DEEP PIT FOR DEEP POCKETS- Update

So i sent out an e-mail last Wednesday to my community of friends and co-workers. 8 days before leaving, I shared the un-planned arrival of my decision to go. I hoped to share some of our vision for going. i also shared my crazy need to cover $3800 of traveling costs within 1 week...

...and i have been OVERWHELMED by the responses.

By Monday, every single expense of my trip was covered. Even the ones i didn't communicate in my e-mail. My plane tickets. My lodging, food and transportation expenses in Africa. my vaccinations. my supplies. even my 6 unpaid days off of work.

It has been an emotional ride these last 5 days. I've been humbled by my peers extending money to me they could otherwise spend on things they need or want. I've felt honored by the sincerity and sacrafice of some of the smallest donations. I've been blown away by contributions from people i've never met or just met for the first time. I've been encouraged by the those older than i extending their confidence with such quick replies and generous investment into what is happening. And i wept to myself in my car when i read a personal note attached to a $1,000 check. I kid you not-- every single detail has been provided for. Down to finding the shoes i needed...in my size...at half price...ten minutes before closing time the night before leaving.

There is clearly something much larger at work in our community. And in the Sudan. And I feel like i've had the privilege of spending the last 5 days watching previews for the story we will be telling together...and, you know exactly who you are. even if i don't yet.

In addition to physically sending me to Sudan, i believe your overwhelming generosity has been preparing my heart for this trip. I have felt known. I have felt supported and believed in. I have felt a part of the community created by our friendships. And i just can't help but think that i'm supposed to GET that before i try to communicate the very same thing to our friends in Sudan. So, whether you like it or not, i'm bringing you with me.

...$5600 in 5 days? you are far, far from ordinary.
THANK YOU.

Follow our trip on our blog at: www.sudancalls.blogspot.com

SUDAN VIDEO from Rock for Water tour

This video was created by some conveniently creative cats from my church with footage from the first visit to the Sudan in the fall.

PART 1: Last Fall, Ryan (the bearded man, now husband to one of my best friends) and Travis (the voice behind the video and the Vans, my pastor and teammate on this coming trip) spent a few weeks traveling to these villages, meeting new friends and scouting out the needs in these areas. They returned...overwhelmed. They also returned motivated and determined to make cleaner water available to these new friends.

PART 2: The Rock for Water Benefit Concert Tour was organized. Musicians donated their time and the church covered the expenses for ten concerts where they shamelessly asked for money to build wells for our friends. no mega churches. no auditoriums. just extraordinary people...in really ordinary places like the Cellar Door on a Thursday night...joining in the vision. and now, look what's happened. Within 3 weeks, $26,000 returned from extraordinary partners, like you. They surpassed the original goal of $20k for 2 wells. They are building 3 wells this summer instead of 2. And our friends in these 3 villages will have access to clean water for the very first time.

PART 3: I can't wait to meet them.

...some of the issues taking lives of these people are starting to b-l-o-w my mind. they are absolutely preventable. We're not talking about needing a cure for an unknown cancer. We're talking about separating the water they drink from the water collecting the human waste we send down the toilet. When they drink the polluted water, the bacteria from the waste results in diseases that they don't have access to medicine to treat it. Often times this "disease" is diarrhea. You and I would pop one of the 450 Immodium AD tablets i can buy at Coscto for $5.50, lay down and stay close to the restroom. For them, without anything to curb the diarrhea, they face dehydration to the point of...well, dying sometimes. or, how about a lot of the time. Here's a statistic from Water Aid that's a little challenging to digest: In the past 10 years (1997), diarrhea has killed more children worldwide than all the people lost to armed conflict since World War II (1945).

my wheels spinning about how to sustainably fund clean water projects...
i'm mulling over these facts:
- a typical well runs us $800k-$1M these days.
- a well in the Sudan runs $9,000- only 1-2% of that.

A Hypothetical-
What if you were in the business of needing a well.
What if you received an enginerring bid that was 1% higher than the others.
What if that 1% built 1 well in Sudan by every 1 built in the Valley.
What if they offered you the tax benefit for that donation.
What if you decided there were other benefits.
What if we started...1 by 1.

i'm intimidated and humbled by this opportunity. to be the first group to build relationships with these people. i have no idea what I'll end up doing. what we'll see. what i'll feel. what God will do with this experience. but, i have a strange peace about it in my bones...which has deposited a great spirit of expectation.