Walk over to the kitchen sink, turn on the facet and fill your glass with filtered and purified clean water. Add some ice, let it chill.... take a refreshing cool drink. You take that experience for granted don’t you? That’s the experience in America. Clean water is considered a right that everyone is entitled to enjoy. No one should be deprived of clean drinkable water.
That experience doesn’t exist in much of the developing world. People do not have clean drinkable water. Water can make people very sick and even kill! Think about these statistics the next time you casually, easily and conveniently fill your glass with clean drinking water.
More than one billion people, one sixth of the world’s population, are without access to a clean, safe water supply. At any given moment, about half of the world's poor are suffering from waterborne diseases, of which over 6,000, mostly children, die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water.
One of the world’s most prolific killers is diarrhoeal diseases from bacteria like typhoid, cholera, e. coli, salmonella and many others... all waterborne.
As Christians, concerned about spreading the Gospel to the millions of people who need to hear of Jesus, we must be aware that “hearing the message of salvation” can only effectively happen if the most basic needs of people are being met. Our mission to preach Christ today, is concentrated in many countries where clean consumable water is not available to the majority of the population. If you have traveled on short-term mission trips to the countries of southeast Asia, you have seen ample supplies of bottled water readily available in urban areas. But in remote and rural parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and many other places all around the globe, bottle water is not available. Even if it is, many people are simply too poor to afford to purchase it. So, they live each day with the high risk of drinking unclean dangerous water... just to continue living.
Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions, especially in the countries of the 10-40 Window. You can help spread the Gospel by providing a way for poverty stricken peoples to get clean water.
LifeStraw may be the answer. LifeStraw is a point-of-use water filtering straw-like device designed by a Swiss-based company (Vestergaard Frandsen) for people living in developing nations. It comes in two capacity formats... Personal and Family. LifeStraw was developed as a practical response to the billions of people who are still without access to the most basic of basic of human rights... clean water.
The aptly-named LifeStraw is an invention that could become one of the greatest lifesavers in history. It is a 25 cm long, 29 mm diameter, plastic pipe filter and costs just a few dollars, about $5.00 US. LifeStraw Personal filters a minimum of 700 litres of water, enough for one person for about one year. LifeStraw Family filters a minimum of 18,000 litres of water, providing safe drinking water for a family for more than two years. LifeStraw removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, such as Shigella, Salmonella, Enterrococus, Staphylococcus Aureus and E.Coli,
99.99% of viruses, and 99.9% of parasites.
LifeStraw is currently in use in Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda. Many more people need to be helped by this lifesaving invention.
Is this a project for your Church? I invite you to prayerfully consider becoming a provider of LifeStraws to an area of the world where people are in desperate need of clean safe drinking water. If you support missionaries in developing and impoverished countries, they can be your resource for distribution of this lifesaving
invention. Think of the possibilities LifeStraw could open for missionaries to proclaim the love of Christ, through this lifesaving way.
Presently, there is an initiative to raise funds to provide LifeStraws for the people of the delta region in Myanmar who are still suffering from the effects of Cyclone Nargis. Clean water is there most pressing need. Burmese adults and children are dying everyday without access to this most basic right of humanity.... clean water.
For further information about the Myanmar LifeStraw Initiative, please send your inquiry to the following e-mail addresses:
wayneford@myanmarchristianmission.com or gmnintl@comcast.net
If your church Mission Group has other countries where you would like to organize a LifeStraw Initiative, please send your request to gmnintl@comcast.net and information will be provided, enabling you to make your own direct arrangements.
