it isn’t what. it is why.

I do very few things, consistently, day after day.  I, like you have standard patterns, but beyond the basic, I am constantly adapting and changing my routine in an effort to cater to my mood or attitude at the moment.  It’s probably more work than what it’s worth — so for the next 40 days, I’m going to try something new.

Completely inspired by Blood: Water Mission, http://blog.bloodwatermission.com/a-challenge-40-days-of-water.php I’ve decided to drink nothing but water for the next 40 days.  In an effort to really get it, I’ve cut out some of my favorites like raspberry Schwepps (raspberry ginger ale) and peppermint tea.  Straight H20.  No sugars, flavorings, or adaptations to make it more desireable.  I know, it sounds crazy.

But what really sounds crazy to me is this — there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who do not share our idea of water.  Being in the land of 10,000 lakes and growing up on the largest fresh water lake in the world, it’s hard for me to conceptualize the idea of being without clean water.  And so ironically, rather than going without, I”m going for only.  Maybe it will influence the rest of my habits.  Shorter showers, turning the water off while doing dishes, while minimizing the wastefulness of my lifestyle.

As I sit and twist the green lid off my newly purchased green steel water bottle, I’m gently reminded of those faces around the world who walk eight hours twice a day for water.  I, like you, walk to the nearest faucet and turn it on for immediate refreshment.  The idea behind 40 days of water is to collect the dollars you would have spent on beverages and make a donation to an organization actively working to build wells and promote sanitation through clean water.  I wonder how much I’ll have saved come Easter.

Day 2 and I’ve only had one mini headache.  Funny, I drink more water and less sugars and I get a headache.  People in Africa drink water and end up with, well, much more than some pain in their head.

Interesting.

Here’s to 40 days, clean water, and life around the world.  Drink up.

Other than the Martha Stewart magazine that arrives in the mail for me each month, my favorite piece of mail is edged in red, white, and blue.  It’s an envelope that is clearly beat up from the journey it’s taken in the last month to get to me from Mozambique, Africa.  Inside, I find correspondence from the Area Development Program Community of Namanjavira where my sponsored child Felizardo lives.

I picked up my stack of mail off the counter, momentarily wishing I would have checked the mail earlier in the week.  As I typically do, I open my mail in an order of determination; always saving the best for last.  Never disappointed, I carefully opened the envelope from World Vision.

Pictures immediately fell from the packet and I resisted the urge to look at them before reading the letter.  In anticipation, I quickly read the first page and in its contents, I am encouraged.  I flip to the next page of the packet.  It’s a letter from Felizardo.  He says,

“With that gift you addressed to me, we decided to buy a bicycle that will help us for transport, transporting me from place to place, specifically from school to home and so on.  Now the problem is solved.”

I paused.  The months since my trip to Africa have been difficult.  Every day, I’m caught in between.  Wrestling with the questions of what’s next, thinking and praying for Felizardo’s family, thinking and praying for my own family who is wrestling with tough days of heaviness and uncertainty.  Every day I fight for the hope I witnessed 10,000 miles from my home to be as alive in the story I tell today.  My heart has ached more in four months than any other time in my life.  Sometimes it seems I feel the hurt and pain others are experiencing and I fight for hope; a beautiful hope that will sustain and offer strength and peace along the way.

I pick up the pictures that fell from the letter.  I closely examine the three pictures, not wanting to miss a detail.  The bike is brand new, still wrapped in plastic.  Felizardo stands next to the bike in the same outfit he wore when I met him.  “Funky, Original, Cute, Little Dude.”  The shirt, shorts, and shoes are his best.  I flipped through the three pictures a few times.  I stopped at the first picture again.  I wondered if the woman next to Felizardo was his mom or sister.  She was clearly wearing her best too.  Her heels were white as if they’ve never been worn.  I noticed the necklace around her neck and then was drawn to the bracelets around her wrist.  I paused again.  They looked so familiar.  I remembered.  My Dad, Mom, & I made a bunch of beaded bracelets before I left for Africa.  I put a few in the bag of gifts I brought for Felizardo’s family.  She was wearing both of them.

Seeing the bracelets in the picture meant more to me than seeing what the family purchased as a result of a monetary gift I sent one day.  There is no doubt my travel to Africa has changed my life.  As I sit here today, unsure of the stirrings in my heart and what they mean, I rest confidently that there is beauty in brokenness.

As a bicycle may have solved a problem in their life, those bracelets on her wrist in those pictures, blessed my life.  It’s a unique relationship, one I wish everyone could experience.  It will change you.  It will break you.  It will fill your heart with compassion where some days, all you do is ache to find the beauty in your brokenness.

Today, I was reminded again of the beautiful hope we share.