Im sure you have seen all sorts of stats about the number of people wo do not have access to clean water, the number of people who die from water born illnesses each year, and how preventable these illnesses are. But there are two stats that i found on water.org that I thought were really interesting:

• 50% of all water projects fail in the first few year
• Women spend thousands of hours a year collecting clean water.

I think that this second stat is one of the most interesting things about clean water. Not only does having clean water solve problems like illness, it actually builds capacity. Think about your day. What would you not be able to do if you had to spend 3 or 4 hours a day collecting water. How much less could you learn at school? How much less time could you devote to making interesting ideas happen, how much less money could you earn by working? Clean water in developing countries gives people the opportunity to go to school, start businesses, take care of kids, whatever it is, clean water is a cornerstone of healthy people and economies.

But then we come to that first statistic. Half of all water projects fail in a few years. Now, the stat does not give much explanation of what failure is and why they fail, but a 50% failure rate is clearly not a good thing. One of the big problems that cause water projects to fail is the cost and complexity of big drilling rigs and pumps.

During the last couple years we have gotten to know an organization called water4.org. Water4 is working to develop simple open source ways to drill, pump and maintain wells. There is a lot of cool stuff about the system they are developing, it is less expensive then a drilling rig, it is reusable, it requires a lot buy in from a community, it can be built and repaired in country, and it has the potential to be used as a platform for forming small business.

We are not going to dig a well on this trip. But, our church has already sent one well kit to Uganda and is hopting to send another. We hope to do some work scouting the next place for a kit, as well as doing some follow up on the well that Greg helped dig last year. Hopefully we will be able to play a small part it bringing clean water to people who need it.

Our trip is getting closer everyday. There is still a lot of work to do and a lot of many to raise for us to be able to go. If you want to help this all be possible through your finances just go to www.kibogroup.org/give/ for info, if you do give just put our names in the memo line or purpose line. We continue to covet your prayers and support.

I had 3 months worth of my belongings packed into the back of the BRAT.

(credit)

I drove into camp, Javier took my keys from me & parked my car in the middle of the ballfield & sent me away to find the other staff. Where we were immediately interviewed on video & then, before I knew it I was loading up to head back to MO at the end of the summer with a BRAT full of thrift store finds, rolls of film, a quote book, and a million memories of new friends.

It was a life-changing summer for me. And I am grateful that this was not the last thing I ever heard from Tom Graney:

From: Tom Graney <tom@newliferanch.com>
Subject: Re: summer stuff
To: “Beth Rozier” <befro80@yahoo.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2001, 8:53 AM

Beth,

I hope you all had a great time in Malibu. I look forward to getting your
application, but like I said we have a lot of girls and basically all the
positions are currently taken. But ya never know! This past week I had two
girls say they aren’t able to come now. Thankfully the Lord is in control
and we can trust Him with everything!!

In His grip,
Tom

It’s no secret that I love coffee.

So it’s not surprising that I get excited thinking about spending some time with coffee while we’re in Uganda. Kibo has been using locally sourced coffee in the Source Cafe, and they have some good relationships with local coffee farmers.

“Our premium Arabica coffee is grown on the Kapchorwa slopes of Mount Elgon among the Bagisu people. In Jinja the parchment from the single-origin beans is removed and only the finest are hand selected. A master roaster then roasts the premium beans to perfection, providing an exceptional experience for the lover of either a dark or medium roast coffee.

Through Direct Trade we pay local farmers competitive prices and through the quality control process, provide jobs for the underemployed in the Jinja community.

Please take a bag home and share not only rich coffee, but the story of a quality process from a vibrant people, crop to cup. In 2003, the Source Cafe began a coffee label to support the reintroduction of the rhinoceros in Uganda.”

Two of the people going with us own coffee shops in Oklahoma City & would love to help support Kibo’s efforts in Uganda by using Ugandan coffee. It is exciting to think about helping lay groundwork for coffee from Uganda to end up being served in Oklahoma City!

There are lots of reasons we are going to Uganda this summer. I thought a little mini series about why we are going would be good. We will do three or four over the next few days.

In some ways the story starts here:

This is one of our first days at Garnett. This contraption is a method to hand dig wells developed by water4. We were learning how it works and testing it out on the front lawn of the church. The guy in the red is Bobby Garner. He and his wife live in Jinja, Uganda and work for Kibo Group. Got all that?

Then there is Roy:

Roy is from Uganda, and is good friends with the Taylors who used to live in Uganda, and Greg Taylor is now the pastor of our church. Roy came to visit the Taylors and we got to spend a good amount of time talking to him about Uganda. It seems like every day we met somebody who was doing something in Uganda (the Jacksons, Courtney, the random people we met at Topeca…). All of these people are involved in interesting things in Uganda. They are planting churches, developing economies, building camps, helping orphans, digging wells, and planting trees. For some reason God has pointed a lot of things in our life to Uganda.

One of my favorite songs has these lyrics:

Those who journey can easily understand,

the more they see the more they’ll learn,

the more that they will be.

So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,

I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see.

No, I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all i can see.

- Brendan James read the full lyrics here. Its worth it.

There are times when I think I live those words, and sometimes I don’t. But they do sum up a lot of why we want to go to Uganda. Simply to learn. To learn how other people live, to learn how God is glorified in other cultures, to see how people lives can be impacted by planting a tree, harvesting coffee, or loaning them a book. It’s a long plain ride, but we think that it is worth it to understand the stories and lives of other people.

We have a few details about the trip: We will be in Uganda for about 13 days, and there are 8 (I think…) of us going. The trip is at the end of July. We will spend most of our time in Jinja, but will travel around a bit (more on that in a later post).

We don’t know the exact budget yet, but it is a significant amount of money (around 6 – 7 thousand dollars). Right now, for me this is the part of the this that is weighing on me most. I know God will provide the funds it takes for us to do this, but right now its hard to see. We are raising the funds to do this from people who are willing to give. If you want to help this all be possible through your finances just go to www.kibogroup.org/give/ for info, if you do give just put our names in the memo line or purpose line.

There is a lot we have to do to get ready for all of this (like get a bunch of shots), so we covet your prayers that we will be able to continue to be effective in the things we do on a day to day basis and also be able to prepare spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally, and whatever other allys there are.

Ok, thanks for reading! Ill post about Beth’s all time favorite drink next time…and how our trip to Uganda ties into this hot, black, slightly acidic drink.

Oh, one last thing, if your world geography is not so strong (like mine) Here is the map (I know Ryan does not need this, but some of us do):
View Larger Map

There is a lot going on in our lives right now…so, it seems like a quick update is in order.

Lets see…where to start. I guess that if you want to summarize life right now it would be “without margin.” There are phases of life when you have extra time, extra money, extra capacity, and extra emotion…you have margin to absorb the unexpected.  And sometimes you don’t. Right now is a don’t time. Between lots of projects, some car troubles (anybody have a standard transmission for a 2000 outback they want to throw our way? or a new engine…that would be nice to), lots of work, getting ready for our big trip this summer,  and lots of busyness I have to say we are stretched thin.

If I’m honest times like now are when I am tempted to wish we had stayed at NLR…for various reasons life is simpler by far at camp. But, I know God has us on a path that calls for thin times, we just have to be wise in navigating those times, which I hope we are doing.

The big thing going on right now for me (Ben is writing this…) is that i have been doing a lot more freelance work. A year or so ago when we finished the CML Beth and I talked a lot about me taking on more freelance work, with the idea that eventually that is all I would do, perhaps even with some people working for me as a small company. So, while working part time at the church I put up a website and started working on projects for people.   I have been staying as busy as I want to with all sorts of projects, which has been really fun. So, this week I am taking the next step on that journey. Staring this week I will be working even less at the church so I can do more design and video work. In a lot of ways this is scary…it means that I have to go out and find work, it means that we wont have steady income (remember the margins thing….), it means that I have to be disciplined with my time, and I have to push myself to sell what I do. There are a lot of challenges to all of this! But, in the end I believe God has given me a set of gifts and talents that will let can let me help non-profits, camps, ministries, and small businesses be more effective. So, we are diving in. I blog about this stuff sometimes on my other blog www.poolhousered.com if you want to know more about what I am doing.

The other big thing besides church stuff we are still involved in is CQMissional. CQMissional is the non-profit that set up or internship at Garnett and ran the CML that we were part of. The actual programs the CQMissional runs now are different, but it is still working in Tulsa to help people learn how to work to make the world better. Beth is very involved in the day to day work of CQMissional doing a lot of admin and coordination for the programs, as well as the basic ground work that it takes to start a new non-profit.

That seems like enough life update for now…