First though a little background...
Because I am such a slow learner, God has had to spend the past twenty years faithfully, systematically, and profoundly developing two deep passions that I have. They were, and still remain...the desire to comprehend God's love for the less fortunate; and, the desire to understand God's will in giving. He has used multiple and various means to water, cultivate, nurture, and grow my understanding of these desires. Through my own personal study, the reading of dozens of books, the listening of numerous sermons, my involvement in outreach ministries, and countless one on one conversations, God has thusfar led me to these two conclusions...
1). My love and compassion for the poor should be no less than what God's is; and,
2). My giving should be sacrificial in nature and not so much "out of my abundance".
So from there, I began asking myself these two questions, "How could I sacrificially give to the less fortunate?" and "What does that look like?"
And now, the good stuff...
In helping to answer those two questions, approximately two years ago, His Spirit prompted, led, and developed this wonderful, profound, yet humbling idea. I definitely give credit to His Spirit for this idea, because I believe it is too good to have come from any man!
"What if when Sharon and I go out to eat, at times, we would intentionally and purposefully order water to drink instead of soft drinks, tea, etc. The money that we saved by intentionally drinking water and not paying for overpriced drinks would be set aside, then purposefully given to a ministry that helps provide clean water." Therefore the name, Water for Water!
Life example: This coming Friday, April 17 is my wife Sharon's __th birthday. To celebrate, several in our family are planning to meet together and eat at Ted's Cafe in Broken Arrow. Their tea and soft drink price is $2.49 per. Sharon and I will intentionally order water. We will encourage/ask the other adults to do the same. If all six adults drink water, we will save/not spend $14.94. That money will purposefully be given to Kibo Group Interntional for its Water Source project in Uganda.
Now, the one concept I love about this idea is there are no hard and fast rules! Each participating individual or family sets their own guidelines as to when he/she/they will choose to drink water at a 'dine-in' meal, and then where to direct that 'saved' money to help provide clean water to someone else in the world.
Obviously, more could be written or said about this idea. But for now, what a simple, easy, and thoughtful way to make a dent in or even eventually solve the problem of unclean water throughout the world!
I definitely request your prayerful thoughts, reactions, comments, and insights to this idea. Please comment either, here on Facebook; email me at stlcards1956@yahoo.com; or through IM.
Always thinking kingdom...
