cancer, child soldiers, water, homeless....but mostly water

This last weekend was crazy and went a little like this:

Fri: overnight in garner with Relay for Life
Sat: slept all afternoon, camp-out on the capital lawn with Invisible Children
Sunday: church in chapel hill to hear Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water speak, nap, the gathering, hurricanes game
monday: back to durham for work and then another lecture by scott harrison.

and so now water is on my mind. and service. and causes. but mostly water.
it seems like such a simple thing, clean water. and it seems to fix so many problems. well its a least a freakishly large step in the right direction.

Scott is a pretty captivating guy. His story is amazing and his vision for charity:water is equally so. He has really taken the water crisis in the developing world personally and has made it the vision of charity:water to get 1% of the 1.1 billion people who don't have water, clean, clear water. And then once they have tackeled the 1%, charity:water is going to take on 10%. I couldn't help but get caught up in the romance of the whole thing. I want to be a part of changing the world in such a measurable, practical way too! I bought my $20 dollar bottle of water already and have been seriously thinking about buying a case to hand out for birthdays, and other required gifts. what is better than giving the gift of water??!! I hear shannon's voice in my head right now.

I was telling Chris as we were walking back from "the gathering", that out of all the service events we went to this weekend, charity:water was the most captivating, and ironically enough, the one that I have potentially the most influence in just by sheer lack of other people to spread responsibility around with, the gathering, is the one I am least romanced by. I participate and i am at every meeting, but I very often wonder "why" exactly. And part of that is most certainly because the rewards are not as easily measured. I can't just help build a well in DTR and see within three weeks thousands of people who didn't have water, now drinking crystal clear water. The needs are a lot muddier then that not to mention the solutions. As phenomenal as"clean water" works as a metaphore, figuring out what "clean water" actually is and how to go about "digging a well" is not quite as easy nor as tangible or measureable. I am sure Hugh runs into this a lot. I do kind of wonder if it is possible to streamline it somehow in a way that targets more tangible, practical solutions. But, again, I have no idea what that looks like in a relational service.

so i think it is important to get your hands somehow in both. do something streamlined and practical. do water. and then get your hands and feet in the muck of people and the insolvable problem. water keeps you reminded and encouraged that solutions are out there... and the immeasurable labryinth of relationship building reminds you why we need clean water in the first place. well. thats what i think anyway.

and in the meantime, invisible children are still camped out in chicago, 5 days into the "rescue", and i am two days away from a 60 mile bike ride that i havn't trained for and that i don't yet have a bike to ride. hmm.