A message from
Fr. Joe Mungai
Dear Friend,
I know what it is to be thirsty, and only have brown water to drink, water that is full of organisms that I can see moving in the water. Throughout my life in Kenya, that was my reality. Now I serve as a hospital chaplain in the US, where I only have clean water to drink, but I know that dirty water is still the reality for my family, friends and most of the suffering poor in Kenya. And now my heart is breaking: my own mother, Lucy Nungari Mungai, has died because of dirty water, just this past December 2017. Her illness was complicated by dehydration, because we have so little water in our village during certain seasons. Being far from home in service to my congregation, I did not know the circumstances of her illness, and I was unable to intervene.
I have worked in other parts of Kenya to bring water and purification filters to the people in need. But in my own birth village, Gatura, in central Kenya, we do not have ready access to groundwater, and now my mother’s death brings that home to me. In some months of the year, groundwater rises in shallow ponds, where it can be scooped up and purified, but in other months the situation is much more desperate.
I want to honor my mother Lucy by drilling a borehole for the 2000 families of my birth village, so no one there need ever again die because of dirty water. The project will cost about $50,000, both the borehole itself and the infrastructure of pipes, electricity, water tower and pump. Water With Blessings is helping me to coordinate the fundraising for this project.
But we will also need to be sure that the water is clean and safe to drink. Well water is easily contaminated. That means we also need to equip mothers in my village with Sawyer PointONE filters in the Water With Blessings program. Each one of those mothers will filter the water for 3 other families: 500 Water Women would mean all 2000 families in Gatura will be drinking safe water. No one would ever have to worry again about dirty water killing their children or beloved elders.
God is showing me in my grief how I can bring something good and beautiful from my mother’s untimely death. “Lucy’s Well” and “Lucy’s Water Women” will mean clean water for God’s thirsty children in Gatura. Please help me honor my mother by protecting thousands of children and elders from disease and death by dirty water in her name.
When you sign up below, you will be agreeing to help me spread the word about my project to honor my mom. You will receive your own keyword to send to other friends. When they text your keyword to 71777, they will receive a link to make a donation online. All the donations will go directly to my project account at Water With Blessings. And someday soon, God's thirsty children in my home village will be drinking clean water!
Thank you for whatever you can do to help my people.
Fr. Joe Mungai