Our Story

HISTORY


Safe drinking water is something we often take for granted, but for millions of people around the world clean water is not available. They get their water from lakes, ponds or streams where animals drink and deposit their wastes. Even many of their wells are polluted. They don't understand why their babies and children get sick and die in agonizing pain. Fortunately, this problem is easily solved with the use of a water purification system.


Some years ago during the Celebration of Hope and Leadership Summit events at Willow Creek Community Church, Water Missions International displayed their water purification equipment and explained their ministry. Willow Creek’s senior pastor and a businessman were walking through the lobby at the Celebration of Hope. After hearing of the desperate need for safe water and the ability of this equipment to turn filthy, bacteria laden water into crystal clear safe water, at the rate of 10,000 gallons per day, the businessman said he wanted to fund one. The pastor told him the cost was $25,000, or $30,000 for solar powered. The businessman said, "Yeah, I want to pay for one." When the pastor talked about that at the weekend service, other people who had the resources came forward to pay for one. When the weekend was over 22 water projects were funded. In the following weeks even more were funded. This story was repeated a few months later at the Leadership Summit. As we applauded the generous response of those who could afford to do this by themselves, we also realized that the majority of us could not. But then this thought came to us: "What if we all joined in together as the Men of Willow to raise $30,000 to fund a Water Missions purification system?" This amount would cover the complete cost: from community assessment, manufacture of equipment designed to specific requirements for a particular community, shipment, set-up and 12 months of training and monitoring. The cost to maintain and operate the equipment becomes the responsibility of the community where it is located. Also, each project is associated with a Christian ministry. As a result, along with providing a source of safe drinking water, there is the opportunity to share the message of the Living Water in Christ.


We shared this idea at the Elgin Men's Breakfast, one of Willow Creek’s regional men’s meetings dedicated to studying God’s Word and developing disciples of Jesus Christ. People started coming forward to make financial commitments. We hadn't even asked for money at that point. We just asked people to think about it. In the weeks following we prayed for God's leading and felt that this was something the Spirit was guiding us into promoting through all the Men's Breakfasts, 12 in all, and several other Willow Creek affiliation groups.


Water Missions International began to work with Men of Willow to select a site. The criteria that we were looking for in determining a location for our water project were:

  • a community in need of a complete solar powered water purification system

  • a community with a strong Christian presence

  • the ability to track project progress and results and give updates to donors

  • the ability to maintain communication during and after the initial 12 months that Water Missions monitors, trains and evaluates the project.


The Ndejje, Uganda community met these criteria extremely well. Over the course of time, we developed a relationship that has motivated us to form an ongoing partnership where we work exclusively with them in seeking to carry out Christ's “Great Commission” in that part of the world. It is because of this dedicated partnership between Men of Willow and Glory Center Church Planting Ministries that we have been kept informed when problems arise with any of the projects we have funded, enabling us to come alongside them to help resolve those issues.


We have a sense of obligation to all our donors and to God, who has led us into this venture, to be good stewards of their contributions. That includes doing our part, as the Spirit leads us, to ensure that all projects continue to operate as expected. We understand that there are limits to what we can do, but we believe that God has called us to be more than just donors. He has called us to be partners in the Kingdom. We take to heart what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians: “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil.1:5-6 (NIV)