Advent Conspiracy and Christmas

The average new drinking water well in Africa serves about 1000 people.  Once the well is in place, people in the community stop dying.  More people move into the community because they have water.  The villages grow.  But, in Liberia (and elsewhere), war makes the wells easy targets of terrorism and violence.  An even larger community is now left with polluted water to drink.  Disease speads even more quickly.  More people begin dying and watching their children die.

December 3 – I e-mailed our lead pastor and asked, “What is a realistic goal for the Advent Conspiracy giving?  I need to know so I can pick which project we’ll fund. $1000, $3000, $10000 …”  His response, “$3000.”

December 21 – We planned to collect the money through December 28 and send the check by Jan. 1.  Total giving thus far for the Water Project is $6500, and donations are still coming in.

$6500 from our little church.  With the economy in the toilet, several people in our community having lost their jobs or knowing it’s imminent…and in 2 weeks they gave over twice what we thought we’d see in a month.  Now, we’ll be able to repair two wells, maybe even three if a little more money comes in. Our little community of about 100 people on a Sunday is going to impact thousands of people across the globe.

Happy Birthday, Jesus.  Some of Your folks are pretty awesome.