From the Water, Moses AND Clean Water, Bono

FROM THE WATER...

At my church, I'm in the last weeks of teaching an almost 10-part series on the life of Moses. It's been a blast to teach and has stirred many questions and discussions outside of Sunday morning. And today I'm more convinced than ever that, outside of Jesus, Moses might be the most influential human to ever live. The basic Judeo-Christian worldview today is still influenced by Moses. The Islamic worldview, too, is shaped by their interpretation of the life of Moses.

Several people have asked me what research/books informed my teaching during this series. So below are a few of the more significant ones...

The Bible (seriously if you want to study Moses, become a master of this text first)
The Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill
Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler
Moses: A Life by Jonathan Kirsch



CLEAN WATER...


A few years ago, led by U2's lead singer, Bono, the ONE campagin began (ONE.org). ONE is a global advocacy and campaigning organization backed by more than 2 million people from around the world dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.


A good friend of mine, Steve, sent me this email today. The email was a forward from David Lane at ONE.org. Since the topic of the email is directly related to my passion (and the passion of many of my friends) to dig wells in Africa (our church has teamed up with our local community to help dig six so far) and the ultimate goal--to be part of bringing clean, safe water to all of Africa--I thought I'd copy/paste part of David Lane's email for you to read....


BEGIN QUOTE
In his Inaugural Address, President Obama said, "let clean waters flow." With those words, he brought recognition to the suffering of 884 million people who do not have access to clean water and 2.5 billion without adequate sanitation.

Senators Durbin and Corker introduced S. 624, The Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, a bipartisan bill to make clean water a reality. But with only five cosponsors, the bill isn’t getting the attention it needs for a hearing and further action by Senate leaders. It must have at least 20 cosponsors to move forward.

Now is the time to follow through on Obama’s inaugural pledge to poor countries. Ask your senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, to cosponsor S. 624 now:

http://www.one.org/us/waterfortheworld/o.pl?id=982-3282311-46zd42x&t=2

The petition reads:

Please cosponsor the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 (S. 624), and help provide 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.

Together, unclean water and poor sanitation are a leading cause of child mortality: an estimated 4,100 children die every day from diarrheal diseases spread through poor sanitation and hygiene. That such conditions continue to exist demonstrates a failure on the part of all nations to provide access to the most basic life-sustaining element: clean water.

The Water for the World Act targets underdeveloped countries with focused initiatives to improve access to clean water and sanitation; fosters global cooperation on research and development; provides technical assistance and capacity-building; provides seed money for the deployment of clean water and sanitation technologies; and strengthens the human infrastructure at USAID and the State Department to implement clean water and sanitation programs.

This bill will help establish the capacity and momentum we need to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on increasing access to water and sanitation by 2015. If those MDG targets are met, the benefits will include a total annual economic return of $22 billion for Africa in saved time, increased productivity and reduced health costs. And 203,000 fewer children will die in 2015 from lack of access to clean water and sanitation.

Thank you for making a difference,

David Lane, ONE.org
END QUOTE


I'm not familiar with all the nuances and all the pros and cons of this bill, but I love the passion and vision and hope behind it.