it. We use pure clean water to drink, prepare food, wash our face and hands, or wash our dishes. But, we also use that same pure water for washing the dog, watering the lawn, washing the car, or even just running down the drain because we aren't bothering to use it right now.

How many people in this world can afford to waste pure water?

God has known this all along. The role of water is such a basic fundamental understanding throughout the Bible, that it continues as a theme from the beginning to the end.

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Filling the Pool

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

Last week as temperatures soared into the 90s we spread a plastic tarp on the backyard grass, hauled the electric pump out of the basement and inflated the kids’ pool. We upgraded this year. A couple of weeks ago we trolled the aisles of Menards until we found a suitable pool – one that’s  a step or two up from the standard kiddie pool but yet  can still squeeze into our postage-stamp backyard.

The kids danced around the blue lagoon as freezing water sloshed from the hose into the pristine plastic. It took several hours for the pool to fill to the top – 3,463 gallons in all – but it wasn’t until the pool was completely full that we noticed the problem. Because of the slight slope in our yard, the pool was uneven. Unfortunately, the filter side of the pool happened to be the shallower side, so instead of sucking in water, the filter wheezed air, straining the motor and threatening to burn out.

There was only one viable solution: drain the pool and move it to a flatter spot.

So that’s what we did. Granted, we used a few buckets to water the plants and flowers in our yard. And the water we drained from the pool was useful for the grass. But still, while the pool drained and as it filled again with another 3,463 gallons of water, I couldn’t help but think about how that water could have been used much more productively in many parts of the world. How those few thousand gallons might have saved actual human lives.

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The Cons of Social Networking as a Ministry Tool (Part 3)

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

In concluding this series I would like to end with discussing the possible cons of using Social Networking as a ministry tool. This has been discussed for awhile among ourselves. As a whole I believe that social networking is a great means to get a message across or to bring about an awareness. However it can be over used and abused to the point that the message gets diluted. I think we really need to figure out who our audience is meant to be and  then use the most effective means to reach them.

As a case in point if we examine Facebook we all have a certain amount of friends. They stay fairly the same from week to week with maybe a few additions or subtractions. Constantly posting child packets each week to the same people over and over is not going to be productive. However posting a link to a relevant blog or article may keep the focus where it needs to be. Twitter I believe is great for the fact that we must be short and succinct in our message but again we are limited by the amount of followers we have and what their focus may be. We don't want to keep posting the same thoughts and overuse the medium. Blogs are personal in nature and can be used in many ways but we do not again want to keep the focus too limited. I have found this with my own blog and as a result I am at a crossroads with it. Either to seek to broaden the focus or to reinvent it.

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One Word At A Time: Compassion

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

Compassion [kuhm-pash-uhn]
synonyms: commiseration, mercy, tenderness, heart, clemency
verb: sympathize, pity
noun: pity, mercy, sympathy, commiseration, ruth, clemency
Compassion is a feeling of pity, sympathy, and understanding for someone who is suffering as well as the desire to alleviate it.

Interestingly enough I never really thought much about the word before. However in 2007 my world changed and the word Compassion has become an active part of my vocabulary as well as my actions. I have always had a heart for children through ministry and education but not to the extent I do now. In that year I had the opportunity to meet the child I sponsor through Compassion International. Those of you that know my story know the life changing moment that was for me. I went from caring to passionate. I saw the love that she had for the simple act that we were doing in sponsoring her and most of all I saw the difference that I was making. Compassion became a verb to me and a ministry.

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