How many of you have had the opportunity and privilege of traveling to Mexico or Guatemala?
How many of you were given the advice “Don’t drink the water?”
Many people believe that advice is just for Americans and that the locals can drink their own tap water.
The sad reality is that is simply not the case. In 90% of cities in Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, the tap water that comes out of the tap is so contaminated it would make anyone sick, no matter what your nationality. You see little bugs like salmonella, giardia, fecal coliforms, e coli and others don’t discriminate based on your nationality, anyone who comes in to contact with these little buggers gets sick.
That is a daily reality for the people that live in Guatemala and other developing countries, they can’t just go to the tap and get a glass of drinking water and they have to treat any water they are going to cook with too.
Some facts about the global drinking water crisis:
-More than 1.1 billion people in the world, 1 in 6, lack access to safe drinking water
-More than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die from water borne illnesses each year, like the equivalent of 16 Boeing jumbo jets crashing each day, no survivors.
-Diarrhea from water borne disease is the second leading cause of mortality among children.
-Poor, urban communities of the developing world pay the highest prices in the world for water.
These are numbers. Numbers and statistics are important for us to try to understand the depth and breadth of a problem, but numbers never tell the whole story.
These numbers have faces, and we had the privilege of looking in those faces each day we were in Guatemala. Many of those faces are the photos I took on the trip in this blog post.
But our trip to Guatemala was not a story of sadness, it was a story of hope, because each one of us who went on the trip to Guatemala and each one of you who prayed for us while we were on the trip. . .
is working to change these numbers and just as important, looking in these faces and building relationships and solidarity with the people that represent these statistics.
As Christians, we are called to help others in the world who are hurting, struggling and not getting their basic needs met. We are called LOUDLY to do this throughout scripture. 
In Matthew 25, Jesus states “. . . for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me. . . 
Truly I tell you, just at you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
I have felt this call strongly in my life and it has led me to do development work in Latin America as the Field Operations Manager for Healing Waters International. 
Each person will respond this call differently, by helping out a neighbor, by working in the soup kitchen or homeless shelter down the street, by traveling to a native American reservation and working there, or by doing global missions. 
Each one of these are equally important and equally good responses to that call, but it is so important that we heed that call and like Jesus, actively work to feed the hungry, offer drink to the thirsty, comfort to the lonely, care to the sick.
We could learn statistics about all of these hurting people in our world, and statistics are important to grasp the scope of a problem, like the global problem for safe drinking water. 
But we also need to remember that these numbers have faces.
We need to look in those faces and shine the light of Christ through our eyes and treat those in need with the dignity, respect and help that Christ is calling us to do.
So all of this really begs the question: What are you going to do to heed that call? 
This is your call to action. In Healing Waters when talking about the global water crisis, we call it the H2OATH:-Learn about the problem
-Do something about it
-Tell others
I encourage you to take your own oath for your own passion and calling for missional work, work outside the walls of this church, work that Jesus comes along side and does with us. 
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