Here’s my coffee this morning. I like it in this mug because the shape of it works well if I’m making a latte. I also like what it says… “Life is good.”
Except today, that’s not true. It’s not true because when your friends are suffering, life can’t be good. And that’s happening right now in Oaxaca.
Saturday, September 9 an 8.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Southern Mexico. Immediately life was changed for thousands of people. Because of ruptured phone lines, lack of power and lack of real news reporting, the devastation was not really known the first few days.
Now the news is getting out, and it is not good. Devastated is the word my friend Pastor Chablé used. He said we need to do something. Anything. Because it’s unbelievable.
The main town affected, Juchitan, lost part of their main hospital, City Hall, an entire hotel and numerous other buildings and houses. But Juchitan is the main city in the area, the one with resources and the money to rebuild… and building codes.
The rest of the region has seen house after house crumble. Streets and roads are destroyed. Infrastructure is essentially gone in many of the small villages across southern Oaxaca and Chiapas. More than 100 people have died and hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless. And the after shocks, more than 1500, keep coming. Homes continue to fall.
Pastor Chablé and Adventures in Life have identified three villages we believe we can help and make a significant long term impact. Those villages are San Mateo del Mar, Reforma de Pineda and Chicapa de Castro. All three are closer to the coast than Juchitan, which means closer to the epicenter of the quake. Houses across these cities are destroyed. Access to food and clean drinking water has been severely limited because of the quake.
As anyone knows, water is life and an inability to get clean water will have life threatening consequences. So here is what I want need you to help us do. Raise $10,500.00. Right now.
With that money, each village will get a water purification system that can be gravity fed, or even hook up to city water lines once they are restored. Additionally, we will put 100 personal water filters in and around the parts of the city too far from the main water source.
The cost is $3500.00 per village, $1500.00 for the village system and $2000.00 for the individual filters. Three villages… $10,500.00. We are already almost 50% of the way there! If we raise more than our goal, we will help other villages as we are able. So…
- A gift of $1500.00 will give a village a central water purification system.
- A gift of $1000.00 will provide 50 individual water filters for one of our three villages.
- A gift of $100.00 will help us give 4 families clean safe drinking water.
That’s the ask. You can give through Adventures in Life, and view our IRS 501(c)3 tax exemption letter on our donation page by clicking here.
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| Map of the affected area. The cities we are helping are marked. |
In a few weeks, the world’s focus will turn from the hurricanes and fires here in the US and even the earthquake in Mexico. We have short attention spans. We will return to the political wars and the wait for the next disaster to grab our interest. Harvey, Irma and Oaxaca will fade from our minds. We’re already seeing it.
But what will remain, at least in those three villages, will be a lasting legacy of the love and the outpouring of God’s people to help the least of these in their moment of need. Long after the rescue workers return to their homes and locals are left to clean up the fallen brick walls and try and rebuild their lives, the gift of clean water will remain. Each and everyday.
And then because of our work on the temporal side of life, we just might gain a chance to have a conversation about the eternal side of life and living water and maybe, just maybe a few folks in Oaxaca will be able to say once again... Life is good!
To read more and give through Go Fund Me, click here!
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