How long will it take you to read this sentence? 15 Seconds maybe? In that time 3 people will have died because of insufficient means to clean water. Do I have your attention now? Hearing this statistic (among others) really got my attention Friday March 19, 2010 when a group of friends and I went to the Sanctus Real concert at Club 3 in Minneapolis. In between the last supporting band and Sanctus Real taking the stage we watched a video with a speaker (the speaker who was supposed to be there was in Haiti adopting his daughter) telling us about Mocha Club an organization working to provide clean water for those who don't have it in Africa.
The explaination was that for $7 a month we could provide water for 7 people in Africa for a year. Suddenly thoughts were running through my head. "Seven dollars? That's nothing! I spend that on bottles of pop alone. What was my excuse for not giving seven dollars to people who really needed it?" I had none. So along with my buddy Lucas we went back to the table and signed up to start donating.
After getting home I started to think more and more about these families in Africa that have no clean water. Do you even realize how much clean water you go through in a day? And they have none? I began to think of things that I could do to get the word out about this dire need. I started to put it in my status on Facebook, signed up to apply to be a campus rep for them, and now I'm blogging about it. In scripture Jesus says : "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in" "I tell you did the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:35, 40).
When we do these things for the least of our brothers we are doing it for Christ. One day in heaven Christ will thank us for giving him something to drink when we saw him thirsty. We may be confused and ask him Lord when did we see you thirsty and give you drink. He'll tell us that when we did it for those people in Africa we were doing it for Him. We are called to serve others before ourselves "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." (1 Peter 4:10). Let's start by serving our brothers and sisters in Africa.
In their book Do Hard Things Brett and Alex Harris challenge teens of our generation to strive for more. To want to do bigger things and overcome the low expectations the world has for us. Who's to say that we can't rise up and make a difference in the world. This book has really spoken to me to want to do more for these people who haven't known the joys of clean water. If i get one friend to join the cause and they get one friend and that friend gets one friend and so on and so on pretty soon we'll be really making a difference and bringing clean water to thousands of people in Africa. So rise up and do hard things join the cause. Clean water is something everyone should be entitled to.
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