The gratitude project: Water (our response)

September 21, 2011

I have been so blessed to see the developing hearts of compassion in our children through this process of educating them on the needs of others while empowering them to make a difference.  As I mentioned yesterday, only minutes after watching the videos about the water crisis, they were compiling ideas on how they could be a part of the solution.  We brainstormed several ideas and once we developed our plan, they continued to talk about it throughout the day fine-tuning the details while dreaming and smiling as they envisioned the community that would be impacted by our gift.  I heard, “I am so excited about our plan!” more than once along with “How do they build the pump?”  “How many people do you think it will help?”  “Mom, I am worried what they will do for water in the winter, will the pump still work?”  Their young minds were working hard and their hearts were growing with compassion!

During dinner we often take turns asking each other questions.  The question of the night was “If you could make any wish and know it would come true, what would you wish for?”  Not surprisingly, both Hunter and Ashlyn wished for clean water for all who need it.

Our plan to help:

We made a goal to earn enough money ($200) to purchase a foot-powered water pump.  Realizing that earning $200 by doing household chores would take too long (too many people would die by then), we came up with a plan on how to combine our gifts and talents to reach our goal faster.

After learning that many families live on just 5 gallons of water a day, we decided to find out exactly what it would be like to live on just 5 gallons of water for the 6 people in our home for one day.  We would turn off the water to our home and ration 5 gallons for all of our water needs (cleaning, hygiene, cooking and of course, drinking).  We proposed to document the experience on video complete with interviews from family members and edit it into a short film that others could purchase for the cost of $1.99 per download.  All the money obtained from the video download purchases would directly benefit the foot-powered water pump fund.  Our goal is to reach at least 100 downloads thus allowing us to send $200 to World Vision for the pump.

We are hopeful that as you have followed our story, your family has also gone down a similar road of compassion and perhaps you have been inspired to your own plan of action to be a part of the water solution.  If so, we would love to hear about it and if possible, join in to support you.  If you feel so led, we also invite you to purchase our video documentary for $1.99 and/or the song featured on the video (for $0.99) called “Just Maybe” by Dan Powers and discover what it was like for us to live on 5 gallons of water for a day.  If you would rather not purchase our video or a song you can also simply donate to this fund directly using the “ChipIn” link below. (By the way, it shows that we are wanting to earn $198 because before I added this option we had already had $2 donated toward our goal of $200.)

Together we can make a difference!

We invite you to view our short YouTube video “trailer” talking about our Water Challenge video (which you can purchase here on our website).

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