Ecclesia Church - Houston, Texas - holistic, missional, christian, community

          884 million people around the world lack access to safe water, and 2.6 billion people are without adequate sanitation. Every year, 1.8 million children die from diarrhea—that’s more casualties than those from armed conflict and terrorism combined.

          The World Health Organization has estimated that 80 percent of all sickness and disease in the world is attributable to inadequate water or sanitation. At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are filled by patients suffering from water-borne diseases.

          The burden of gathering this dirty water often falls on the women and children in the community. In developing countries, women can spend 15 to 20 hours per week collecting water, carrying heavy water containers up to 7 miles in the dry season.

          No single factor transforms communities more than clean water. Every dollar invested in water and sanitation generates on average an eight dollar return in the form of saved time, increased productivity, and reduced healthcare costs.

          Living Water International exists to demonstrate the love of God by helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water, and to experience the “living water”—the gospel of Jesus Christ—which alone satisfies the deepest thirst. Over the last 20 years, Living Water International has completed more than 9,000 clean water projects and is currently at work in 25 countries around the world. In 2010 alone, Living Water International provided more than 1,600 water solutions in those countries.

          Living Water implements participatory, community-based water solutions by training, consulting, and equipping local people to serve their own communities. Thousands of volunteers, missionaries, and development professionals have been trained and empowered to drill wells, repair pumps, address disease prevention, and teach good health and hygiene practices to the communities we serve

          Building up communities, saving lives, and ending cycles of poverty and disease is good, but these are not the best things Living Water International has to offer. Our Christian identity shapes our understanding of community development, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is the best news we have. Living Water International is compelled by love to live, work, and speak in ways that draw people to Jesus, offering clean water to all who are thirsty regardless of their beliefs. 884 million people around the world are thirsty—and we have 884 million chances to reveal the glory of God.

For more information about Living Water International, please visit www.water.cc.