We did it! With God’s help, we raised $15,775 (as of May 4) in a community walk to provide a clean water well in an underdeveloped village.
We organized a 6K walk in our community and invited people to join in the dream that our community could provide clean water for a community without. We worked with World Vision, leaders in providing clean water wells worldwide. World Vision had already established a great system for supporting such walks and provide much of the material, signs, medals, online registration, etc. at no cost making it easy to implement the event. Special thanks goes to John Mauk and Karol Brecheisen, our team leaders, who boldly set our God-sized team goal at $15,000!
6K (just under four miles) is the average distance women and children in underdeveloped communities walk for water every day. The women carry 50 pound containers! And sadly, after such lengthy trips, the water they carry home is often dirty and contaminated. In many of these villages, death rates from water borne illness is high and children are lethargic and sickly.
It was 93 degrees on the day of our walk. One of our walkers finished and said, “Now, I’d have to do this again tomorrow and the next day, right?” Yes – if you lived in an underdeveloped nation. Have you thanked God lately for the blessing of readily available clean water in your home?
We had a team of 73 walkers (37 from Spirit Song). Some of our church winter family joined the walk from their summer homes. We provided water and snacks but found that most people came prepared and expected nothing from us. Walkers were awarded medals and thanked for making a difference by loving their neighbor across the world.
As of the writing of this article, we are sixth out of 854 teams in fundraising and funds continue to come into the World Vision website. Together, the teams they raised $1.5 million on the May 4, 2017 walk!
World Vision enters each village with an overall plan providing education on water, sanitation, and hygiene. They also provide healthcare, immunizations, address food scarcity and security, and economic development. What a blessing to be part of such a great program and to know that our team funded a well for a village.
One of our walkers turned ten the day of the walk. We told her she’d never forget her tenth birthday because it is the day she made a difference in the world!
Blessed with refreshing water, Rev. Valerie Fairchild, pastor of Spirit Song UMF
