Tia, “obedient right away” to the Holy Spirit’s prompting, approached a dean at her high school about a fund-raising idea. With the school administration’s support, the students began raising funds for the water systems by placing their spare change in buckets. Each bucket had a photo of a participating teacher and the bucket with the most money raised by the end of one week resulted in that teacher wearing a full-length bunny costume during a school day. With additional help from family and friends, Tia was able to raise $485, which will purchase nearly nine water systems.

“God did everything,” said Tia, who shared how she prayed through the fund-raiser. “I knew I could do it through God.”

In a letter that Tia sent to Haiti, she wrote, in part, “All people deserve the clean water God has made.”

She added, “Thank you for letting me help you guys out. I learned a lot through this mission God had for me. He taught me patience, thankfulness and how to trust in Him through the whole process.

“GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME, no matter the situation we are in. Stay strong! God bless you all!”

Andy and Dannette decided to focus on raising funds for Compassion Water of Life – providing safe water for every sponsored child and his or her family in Haiti. They’d heard how Compassion Water of Life was not only providing safe water for life for families and their immediate neighbors, but it was also proving one of the best ways to combat the spread of cholera.

The McKellar’s set up Compassion Water of Life safe water system and used it to provide a hands-on activity for the youth, offering them a drink of lake water that had been filtered and made completely safe to drink.

Every time enough money was raised for Compassion Water of Life, a big water drop was hung on the wall with the donor’s name. “And we made little ‘I drank it!’ stickers that we gave to anyone who was brave enough to try the filtered water from the lake behind our house,” said Dannette, adding that most preferred filtered lake water to tap water. “I was amazed at how excited the kids got about those homemade stickers.”

The McKellars didn’t just stop with this initiative. In addition to Compassion Water of Life, they offered sponsorship and support for Compassion’s Child Survival Program as other ways to make a difference. The Fire-Up event resulted in:

• Two children sponsored, one by a youth group and another by a student.
• A $20/month commitment to the Child Survival Program in Africa.
• $1,823.06 donated – enough to purchase 33 Compassion Water of Life safe water systems providing more than 33 million gallons of safe water for Haiti.

In addition, several youth groups and individuals took donation forms to share the need for Compassion Water of Life with their churches. One student, Tia Carr, came up with a simple, yet highly effective idea to raise money for Compassion’s Water of Life at her school. With permission from the dean and staff, Tia stuck photos of the teachers on buckets. The teacher with the most money in their bucket had to then dress up in a bunny costume for a day. By Easter, Tia had raised $485!

“This was a great cause that was easy for youth to get their hands around,” said Dannette. “The cost was small enough that many people felt able to donate $55 for Compassion Water of Life, yet large enough that a bunch of people could pitch in together to make a difference.”

“Water of Life” is Compassion’s new safe water system that requires no electricity or running water. This simple system uses filtration technology based on that of kidney dialysis machines, removing contaminants and bacteria such as cholera, E. coli, dysentery and typhoid.

Fiona, a 12-year-old girl in Rwanda, now has access to safe water because of Compassion’s intervention through Water of Life. “Fiona walks a grueling five kilometers three times a day to fetch her family’s water from a contaminated cattle pond,” says Amy Tumpes, who recently returned from a field visit to observe Water of Life’s pilot program in Rwanda. Amy reports that the unsafe water was murky brown with thick clay sediment, but after this water was run through the safe water system it was clear and tasted like typical drinking water.

“The contrast between Fiona’s huge effort to retrieve water and the relative ease it took to make the water safe was startling,” Amy says. “It was amazing to see how quickly the water changed and how accessible it could be for a family to have safe drinking water.”

Compassion is launching a global initiative to provide safe water to Compassion sponsored children and their families. A big part of that initiative is the Water of Life program, in which just $79 will provide the safe water system to a home, school or recreational center. Children in Haiti, Rwanda, and Guatemala have been early beneficiaries, but we are only beginning the implementation and distribution of Water of Life. Our Advocates will be at the forefront of raising awareness and funds for this life-changing — and potentially lifesaving — program.

How can the Compassion Water of Life program enhance your Advocacy efforts? Exponentially! Nearly everyone understands the need for safe water, and you can create opportunities for potential fundraising groups and donors to become aware — and involved — through their churches, schools and community groups. Watch for more information on how you can raise awareness and funds to provide Water of Life for children around the world!

Jason Hardrath and Travis and Alissa Hilley plan to do all that and more. They will road trip for a grand total of 45 days.

They will eat a lot — nearly 5,000 calories by each sunset. They will see the world — or at least 12 states, stretching from Ocean Shores, Wash., to Liberty Island, N.Y. They will work on their tans; spending 70 to 90 miles a day on a bike should take care of that.

They will hang out with friends, camp under the stars in tents and keep in touch with buddies through email and blogs.

And by the end of their 3,000-mile bike ride, the Hilleys and Hardrath will have changed a small corner of Guatemala, providing lifesaving safe water systems for impoverished children and their families.

Going the Distance

As college students at Corban University in Salem, Ore., Jason and Travis often hop on their road bikes to take a break from studying.

Along with Alissa, Travis’ wife of nearly 10 months, the trio has long loved biking long distances.

Jason, a track and field athlete at Corban, competed in his first off-road triathlon in 2008, while Travis and Alissa biked together from Portland to Seattle while dating.

So it seemed natural to say yes to Jason’s wild idea of biking across the U.S. to raise money to fight poverty.

The impulse came to Jason during a game of Ultimate Frisbee. Why not raise funds for a great cause while burning a serious amount of calories?

Bike America Mission was born, with Jason as its president.

Alissa shares, “We want to be in God’s plan, to see new places, challenge ourselves, meet new people and encourage them to do something about poverty.”

The recipient of the money raised on their bike ride was an easy choice. Within weeks of their wedding, Alissa and Travis, a junior majoring in biblical studies, began sponsoring Antoineta, a 5-year-old girl in Guatemala, through Compassion.

They quickly fell in love with the whole sponsorship experience, and so when Antoineta moved away from her child development center, they chose another little girl, this time a 6-year-old named Ester.

Together with Jason, they decided to raise funds for Ester’s development center. The first $2,000 raised along the route will bless the center as a gift. Anything beyond that will be used to fund safe water systems through Compassion’s Water of Life program. Water of Life systems are portable, efficient and long-lasting.

Jason, who will graduate with his physical education degree just a few weeks before their departure, tells me that, “Water is absolutely necessary [to Travis, Alissa and me] as we cycle 70 to 90 miles each day in the hot summer sun — as well as to families who have no accessible source of potable water.”

Water for All

The safe water systems make a small-but-invaluable dent in a worldwide problem: access to clean water. More than 4,900 children die each day from waterborne illnesses and poor sanitation — that’s one child every 18 seconds.

Children in impoverished areas suffer mightily because of this lack, sometimes carrying up to 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at one time.

Compassion Water of Life system uses filtration technology based on that of kidney dialysis machines. Weighing less than two pounds, the portable filters remove 99.99 percent of all bacteria from water, making it safe for drinking. At a cost of just $79, the system comes pre-assembled and can be set up for use in a child’s home in under five minutes. Education and sanitation training are also provided to each family as part of the Water of Life program.

A system will provide a family with more than 1 million gallons of safe drinking water.

Geoff Peters, a Compassion product development manager, knows the value of these filters.

“As we looked to identify and serve the needs of our program beneficiaries, it became clear that while access to water was a problem in some areas, access to safe water was a problem almost everywhere.

“Water of Life, our safe water system, enables each child and his or her family to quickly and easily remove illness-causing bacteria from water regardless of its source — making the water safe to drink. The parents we have talked with give thanks for their health and that of their children and speak of renewed hope for the future.”

Coast-to-Coast Crusading

Jason, Travis and Alissa will have a support team back home as they travel from church to church and town to town. They have already raised more than $1,000 of their $25,000 goal.

Each member of the team will have plenty of time to think about the children and families they are helping during the estimated 2,677,765 turns their wheels will make between the Pacific and the Atlantic.

Travis Hilley knows their coast-to-coast trek won’t be a walk (or ride) in the park. He will be without any income for a good portion of the summer — a crucial earning time for most college students.

Yet he believes his financial uncertainty pales in comparison to what millions of children face around the world every day.

“I’m finding that God sometimes calls people to do seemingly unwise things and trust Him with the results.

“Getting out of a boat in a storm, freely giving money away and leaving a comfortable fishing environment for a vagabond lifestyle seemed like unwise decisions. Yet in each case, the people who make the ‘unwise’ decisions turn out to be on the narrow, joyful path that others miss out on. I don’t want to be one of the 11 disciples still in the boat. That is why I am biking across America this summer.”

For updates on Jason, Travis and Alissa’s trek across the country, go to their website at www.bikeamericamission.org.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Crystal Kupper is a military wife, freelance writer and Compassion Advocate living in Salem, Ore. Along with her husband, Nick, and two young sons, she sponsors Barbie from the Philippines and Kris and Rosa from Indonesia. Crystal has written for nearly 20 publications. Her work can be viewed at www.crystaldkupper.com

Photos courtesy of Sheldon Traver of Corban University