share the love

Sometimes my mind wanders. I hope you don't mind wandering with me a bit. 
It's been a dry summer, which I may not have noticed if we weren't trying to plant grass. The water bill may be a little higher from watering our weeds grass, but our family hasn't really felt it. When we're thirsty, we pull out some ice cubes our fridge made and pour ourselves a glass of iced water. When we're dirty (and honestly, times when we don't have a speck of dirt on us), we turn on our shower and water so clean you could drink it pours. Plus there's the washing machine and the dishwasher and the sprinkler and slip-n-slide...


Then I get the Compassion magazine and read of Kenya's severe drought, and it seems so very far from reality.

1 billion people worldwide live in chronic hunger, 

   which is equivalent to the populations of North America and Europe combined!

                                                                     ~ from unicef

And I wonder how would we do? What would our farmer's market look like with 3 years and no rain? Where would our food come from if the shelves of Super-Walmart were bare? How would we bathe if the faucet ran dry? Would we get used to drinking water from a river rather than reverse-osmosis? What could happen...

Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related illness.

                                                                          ~ from water.org

Which means, in the 5 minutes it takes you to read this post, 15 children died because they don't have clean water. I can barely wrap my mind around what that means. I try to explain to my child who got upset because he was given a glass of water rather than fruit punch at school (because he's allergic to red dye) that many children their age never made it to school because they spent their day looking for water. But it seems the best way to begin to understand is to realize how very blessed we are. To realize we are blessed to bless.


I can't talk about water without giving a great big shout-out to those making a difference. Luke realized we are blessed to bless when he started Mudlove. 

You can check them out here, and should really watch this video. 
Every $5 spent at Mudlove provides 1 African with clean drinking water for 1 year! Really.


And so,
to share the love, 
my first giveaway!! 

Comment below with what word you would love on a Mudlove band. 
It can be any of the above or make up your own! {11 character limit}
I'll throw your name in a hat and reveal the winner next Friday, June 29th.
P.S. I'll mail overseas too :)
The winner will receive your very own Mudlove band with your word of choice.
And, one more person has one more year of clean drinking water.  

I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink...

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, 

you did for Me. ~ Jesus