Last year for Easter, a group of friends from my church raised money to build a clean water well in a developing country through an organization called charity: water. We raised almost $5,000, and our church Ekklesia matched every dollar we raised. We sent nearly $10,000 to charity: water in June 2012. We had so much fun doing it that we decided to do it again! We are doing this because, though there are more people than ever trying to solve the world’s water problem, there continues to be great need. Almost a billion people on our planet – about 1 in 7 of us – live without access to safe, clean drinking water. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

We are also doing this because we believe in Resurrection – that God is in the business of bringing good out of bad, hope out of hopelessness, life out of death. And while we might wish, wait, and hope that God will miraculously intervene somehow, swooping down and fixing everything that’s wrong in our world, that’s just not how it works. Any intervening, swooping, and fixing that God is going to do is going to be done through us. In other words, Resurrection enters this world through you and me – we have the responsibility and privilege of bringing life and hope to a world often hopelessly overwhelmed by death.

This Easter we are inviting you to be part of bringing life to people who desperately need it by joining us in building a well. We are hoping to raise $5,000, which is approximately the cost of a single well that will serve about 250 people. And just like last year, our church, Ekklesia, will match every dollar each of us individually contribute, up to $5,000. In other words, if we raise $5,000 for a single well, Ekklesia will double it and we’ll build two wells! Thank you for considering being part of it!