2018 was such an incredible year at Water4. Together with our partners we’ve continued to prove the impossible is only unthinkable until it’s done. This tenth year was both a year of reflection on our past and a year of vision as we looked forward to what success will look like in the next ten. Water4’s mission to empower local people with local solutions sustained by local resources is not a small one. Thankfully, we serve a big God whose standards are anything but small, and we refuse to settle for “good enough”

Water4 may be a small organization but, like the God we serve, our ambitions are anything but small. We continue to believe the things we consider “basic” in the West should be basic for the “rest.” Beautiful wells, flowing with safe water in convenient locations can and should provide jobs, save lives, and provide opportunities for the love and word of God to transform. We won’t rest until the status quo is broken and our peers begin thinking about cost-effective, long-term sustainability that leads to sustainable outcomes and not just “ticked boxes” as outputs.

This year we’ve seen hundreds of households wake up to water at home, twisting a tap instead of pumping pumps, and filling up safe water with the convenience we expect. At the same time, we’ve incrementally moved toward this goal in every country, establishing formal “pump insurance” plans with communities for handpumps, using microloans for agriculture wells, setting up NUMA bottling centers, and expanding the NUMA piped water network all while training in health, hygiene, and sharing the gospel.

I want you to know how important you are and have been in the changed lives of the people we get to see each day. Each morning the sun rises to the radiant smiles on mothers faces, the laughter of healthy children, and the pride of the water service employee as she laces up her boots for a new day. You are a hero for each of them and your belief and sacrifice for the vision they’re apart of is making a huge difference each day. I can’t wait to see what we do together in 2019 and I want you to know how seriously I take stewarding the resources you’ve entrusted us with for maximum impact. We will see “impossible” be called “difficult” and then “done” thanks to you and our over 400 partners in the 14 countries we serve.