Today launched our first Tuesday class of our lent series. We are using the Faith & Facts Cards from the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society. Today we focused on clean water. The first section of class we read bible passages related to water. We all really resonated with the First Nations Version of Revelation 21:6 “I will give the free gift of the wellspring of live-giving water to all who are thirsty.”
We told stories about our own experiences with water. Rhonda, who is leading the class, is a retired teacher who studied engineering and minored in geology & earth science. Her perspective was so interesting! As a group we reflected on how one of the many issues facing the people of Gaza is access to clean water. I told about my time in Guatemala and how one of the United Methodist projects there had a mural of a stream and all the ways people used the water as a way to encourage folks to care for the water. One of the facts on the card states “Worldwide 2.2 billion people lack access to safe and clean water and over 4.2 billion lack access to proper sanitation. Over 2000 children die every day from disease related to lack of clean water and sanitation.”
We felt a bit stuck as we discussed these facts and the stances of the UMC which include 2016 Standing Resolution 1033, “We believe water is a sacred gift from God. We further believe water is a basic human right and not a commodity to be traded for profit.” Gaye is going to do some tracking of her water usage and share that with us as a way to think about how much water we might save if we change some of our habits. We also researched Johnson Creek Watershed. There are a variety of volunteer and educational opportunities available there. As a parish we will keep in mind the water flow of our parking lot and how we might landscape for more rain gardens.
It was a great conversation and I learned things not just about water, but about the other folks in our class. I hope you can join us for the next session. We’ll be talking about domestic violence and the ways we can support survivors and change our culture so no more victims will experience violence. 9am Sunday or 12pm Tuesday at the Trinity Building.
-Eilidh
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