January 22 2023

Resolved 2023: More Filters for God’s Thirsty Children!

You’ll likely have noticed a fresh look and a fresh name for our e-news, all in keeping with our fresh start for 2023. We who lead Water With Blessings began the New Year by asking you to consider a New Year's Resolution to make a sustaining contribution each month throughout 2023 (see below if you’re ready to make that move!) Why would we make such a bold ask? because we have our own resolutions for a year of dynamic, bold mission action...and our resolve to respond to children in need of clean drinking water can't go anywhere without your support.

Our mission resolve for 2023 requires effective strategic planning, and good strategic planning is quantifiable... measureable. There’s so much that’s beyond measure in our mission, starting with the hearts of all those who join us to serve and support in some way; sharing their time, energy, support, advocacy... the spirit of sharing that we count on so radically is beyond quantifiable measure. Yet obviously, we need measurable strategic plans to be effective... and we need measurable funding to meet our measurable strategic plans.

Take a look with us at some numbers that give meaning to our strategic resolve for 2023. Looking ahead into the coming year of mission action, we’re excited to share our plans for more Water Women in these 6 countries: Honduras (6,000) , Haiti (15,000), the Philippines (1200), Uganda (1200), Zambia (1200), and Kenya (600), all of them countries where we have the current relationship capacity for expansion, but even more importantly, all places where the need is acute. (This doesn’t mean that our church and other mission partners won’t be welcome to continue their WWB missions

in other countries... these are just the country team missions that we hope to sustain directly through donor support.) Water Women are our core approach for international sites, where children routinely suffer and die because of dirty water. Every day in 2023, we want to see our country teams (all natives of their countries) empowered to be out in the field, recruiting and training Water Women, adding another 25,200 to the 158,000 mothers who are already spread across 45+ countries around the world.

Every year we build a budget for the coming year, start laying the foundations for moving forward, and then commence to praying, every morning, for what we'll need to build on those foundations. It all comes down to the $ numbers, right? As well as the value of those $s as they meet the rising expenses in struggling countries overseas. We’re doing our best to hold the sponsorship cost to $75 per Water Woman for at least one more year, but the state of the global economy and unrest in individual countries are challenging us.

Our core global strategy in confronting the need for safe drinking water has always been Water Women. Every single mother who joins the Water Woman movement leaves training with a Sawyer PointONE filter and bucket, a two water storage pouch, a head full of new knowledge and a heart full of her personal resolve to filter clean water for her neighbors. The strategic outcome? One Sawyer PointONE filter, with a guaranteed capacity to filter 3 million gallons, in the hands of a Water Woman will provide clean water for many years to a total of four households, most likely at least 15 or 16 persons. That’s a tremendous amount of impact for $75!

Isn't it great

to actually have

GOOD NEWS to share? How about forwarding this email to a friend or two? Your sharing might bring about the wonderful good news of clean water for another mother and her children!

We can’t overlook the needs of our own fellow US citizens who suffer inequities when it comes to clean drinking water access. Our 2023 Strategic Plan includes more distribution across the Navajo Nation, and a broader focus in Appalachia. Both of these areas, which began as disaster response, are now part of our permanent programming for the United States.

Now for the bottom line numbers: To bring our resolve for 2023 to reality, we’re going to need about $1.6 million -- a $300,000 increase over our 2022 budget. As you’ll see in our upcoming 2022 Annual Report, nearly 84% of our 2022 income came from individuals, family foundations and faith communities. We have no income from government sources, and less than 20% from corporate foundations or partner nonprofits. So our real “bottom line” is gratitude: to the thousands of individuals, faith communities and small foundations who give as they can, to the corporations and partner nonprofits who entrust us with their mission commitments, and most of all to our Creator God, who has given us this mission and the means by which we all carry it out together.

Always remember; Water With Blessings isn’t any 1 person! Water With Blessings is a very wide “WE” which includes YOU, side by side with many thousands of committed mothers, country team members, donors, staff and board...and all together, WE add up to a powerful force for change! Thank you for your heart, for your part, for all that you bring. We’re counting on you to share our resolve as we pick up the pace in 2023. More clean water for God’s thirsty children!

Upcoming Webinar

Appalachia Water Challenges

February 23 2023, 12 PM EST

Registration Required: Click Here