Day Eight:  Blessed

Blood:Water Missions has put together a journal for those who have chosen to take this 40 day water challenge. The journal is an assortment of verses, success stories, plain o'll facts and words of encouragements. I wanted to share today's journal entry with you.

       Slowly, the days when the sun would shine became fewer and fewer.  Everyone knew what it meant: life and death were coming.

       Sure, the water brings life, if, and only if, someone was lucky enough to catch it in a clean container.  It would water the plants. The gardens. The animals. For a short time, anyway.

       After a few days, the rain would continue and the roads would become nearly impassable.  As everyone went about their business, they would notice how deep the water would get.  Anything with value was placed as high as it could go: sometimes on the corrugated metal roofs.  Before long, in the deepest places, children were not allowed and adults trudged through the mud and streams as they went about their daily activities.

      Flooding was inconvenient and stripped away so much of what this village had.  But it wasn't the flood that did the most damage. It was cholera.
cholera spreads through water.  If one person in the village has it, everyone who touches the water is at risk.  And every year, thousands of people would die during the rainy season because of the cholera outbreak.  The overabundance of rain was their only supply for drinking water.  And it wasn't clean.  They were cursed and they were named for it.  The name of the village, Chapulu Kusu, means cursed in Bemba, the language of this area in Zambia.

      They may have been cursed, but they were not forgotten.  Seeds of Hope International, one of the partners of Blood:Water Mission in Zambia, took notice.  They built wells.  They provided bio sand filters.  They educated people on hygiene and sanitation.
Everything changed.

      The next rainy season came, and not a single person died of cholera.  It happened again.  Nobody died.  And again.  And again.  No deaths because of cholera.

      Realizing the life clean water brought, the people of Chapulu Kusu petitioned the Zambian government to have their name changed.  No longer would they be know as cursed.  A new name was on their lips:

Mapalo,  which means blessed.

      The government agreed with the petition and the village mane was changed.  Now when the rainy season comes, the only thing that washes away is the fear, and the life and the blessing of clean water stays.


                     

Reflection#8: What's in a name?  Dignity.....  Reflect on the freedom that is lifted when life replaces death.


"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."  Matthew 25:40

Day Seven:  I am posting a video on Bio Sand Filters, pretty interesting if you've never seen one. It amazes me that this simple device is such a lifesaver and so inexpensive to build. What is so great about this technology is that volunteers are working with the local population, teaching them how to build and maintain these things. Sort of like the old saying "give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach him how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime." Apparently these bio filter boxes were invented by a professor in Canada in the 90's and are being installed by many humanitarian outreach groups. This video was made by a group called "All Hands" and was filmed in Haiti.

 I am having a serious debate about whether to drink coffee this Sunday since I had to deal with another day of caffeine withdrawals on Monday. Only time will tell if I will cave under the temptation.... will I be a glutton for punishment? I love the way people are interested in what I'm doing and they ask how my water journey is going.  It's very encouraging to know that people really do care about their world and the people in it.

"He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done".                  Proverbs 19:17

Who Is My Neighbor?

Day Six: After a break yesterday, it's back to drinking only water for 6 more days and though I really enjoyed my cup of coffee Sunday morning it made me a little jittery... I'm sure I'll get over that once I get back in the regular habit of it LOL! I am also eating more and I'm not sure why? I have heard that coffee will suppress appetite and maybe it's because my taste buds are bored..... Not good that I am probably gaining weight but still good that the money I am saving will go towards the drilling of wells and construction of bio sand filtering boxes.

                                       Who Is My Neighbor?

                          


        Luke 10:25-37 is the well known parable of the Good Samaritan who finds a man along the side of the road badly beaten and robbed and cares for all his needs until he can recover. Before the Samaritan found him, a priest and a Levite who were religious leaders in their time had seen the poor wretched man and had passed by on the other side of the road, ignoring the man's distress.

                                     Who Is My Neighbor?

       With mass media coverage we have awareness of the needs of others which was not so available 50 years ago. We have access to all sort of means of travel which was not so easy 50 years ago and we have the ability now with better equipment, medicines and new technologies which were not available 50 years ago. We have so much to offer in the 21st century.......... So why don't we?

Bono from the rock band U2 has been the voice for the poor in the World for a long time now and said these words which were sobering to me.



Anderson Cooper and Bono full lenght K'naan Samalia famine




        "15,000 Africans are dying each day of preventable, treatable diseases.  This statistic alone makes a fool of the idea many of us hold on to very tightly:  The idea of EQUALITY, there's no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.  Certainly not in the US,EU or Japan.  An entire continent bursting into flames?  Deep down, if we really accept that their lives, African lives are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out.  It's an uncomfortable truth."

               

        Why is it that the crash of a single airplane makes headlines while the equivalent of one hundred planes, filled with African children crashing daily never reaches our ears? Because that is the reality folks!  Maybe it's because the child is not our own. Maybe if it were happening in our own neighborhood?