Water is Life

One of my goals with this blog is to show what our parent organization Power to Change Ministries is doing. Power to Change Ministries has over 11 different ministries. Today I'd like to focus on one project that the Global Aid Network is doing.

Global Aid Network (GAiN) exists to demonstrate the love of God, in word and deed, to hurting and needy people around the world, through relief and development projects. http://www.globalaid.net/

What I really appreciate about GAiN is the very real, practical, tangible demonstration of the gospel that goes along with the words.

At staff conference this year, I learned about a project GAiN is doing to provide clean drinking water to areas in Africa: The "Water for Life" initiative. GAiN reminds us that "water-related diseases kill a child every 20 seconds, and are responsible for 80% of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world". GAiN goes in with a team and builds a well that taps in to clean water 80 meters below the surface. By providing clean drinking water, people in the village are 1) healthy, and 2) able to focus on tasks that produce income, rather than fetching water.

I have also heard that these wells provide an avenue to minister to the spiritual needs of the community as well as the physical needs. It's great to be a part of a ministry that is creatively addressing physical and spiritual thirsts.

Some say helping is when you've walked a mile in someone else's shoes. We believe it takes about 80 meters.

summit weekend

Last weekend I went to "Summit", our fall student conference. There were 9 summits across Canada. The one I went to had over 320 students!

The purpose of summit is to kick off the fall term of ministry by training and challenging the students. There were a number of training seminars including "How to share your faith without freaking out". The main speaker spoke on the danger of idols like money and approval in our lives.

I went to both help out and represent the operations team. The setup team appreciated having another person to help out. I moved a lot of speakers and mic stands! As a member of the operations team it was beneficial to be present so people to ask me questions or feedback about our web sites. I have some ideas now about how to be more effective in this regard next year.