Walk for Water {2013}

Clean water is something that comes up in our house a lot. When Dylan and Ella were young, our church started a clean water initiative to help the people of Masaka, Rwanda, and it seemed like a good way to get the kids involved in something bigger than our little life in the American suburbs. One of the ways we do this is by walking with our church community (and others) each spring.

Our little fundraisers filled out the postcards themselves this year, sending them out to their Nana's, Papa's, and Pa's, and their aunts and uncles too. Mommy helped out by sharing the cause on her Facebook page. Together, our family was able to raise over $500. ($20 creates access to clean water for one person for up to 10 years; $100 buys a SAM 3 filter which can serve up to 5 people.)

The day we walked was blissfully warm and sunny (which is not in the tradition of Michigan springs and past Walk for Water's which are usually cold and wet).

And we're off!

Mady and her BFF Abby are quite inseparable these days, even in their quest for social justice.

I love everything about this day - a church community, old and young, big and little, human and canine - joining together for something larger than ourselves.

I walked hand in hand most of the way with our sweet Ella. She's been praying for the kids who need clean water since she was old enough to talk.

At the halfway point of the walk, we stop to fill up our containers with dirty water to symbolize the walk many women and children make daily in parts of the world. Imagining drinking this muddy water, floaties and all, really drives the point home.

We then carry our heavy jugs back to the park where we started and run some through a filtration system -- the technology is amazing.

Until next year!

{The Dirty Truth: 1 in 8 people lack access to clean water. Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease. Dirty water kills more people than all forms of violence including war. Want to help? Give here.}

Walk for Water {2012}

This morning along with our Mars Hill community (and many others), 

our family participated in the 6th annual Walk for Water.

We walked our first walk in 2009 when Dylan was four and Ella was two. 

Over the years, clean water has become a cause dear to our hearts. 

The kids almost instantly connected with "the kids who don't have clean water" and D & E often include them in their dinner and bedtime prayers.

The walk each year is a very tangible way for our kids to further connect with the nearly one billion people worldwide who make a daily trek
(on average 3.7 miles) for often very dirty water.

Some sobering stats:

1 in 8 people do not have access to clean water.

Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water related disease.

Dirty water kills more people than all acts of violence, including war.

Diarrhea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.

There were signs set up all along the walk (about a mile and half to a dirty water source and then about a mile and a half back). 

The bigger kids were interested in reading each yellow sign and filling out the quiz that was provided.

We carried our empty containers and then filled them up in this dirty drainage ditch.

Everyone, including our littlest walker, carried them back to the park where we had started. Mady surprised us all and did a great job walking almost the entire way back while carrying her token bottle of dirty water.

They also had jerry cans set up along the way, each weighing 44 pounds, and they encouraged walkers to take a turn carrying them.

We dumped our water out at the end - they actually had a filter set up that you could pour your dirty water into and then try a sip of the clean water that came out...we didn't stick around to give it a try though :)

We're already looking forward to Walk for Water 2013!

20Liters began as the water initiative for Mars Hill Bible Church. 

20Liters works with local churches in Masaka, Rwanda to provide both slow-sand filters to households and rain water cisterns to churches. Learn how you can help by clicking here.

Previous Walk for Water Experiences:
{2011}

{2010}

{2009}

Walk for Water {2011}

[Please excuse the retroactive blog post. I realized I never shared about 2011's Walk for Water, after blogging about it in both 2009 and 2010 and now in 2012. Here are some snapshots of our experience. You can learn more about Walk for Water and 20Liters here.]

Walk for Water {2010}

This is old news but here are a few pictures from the Walk for Water we did with our church in April. We walked to raise money to buy water filters for communities in Rwanda. Amazing opportunity to help others and a great way to expose kids to the problems of the world - Ella regularly prays for "the kids who don't have clean water". So blessed to be a part of our church community.

Walk for Water

This morning, the kids and I participated in a Walk for Water. The walk raised funds for point-of-use water purifiers and rainwater harvesting systems in Rwanda. This is an issue that is talked about quite a bit at our church, especially in the kids' programs. Dylan had noticed the pictures and signs up at church and we talked about and decided it would be a good thing to do together. He got a few donations from the grandparents, Uncle Chad, and Mommy and Daddy and today we did the actual walk.

For the walk, we started in a park in Zeeland and walked a little over a mile and then filled up jugs and containers we brought with us and then carried them a little over a mile back where we emptied them out, symbolizing the walk a lot of kids in Rwanda take daily. Dylan complained a few times about wanting to stop or go home, but in the end he did walk the entire walk. Matt was working today, but we enjoyed walking with our friends Katie and Ernie and their kiddos and Uncle Chad.

Dylan seems to have a pretty good grasp on the concept - he explains it by saying that the kids in Africa have dirty water and the dirty water makes them sick so they need machines to help clean their water. On the drive to Zeeland this morning, he asked me if we were going to Africa today :), and he was concerned about putting water directly into our backpacks (I had to explain that it would go into a container first). This a fun age to watch him develop empathy and kindness, and I think he's starting to understand that not everyone has it so easy. He has a lot of questions about the world - why some kids have clean water and some kids have dirty water, why some kids can go to church whenever they want and some kids can't, why some kids have a lot of food and some kids are hungry. It's a big job answering these questions as a parent, and I know this is just the beginning.