When we at Water4 hear the axiom, “A rising tide lifts all ships”, we think, “let’s get busy and raise that tide.” That’s what the 450+ members of Water4 enterprises are doing each and every day. They get up before dawn in both polished oxfords and calf high mud boots and head to their office, whether that be behind a desk or knee deep in drilling mud. That’s what I’m grateful for this year–the exceptional spirit of the people that make up Water4 across the globe. People who don’t see themselves as ships waiting passively in the harbor, but as tide lifters who are pulling with the force of the moon to end the water crisis where they live and work.
I’m grateful for local heroes who see business as mission, who see every encounter as an opportunity for ministry. They know life isn’t a series of major events, it’s a series of intentional moments, and in those moments they build pathways for change. I’m grateful for leaders of businesses who ride motorbikes and turn auger handles to understand and serve their field teams and the communities they serve. Water4 isn’t an ivory tower organization, we lead from the tip of the spear, building great systems and uplifting people from the feedback and partnership with excellent leaders who know the difficult contexts where they work.
In America we’ve gotten to taste what living in a world with little control feels like and in those hardest moments all I had to do was look at my messages from the field to see communities being served, soap and handwashing stations being deployed, water being piped to schools and clinics, and staff doing everything they can to protect rural communities from the potential of Covid-19. They don’t complain, they are the rising tide. I’m thankful for that.
This year what would it look like if you gave a hand-up on gratitude to one of those Water4 heroes? Whether your donation provided a foot of pipe or your family committed to funding a whole well in the next year, I hope you can join me in being grateful for an army of tide lifters raising the ships of hundreds of thousands of women, children, and men through their work of water this year.
