On July 22, our family joined other parishioners of St. Philip’s at the headquarters of the Christian engineering nonprofit Water Mission in North Charleston. This was an interactive and engaging look at an organization dedicated to bringing fresh water and sanitation systems to both developing countries and disaster areas, while at the same time spreading the good news of the Gospel. 

We began our tour with an introduction by the cofounder, George Greene III. When Hurricane Mitch ravaged Honduras in 1998, Greene learned there was an urgent need for safe drinking water. He and his team of engineers, realizing no portable system was available, began developing one of their own. Thus Water Mission was born, which now helps those in need in multiple regions including Uganda, Haiti, Ukraine and Indonesia.

Our tour continued with a scavenger hunt for the children, which our fifth-grader Will heartily enjoyed, and an empathy exercise in which we role-played family members forced to leave home because of political unrest, to travel miles to a refugee camp. We learned that some families living in these camps are compelled to stay for over a decade. We learned about how heavy water can be, and how so many young people, especially girls, are forced to carry fresh water for miles in order to drink and wash, limiting their options for education because of the time commitment such an arduous daily task requires.

Finally, we listened to a presentation about ways we can all work together to help the global water crisis through both prayer and community action.  For example, children can collect spare change or run a lemonade stand to raise money and educate others about the world’s desperate need for safe water solutions. Adults and children can participate in the popular Walk for Water community event. Abby chose to become trained as a Charleston advocate who will help with Water Mission education for schools, churches, community groups, and businesses based in our area. This was an amazing call to action for church members concerning a most basic and vital need in the world that so many of us take for granted: safe drinking water.