This Advent
So this is something I have been wanting to post for a while now. Our Lead Pastor Greg Holder with a few of his buddies Rick McKinley at Imago Dei Community in Portland, OR and Chris Seay of Ecclesia in Houston, TX are leading an initiative that is catching on fast and making an amazing impact on the world.
According to the World Water Council, 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water; 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. 1.8 million People die every year from diarrheal diseases and 3,900 children die every day from water born diseases
Advent Conspiracy exists to be a catalyst for the church to help us worship Jesus more fully at Christmas and therefore be transformed by the God of Advent. The vision is that in the next decade Christ- followers, acting as one people, can blot out the water crisis in the world. The estimated cost to solve the water problem is 10 billion dollars. This is doable given the number of churches and the amount of money that is spent on Christmas each year.
No money comes through the Advent Conspiracy. Through Living Water International, ten dollars can give fresh, clean, healthy water to an individual for the rest of their life. Deep wells will be dug to provide communities of third world communities this fresh water. When you consider that we as Americans spend over 400 billion dollars during the Christmas season this fresh water problem seems so solvable.
Advent Conspiracy pushes back on the commercial empire and consumerism and refocusing back on what Advent really is. It has hit my household. Not only has the Christmas list been edited to reflect this refocus but so has our family values. No longer do we swing by QuikTrip to buy a round of Freezonis but take the money that we would have spent and put it in the jar. Or when we are out to eat, we all forgo the drink and drink water and put the money we save into the jar.
I am so proud of how the girls are living this out. The ‘Living Water Money Tank’ lovingly named by the girls is almost full. It will head to the bank on Saturday to turn it into cash. The offering that is received at all 10 of our Christmas Eve services will go to Living Water. We will put the money in the offering that night.
According to the World Water Council, 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water; 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. 1.8 million People die every year from diarrheal diseases and 3,900 children die every day from water born diseases
Advent Conspiracy exists to be a catalyst for the church to help us worship Jesus more fully at Christmas and therefore be transformed by the God of Advent. The vision is that in the next decade Christ- followers, acting as one people, can blot out the water crisis in the world. The estimated cost to solve the water problem is 10 billion dollars. This is doable given the number of churches and the amount of money that is spent on Christmas each year.
No money comes through the Advent Conspiracy. Through Living Water International, ten dollars can give fresh, clean, healthy water to an individual for the rest of their life. Deep wells will be dug to provide communities of third world communities this fresh water. When you consider that we as Americans spend over 400 billion dollars during the Christmas season this fresh water problem seems so solvable.
Advent Conspiracy pushes back on the commercial empire and consumerism and refocusing back on what Advent really is. It has hit my household. Not only has the Christmas list been edited to reflect this refocus but so has our family values. No longer do we swing by QuikTrip to buy a round of Freezonis but take the money that we would have spent and put it in the jar. Or when we are out to eat, we all forgo the drink and drink water and put the money we save into the jar.
I am so proud of how the girls are living this out. The ‘Living Water Money Tank’ lovingly named by the girls is almost full. It will head to the bank on Saturday to turn it into cash. The offering that is received at all 10 of our Christmas Eve services will go to Living Water. We will put the money in the offering that night.
posted by Bill Swaringim at
6:57 PM
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