WATER...

Water

I have been feeling a little under the weather lately.  Last night I started coughing at about 1:30 a.m. and I didn’t want to wake Erik up so… I went downstairs and tried to sleep in the den.  For some reason I couldn’t go to sleep so I grabbed a cough drop and went to snuggle with Kinz.  I started coughing and I didn’t want to wake her up soooooo… I decided to go to my office and do some work…  After about 5 minutes of filing papers and trying to get organized my little 12 year old walks into my office at about 2:00 a.m. with two glasses of water and tells me maybe this will help your cough! I think my jaw dropped, my eyes got watery and I felt SO blessed to have such a COOL kid!  I was feeling a little pathetic and sorry for myself, a little sick and frustrated I couldn’t sleep and a sweetie with ONE glass of water TOTALLY made my week!  I thought it was selfless, thoughtful, empathetic and compassionate… BEAUTIFUL characteristics to see in my daughter! …After drinking my WATER, I followed her back to her room.  And… as I laid there in bed – thoughts about WATER kept pouring into my HEAD!

The last time I remember having a drink of WATER that was significant to me was in 2007. Our Family went to Kenya, Africa for the first time.  It was a Homemade Mission trip with the HUGE help of Madison’s 3rd Grade teacher who had moved there and was teaching in Nairobi.  Well… Claude set our family up with several different groups in Nairobi who we could visit and help.  He hooked us up with Horace who shared about Planting Faith Ministries and took us to Thika where we visited an orphanage.  All of the children were gone with a family member or friend for Christmas, but Grace was there and she gave us a tour of the orphanage and the animals.  We sat down to talk with her and she poured us some “Kenyan Cool-Aid.”  Horace tried to tell Grace that the water would make us sick, but she said to us, “OH Don’t WORRY, I will pray over it and you will NOT get sick.”  She prayed a beautiful, amazing prayer and filled our glasses to the rim. YES! We drank every last drop and I was the only one who had any negative side effects out of all 4 of us. I take advantage of how easy it is to get a glass of water, clean water that doesn’t make me sick. 

Water

The human body is about 60% water in adult males and 55% in adult females.
Water flows through the blood, carrying oxygen and nutrients to cells and flushing wastes out of our bodies. It cushions our joints and soft tissues. Without water as a routine part of our intake, we cannot digest or absorb food.

'The Rule of Threes'.
You can live 3 minutes without air
 After 3 days, you need water or you'll perish.
You can make it 3 weeks without food

Water

Water appears in the bible 722 times!
My Favorites:
John 7:38
Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’
Isaiah 12:3
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
 John 4:10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
John 4:14
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Water that speaks of Physical (or natural) birth - Genesis 1:20
Water that speaks to us of the word of GOD – Ephesians 5:26
Water speaks to us of the purification of the Christian – Ezekiel 36:25
Water speaks to us of Spiritual Life – Isaiah 12:2-3

Water Statistics
  • 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people.

  • 3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease.
  •  The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
  • Poor people living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.
  • An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.
Sanitation
  • Only 62% of the world’s population has access to improved sanitation – defined as a sanitation facility that ensures hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact.
 
  • Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection.
  • 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who have no facilities at all.
Children
  • Dirrahoea remains in the second leading cause of death among children under five globally. Nearly one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year – is due to diarrhea. It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
  • Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
  • Diarrheoa is more prevalent in the developing world due, in large part, to the lack of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as poorer overall health and nutritional status.

  • Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time.
  • In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water.
  • 1.4 million children die as a result of diarrhea each year.
Women
  • In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water for domestic use.

  • Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources.
Disease
  • At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
  • The majority of the illness in the world is caused by fecal matter.
  • Almost one-tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources. Such improvements reduce child mortality and improve health and nutritional status in a sustainable way.
  • 88% of cases of diarrhea worldwide are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene.
  • 90% of all deaths caused by diarrheal diseases are children under 5 years of age, mostly in developing countries.
Economics

  • Almost two in every three people who need safe drinking water survive on less than $2 a day and one in three on less than $1 a day.
Environment
  • Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
  • More than 80% of sewage in developing countries is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas. 
Water

GODABUILDAWELL - This group wants to partner with LIFESONG FOR ORPHANS to provide safe drinking water for this orphanage in Honduras as they seek to provide basic needs and the love of Christ to orphans.


3 comments

  1. You are so good at shinning the light to awareness on what's real - great post, Darcee! I hope you feel better too. What a thoughtful girl you are raising.

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  2. What an amazing, amazing post! Thank you for taking the time to share such useful and enlightening information. You are wonderful :-)

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  3. Hi Darcee from over in Africa!
    We've met a few times (via Mikayla) but I hadn't run into this blog until today. Blessings on your journey. We used to live in Nairobi, so it was fun to hear you had been there too!

    We have several friends who have walked this same road and have amazing families. Congratulations on expecting another child!!! =)
    Grace from Congo,
    Kim
    tenfootfamily.blogspot.com

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Thank you for your kind words! ♥