Dinner, Wine, Friends and CLEAN WATER

Last night was MAGICAL!  We attended the Women's Enterprises International http://www.womensenterprises.org/ Harambee.  We got all dressed up, we took the money we had collected from our loose change each day, we took our friends and we drank wine, ate dinner, talked and listened.  Once again I was reminded that life is pretty easy here and VERY hard for so much of the world.  And I say this with more feeling than I can express, even in the midst of our lives, life is so much easier here than we EVER fully grasp.  I looked across the table at my beautiful daughter, dressed up, boyfriend on one side, another dear friend on the other, enjoying a nice dinner and with a clean glass of water at her place.  She never had to walk miles to help find it for our family, she simply turned on a faucet.  And, in fact, we don't drink water from our faucet, we've deemed that not healthy enough for our western bodies, so we filter out the impurities.  We are water elitists.  She got to go to school as a little girl, she is now in college. 

Emily's counterparts in Kenya are rarely so privileged.  Girls walk miles for water, they carry heavy containers on their backs and they are often easy prey for people who would do them harm.  They are often raped, infected with disease and live very hard lives and many do NOT go to school.  School is still a privilege there, not like here.  Kids don't wake up in Kenya wishing it was the weekend so they could sleep in, they truly feel the honor of education because they know the alternatives.

And so we went to dinner and we listened.  An amazingly radiant Kenyan woman shared about lives changed from something so simple, clean water.  Two mostly full carafes sat on our table, adorned with lemon slices and ice cubes...western privilege.

I missed Chris last night but I felt him intensely.  Chris was changed by Africa, he was changed by Central America, he was changed as a little boy by Antigua and he appreciated the value of clean water.  Chris didn't waste water, he HATED when we did.  And by supporting the cause of clean drinking water we also honor him and his life and continue the good work that was begun in him.  And we honor and worship and love God when we care for His people.

What exactly IS western privilege?  It's not just the fancy cars and overly large houses we have, or our clothes or furniture, it's not our fancy degrees from years of education.  It's as basic as turning on the faucet...running from it is western privilege.  That's a really powerful image to me.  I am confronted with it over and over every day...water, at the ready, from a faucet.  I rinse my toothbrush in western privilege.  That's an incredible thought. 

Last night was amazing.  We were surrounded at our table by the people we love the most, at an event we care deeply about.  But the most important thing was what was said, CLEAN WATER SAVES LIVES and it should NOT just be a western privilege. 

Thanks Chris, thanks for being you, for fussing when I left the sink dripping, for reminding us of how much water we used when we showered, for not being happy when we poured it down the sink because we didn't drink it all at dinner.  Thank you for making me so aware of the less developed world that I can't possibly be content in mine without helping them too.  That's ministry, in it's purest sense.  God started a good work in you and we are picking that up. 

Grace for your journey,
Leigh