It is January 6th, 2018.  As I write this, I see snow in my back yard that has not melted from a fast and furious snow “storm” that hit on January 3rd.   I am warm, and I am fed, and I am drinking hot tea from my Keurig.  I had to use bottled water in the Keurig, however, because we are under a “boil water” advisory.   It seems that pipes all over the place were impacted by the sub-freezing temperatures and our whole area is struggling with little or no water.

Funny how things happen sometimes.   As I consider the inconvenience of not being able to drink the water from a tap in my house or use the ice made in my freezer, and I seriously question if I should be bathing in water I can’t drink,  I get a text from my youngest child.

On the day of the big snow storm, I dropped her off in the Atlanta airport to meet up with about 20 other college students for a 7 day mission trip to Haiti.   I raced the storm back to Florence and arrived about 1 hour before the roads became too dangerous for a southern girl to navigate.  Safe and sound in my warm, well stocked home, I prayed that my baby would have a safe flight and experience in Haiti.

She is safe.  She is happy.  She is in a country that NEVER has safe drinking water for all of its people.  She is there with a suitcase full of water filters that are used on buckets, and her job for a week is to befriend villagers who will let her show them how to use the filters on a bucket, so that they can have potable water.    She speaks French well enough to talk to the children, and she is connecting with them in way that will change her life forever.  She is starting the new year with an entirely new perspective on life.   She tells me that the Haitians she has met “smile and laugh” more than we do.    And they have to worry about safe drinking water every day…not just after a freak storm.

Funny how things happen.   When the water problem started for our area, I was already sensitized to the global clean water crisis  because my child jumped feet first into the Filter of Hope project and signed up to spend half of her Christmas break serving this mission.   I was already thinking about how lucky I am to have water I can drink at the tip of my fingers or that I can afford to buy at the grocery store.    I don’t have a water problem at all.

It’s a new year.   It’s the perfect time to take a look ahead and decide what we want the future to look like.    My child is 20 and she wants to save the world.  I want her to exhaust herself trying.   I want her to continue serving others.  I want her to give and give some more.   I know what she is learning:  that the more you give, the more you will receive.   And I am not talking about material things.   I am talking about spirit, and contentment, and love.

We all have a million ways we can help someone else.   We have a million opportunities to serve.   WE have water everywhere, even if we are inconvenienced for a moment.   I am hopeful that in this new year we will be mindful of any opportunity we get to serve.  Clean water, warm clothes, food, financial assistance to someone who has been knocked off of his feet…please find a way to help someone.   Every little bit helps.

While the water in her own home is not drinkable, my child is helping Haitians make sure theirs is.   And we both could not be happier.  Funny how things happen.