26 Oct

Celebrate Hand Washing!

Ladies at the Women Recycled Center in Goma, DR Congo, displaying their handmade soap

Celebrate Hand Washing!

Fighting illness in Africa through safe water and good hygiene

Dear Friends,

Did you miss it? October 15th was “Global Hand Washing Day.” You probably celebrated it without realizing it! This day is dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of washing our hands with soap. We often take it for granted, but this simple act helps prevent us from becoming ill and spreading illness to others, and is a very low-cost way to prevent diseases in general.

But many of the world’s poor, lacking education, do not understand that washing their hands with soap can keep them healthier. It’s a struggle just to teach them that drinking unclean water, such as that from a river and lake, can cause illness and death. Think about the Ebola crisis. Simple hand washing could have slowed the spread of that disease in West Africa.

Thanks to your generous donations to the Safe Water Ministry, thousands of lives are being changed by helping us provide abundant clean water and instruction about basic hygiene such as hand washing.

Time to cut the soap into bars to sell. Every day is Bring Your Child to Work Day in much of the world…and these two provide nice “book ends” in this photo!

When you read this I will likely have just arrived in East Africa. I’ll be visiting Heaven’s Family partners in Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to provide education about safe water, sanitation and hygiene. I’ll also be checking up on ongoing safe water projects and distributing Sawyer water filters.

Your prayers of faith would be so appreciated for a safe trip, full of fruit for the furthering of the kingdom. And that the Lord’s hand will guide us in all we will be doing in the next few weeks to help provide safe water to our spiritual brothers and sisters in Africa.

Thank you so much!