and this is the why

i am loving highlighting some items for this year's raffle.  it is so very fun to see the way God has gifted all of my friends and family members with certain passions and personalities and the way that gets reflected in the item they choose to give for the raffle.

and while the raffle items are SO FUN (like, really, i am amazed at all of the goodness and generosity and creativity that lives inside so many of us) the items themselves are not what this whole thing is all about. obvs.

there is a very real, vibrant, strong courageous woman living half way across the world in a tiny village in Uganda who is tirelessly working to make clean drinking water available while simultaneously carving out a space for hope to grow through the dignity and sustainability of jobs. (whew! that was a looooonnnng sentence, because the work that is happening over there is multi-faceted and just bursting with awesomeness)


this is when i met that vibrant, strong, courageous woman.  (when i told the kids i was working on the water raffle, ashton was convinced that diana was going to come visit us again.)  


World Water Day 2015 from The Adventure Project on Vimeo.

i've been emailing with becky straw about this year's campaign for the adventure project to come alongside diana in her work and i'm just so thrilled that we get to be a part of it again this year.

from the adventure project...

The core of our work isn't in drilling wells and making a lot of noise.  It's in creating good jobs. In Kamwenge, we support Water for People to help train local community members to become well mechanics to fix and maintain wells in communities across the district. Local care takers are hired to keep the wells clean and collect fees from users. 


what a beautiful paragraph.  i cannot believe we get to advocate for such a beautiful, sustainable endeavor.

last year we rehabilitated 3 wells, which created 6 jobs (a mechanic and caretaker for each well), providing clean water for 900 people.  

here's diana at one of the wells we supported.

another one.  diana's just doing her thing.  

this year, the adventure project aims to rally around World Water Day in an effort to rehabilitate the 3 broken down wells still remaining in the pilot program in the Kamwenge district, drill new wells for 3 villages who are off the grid and have never had access to clean water, and to provide the Kabambiro village with a motorized borehole enabling them to service the 550 people in it's growing community.

becky has asked our raffle to support the work of rehabilitating the last 3 wells in the pilot program.  so far this pilot program has exceeded everyone's expectation and if it continues to work, they will begin duplicating it throughout Africa.   pretty incredible.

each of these wells needs roughly 4k to ensure proper rehabilitation, including a mechanic and care taker for each.  that's 12k.  we've NEVER started with that high of a goal.  oh geez.

this is the part where you share with anyone who will listen.  this is important work, we're dusting the earth, restoring order and bringing heaven here for all to see.  we're making the good news of Jesus an actual, tangible thing. 

raffle and bidding officially begin on tuesday, march 15th and we'll draw for winners on world water day which is tuesday, march 22nd.  

oh Jesus, may all who drink from these wells know of the living water that comes from you alone.
may this clean, ever-flowing water be a very real picture of your love for them.