Friends,

For the past 5 years, an organization called Blood:Water Mission (www.bloodwatermission.com) has been working to provide clean blood and water to the poor and oppressed villages of AIDS-affected African countries. The living conditions in many of these countries are extremely harsh, and the people of these countries lack the natural resources to change their circumstances.

Blood:Water Mission was started by the band Jars of Clay after a visit to Africa in 2002 challenged their faith and perspective on following Christ's example. (There is a great deal more information on their website: I encourage you to visit and check out the 'about' section) Since then they have been using their influence in the music industry as a platform to try and spread awareness and compassion for these people. In their research, they determined that $1 US is enough money to buy clean water for 1 person for 1 year in Africa. (This is done by digging new wells, since so many of the old ones are dirty or extremely far away, not by bringin in water from pepsi or anything like that)  Anyway, talk about ROI!

One of my long-time friends, Dave VanBuskirk, got in touch with the band in 2004 prior to our 2005 thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail to express interest in hiking to benefit the organization, and ended up raising a substantial amount of support by hiking the 2,100+ miles from Georgia to Maine that year.

Well, about a week ago Dave let Matt McKinney and I (fellow thru-hikers) know that the office in Nashville was looking for people to go on tour with them this year as part of a Blood:Water team to make the organization an even bigger part of their touring and shows.

You can see where this is going: Dave, Matt and I were invited to participate, and any obstacles that stood in our way passed with minimal drama, so starting February 22nd we will begin our work with Jars and Blood:Water Mission to try and raise money to dig new wells throughout Africa to improve the quality of life for the people who have little influence over their situation.

Truthfully, I feel a bit overwhelmed and underprepared for the opportunity, but I can see that God has clearly made it possible for all of us to do this and I believe that He has plans to do amazing things through it.

I'm posting this message here not just to inform, but to challenge those of you who read this: For the month of February I am committing to drink nothing but water in recognition of those who will be attempting to represent for the following months as we drive across the US. I believe this will help me become more spiritually ready for the challenge, but it will also give me the opportunity to share more with the people I know about this organization, and the very tangibly good things it is doing in the lives of thousands of people. I realize that 'fasting' seems like an archaic discipline, but I firmly believe that our hearts can be changed through restraint and recognition in such ways, and I'm laying down the gauntlet/sending out the invitation to anyone who reads this to join in the challenge: From February 1st until February 28th, drink nothing but water.

An additional part of the challenge that I will be committing to, is to set money aside every time I would drink something other than water, and donate it to through B:W Mission. If the average beverage costs about $1.00 US, and I consume maybe 2 a day, that would mean that by myself I can donate enough money to provide clean water for a village of 56 people in 2007 (and truthfully that is probably a low estimate)! It gets me excited to think about the difference that could be made if others made this commitment to make a small dent in the traumatic suffering of those abroad.

If this interests you at all, I strongly encourage you to look more at the website or visit their myspace page. I'm excited for this opportunity and hope to continue updating with blog entries, pictures, videos etc as we learn more about what we'll be doing and where we'll be going.

Thanks for taking the time to read about this stuff!


peace,

joe