Water

Water is such a precious commodity. People like me, with easy access to clean drinking water from a tap at homes, take it for granted most of the time. I never wonder if water will flow at the turn of the tap. I don't have to get up early and walk miles to the nearest supply, carrying heavy water containers home on my head, shoulder or back. The only time I have ever had to walk to fetch water is while camping and then it's been fun and only for a week or so and only across a field. 

It's shocking that about 1 in 8 of the world population do not have access to safe drinking water. Diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation result in about 4000 child deaths per day. If you want to help change this, have a look at Water Aid, an international non-governmental organisation with 

"a mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world's poorest communities".

 Water has been on my mind recently as I've thought about how one woman, whose daily chore of fetching water from a well led to an unexpected meeting with a traveller who she couldn't stop talking about. I don't know her name. I know who she met. His name was Jesus...You can read the story here.You can read some of my thoughts about it on my #digidisciple post at the Big Bible Project: Who Needs a Drink: Woman Fetching Water. You can also find a reflection about this story here: Living Water and (with a video of a modern monologue of what the woman might have said) here: Thirsty.


Photo by Joost Nelissen