Do: Living Water

2011-06-25T13:49:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Do: Living Water

The vision of Do: Living Water is to bring both physical water and the Living Water, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the people of Africa. We do this through our mission of raising awareness to the water problem in Africa and encouraging student-led fundraising initiatives.

Find out more about Do: Living Water
Know the Facts Donate Get Involved

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14

2011-06-25T12:52:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Do: Living Water!

In simple terms, what is Do: Living Water?

We aren't really an organization, just a couple of teens passionate about seeing change in the world. We aren't really radical visionaries, but God showed us a problem in the world, and He showed us how to change it. Now we want to offer what we've experienced to others, a chance for other churches and youth groups to change the world through a simple carwash.

See more on our story...

Interested in hosting a local car wash?

Below is an outline on the basic steps to hosing a carwash:

1) Talk to your youth group, youth leader, or pastor about hosting a car wash in your town.

2) E-mail us to let us know that you are planning on hosting a car wash (Please include your Church name).

3) Find a location to host your car wash, such as a grocery store, Wal-Mart, or church parking lot, and talk to the right people to make sure they are okay with you having the car wash. (More)

4) Publicize in your area roughly two weeks before your wash using fliers and newspaper adds. (More)

5) Pray for the outcome of the car wash.

For any questions, please contact us via e-mail.

— DLW Team

Do: Living Water Wells -- Elikya Training Center

2011-01-11T10:22:00.004-06:00

(Much of the information taken in this post was borrowed from ReachGlobal's page on the Elikya Training Center, found here)

The Elikya Training Center in Ubangi, DRC.

The second area I want to highlight where wells will be built with the efforts of Do: Living Water is the Elikya Training Center, another amazing ministry in Ubangi. In the years of civil war that have faced the Deomcratic Republic of the Congo, many women have lost their husbands and many children have lost one or both of their parents. This dilemma is catalyzed by the AIDS pandemic that has swept across Africa, leaving the Ubangi region with a huge number of widows, orphans, single mothers, and handicapped people.

These people must either fend for themselves or find someone to help them. Add this to the fact that most women have only a 3rd or 4th grade level education and only few know skills to earn a living, and you have yourself a problem that demands a response. The CECU (Evangelical Free Church of the Congo) stepped up and decided to take action. Instead of simply meeting the needs of the needy and creating dependancy on the church, they decided to create a facility that could train widows, older orphans, single mothers, and the handicapped to learn useful life skills that could earn them a living.

Enter the Elikya Training Center

In the language of the local Congolese, "Elikya" means "Hope." By offering six-month training programs, those who come to the Center can leave with a skill for making a living (Sewing, soap-making, and domestic crafts for the widows, unwed mothers, and orphan girls, with carpentry and masonry skills for older orphan boys). For many, the center is far away from their homes, so resident housing is given for those who would otherwise travel for miles to come to the programs there. More than all of this, the gospel is taught in these six months that people attend, giving them a hope for the future and a Hope for eternity.

The Elikya Training Center is almost a square mile in size, and as you can imagine, this creates a huge need for clean water. Do: Living Water has been in contact with the branch of ReachGlobal working in Africa, and I have personal word that a well will be drilled as soon as April at the Elikya Training Center!

Do: Living Water Wells -- Tandala Hospital

2011-01-07T12:10:00.004-06:00

Tandala Hospital

In all of Ubangi, there are few places that have as great an impact as Tandala hospital. As one of only two hospitals in all of the Ubangi (remember, the size of Indiana!), Tandala hospital serves as a testimony of both physical and spiritual healing in the Congo. Established in the Ubangi in 1955 by the Evangelical Free Church of the Congo (CECU), Tandala hospital currently serves half a million people through their main hospital and thirty additional rural health centers. The hospital has 175 beds, usually full, manned by sixty nurses and four Congolese physicians. Yet, even with over six thousand hospitalized patients every year, the running cost of the entire hospital and the thirty health centers is only $250,000 per year. This is possible only through donations from churches and individuals to meet the need of a region where the per capita income is less than $100 per year.

So where does Do: Living Water come in?

In addition to the beds at Tandala hospital, the nurses and physicians maintain residence close to the hospital with their families. As well there are five schools close to the hospital, which means many children and their families live nearby. This means that a lot of water is needed, and with a hospital and many children in the area, dirty water is not an option. In fact, as many as five wells will be needed in the area of Tandala to adequately provide for their pressing need.

Although the need is great, I'm convinced that the potential for meeting this need is even greater. In a land where we have no shortage of clean water, we have an oppritunity to reach out to a land where clean water is greatly limited. By working at Tandala and drilling wells at a hospital that serves so many in Jesus name, we have an opporitunity, to bring not only physical water, but the Living Water, Jesus Christ, as well.

Do: Living Water Wells -- Ubangi

2010-12-30T11:21:00.005-06:00

No paved roads. No national power grid. No running water.

To people in modernized parts of the world, a life without the conveniences of paved roads, electricity, and running water is nearly unimaginable. Yet for the people of the Ubangi province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, these problems are every day realities. The Ubangi is roughly the size of Indiana, covered with rolling hills, sitting on the North edge of the Congo Rain Forest.

The water project that Do: Living Water works through is funded to bring clean water to the people of the Ubangi. The problem was stated well in an email that I received when I started getting involved with DLW two years ago:

"Imagine every lady in the state of Indiana having to go down the hill two or three times each day to carry a huge basin of water on her head back up the hill to her home for the only water they have. But imagine the water they find at the bottom of the hill is just muddy from all the other ladies who were standing in the water before she got there. And the water was also used for bathing, washing clothes, and for animals' drinking. Even if there are few people where she is getting the water, it is contaminated from people in villages upstream."

Although efforts have been taken to preserve the purity of stream waters, only about a tenth of the villages in the Ubangi have taken action towards this, leaving a long way to go. By drilling wells, water can come to the Congolese in a much cleaner way in far more areas of the Ubangi. Two specific areas where wells will be drilled are Tandala hospital and the Elikya Training Center.

With the possibility of the first well being drilled as soon as April, I'm excited for what God will do for these people in the Ubangi. Keep the development of these wells in your prayers, that God would move in a mighty way in the Ubangi to bring both physical water and the Living Water to these people.

2010-01-18T21:40:00.019-06:00

Do: Living Water

Welcome to Do: Living Water

Find out more about Do: Living WaterKnow the Facts Donate Get Involved

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14

Welcome to Do: Living Water!

In simple terms, what is Do: Living Water?

Interested in hosting a local car wash?

Do: Living Water Wells -- Elikya Training Center

Enter the Elikya Training Center

Do: Living Water Wells -- Tandala Hospital

So where does Do: Living Water come in?

Do: Living Water Wells -- Ubangi

Welcome to Do: Living Water!

In simple terms, what is Do: Living Water?

Interested in hosting a local car wash?

Find out more about Do: Living Water
Know the Facts Donate Get Involved