by Kathy Magnus

Kathy’s Morning
When the alarm rang at 5:30 a.m., I reached over to turn it off and did a mental check of what day it was and what was on the calendar. It’s Wednesday, and the day was going to be a busy one. In five minutes, I had made the bed, brushed my teeth, decided what to wear, and was headed for the shower. By 6:20, I was downing a cup of coffee and inhaling a slice of cinnamon–raisin toast and a banana. I threw a load of clothes in the washer knowing they would not make it to the dryer until my return in the evening. I checked my e–mail and sent a quick note to our kids and a riddle to our grandsons. By 6:45, I was heading out the door, briefcase in hand. I stopped long enough to grab a bottle of water for the half–hour drive to work. My day had begun — just like most of my work days.

Dim Yen’s Morning
On the other side of the globe in a Cambodian village, Dim Yen, a 29–year–old mother, awakens at 5:30 as the sun’s first rays gleam through the thatched walls of her one–room house. She dresses and lifts a long pole mounted with four buckets to her shoulders for her daily ten–minute walk to the community water pump. Coming back she is careful not to spill any water from the full buckets. She knows that by day’s end she will be tired and her back will ache, but she takes joy in the early morning.

When she gets home, she starts a kitchen fire with wood she gathered the night before. Soon hot water is bubbling and Dim Yen makes her morning tea. She dips some water into a bowl so the family can wash their faces and clean their teeth. As she begins to cook the rice for breakfast, smoke from the fire blows into her face and she coughs. She washes some clothes in a bucket of hot water and drapes them over a bush to dry. Wrapping her kroma (traditional scarf) around her head, Dim Yen is off to work for the day in the fields. She knows that when she returns she will make the cabbage salad and rice with fish sauce, her family’s daily evening meal. (Rice is 95 percent of her diet.) Her day has begun — just like most days in her life.

Dim Yen lives in a small village in central Cambodia. Her home stands on stilts to protect it from frequent floods, and its thatched walls and roof let in the humid breeze.

Four years ago in this village, much of the standing water was contaminated by human and animal feces. Washing your hands only made them dirtier. Women gathered water for cooking, bathing, and drinking each morning — some from streams, some from standing water in the fields, some from buckets set out to catch rainwater. The nearest pump was a long 45–minute walk away, and carrying those heavy buckets of water that far was a chore no one enjoyed. In this country where 4.5 million people live on less than $1 per day, clean water is a topic on many minds. Then the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) came to drill a deep well and teach about the necessity of clean water. Dim Yen was chosen as a leader by the village — she is the chairperson of the village water committee. With the 4:1 ratio of women to men in this country, women take leadership.

Dim Yen has learned that in the rainy season it is especially important to guard against waterborne disease. She still struggles to teach this to mothers who scoop up water from ponds or rice paddies. The death rate among children under five due to diarrhea is astounding. Globally, 60 percent of infant deaths are linked to infectious and parasitic diseases related to contaminated water.

Trained by the LWF, Dim Yen works with families and encourages them to teach their children about safe drinking water. She regularly tests the well water and reports to a regional water board.

The LWF workers aren’t in the village any longer, but the villagers remember us well and thank us for giving "water for life." Her village is no longer literally dying for a drink of clean water. Thanks to you and the Lutheran World Federation, there is a life–giving water pump in this remote village.

The Lutheran World Federation
The LWF, with offices in Geneva, Switzerland, is present in hundreds of places — not only with water pumps and wells, but with trucks, grain banks, theological education, evangelism training, farming techniques, ecumenical relationships, advocacy for human rights, literacy training, and HIV/AIDS workers. Together, we are in mission and ministry, for the healing of the world.

There are nearly 69 million Lutherans worldwide. Almost 66 million of us are members of the LWF. Did you know that Ethiopia has 3.5 million Lutherans, and both Madagascar and Tanzania have 2.5 million? There are 138 member churches in 77 countries around the globe in the LWF. We come together in common witness and service.

We work together to develop training for lay evangelists and to develop better models of communication. We bring leadership together in the regions to pray, plan, and learn from one another.

The LWF is not just about giving. As we work in mission around the globe, our lives are enriched by the faith and gifts of those with whom we work. The LWF provides the table at which we come together. Together we struggle over the needs of the world.

Jesus’ ministry is our model. Where he encountered the pains of the world, he addressed them. Along with the healing, he shared the transforming message of salvation. We are called to follow that model — to pray, to heal, to share that incredible word of Christ’s saving grace.

The ELCA is a vital partner in our global Lutheran family. ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson currently serves as the president of the LWF. ELCA members are active on many committees and councils of the LWF. The LWF Office for North America is located in the Lutheran Center in Chicago. Every year, the ELCA celebrates LWF Sunday on the first Sunday in October (this year it’s on October 2). For more information about the LWF and resources to mark LWF Sunday, go to www.lutheranworld.org and www.elca.org/lwf

Women and Water
Women are the world’s water carriers. The Women’s Desk of LWF (WICAS — Women in Church and Society) has pledged to work on the issue of clean, available water for the next several years. Let us stand boldly in solidarity with our sisters who walk for hours each day in search of water for their families’ needs and remember them in our prayers as we step into the shower, throw a load of clothes into the washer, or grab a bottle of water on the way out the door.

Four buckets of fresh, clean water in a remote Cambodian village are small symbols of the life–giving, enriching ministry we share as members of the Lutheran World Federation. Thank you for your support of the LWF and your presence in Cambodia, Angola, Mauritania, El Salvador, Indonesia, and countless other places where the word of God is preached — where God is active in the world — for the healing of the world. We go in Jesus’ name!

Kathy Magnus is regional coordinator for the Lutheran World Federation’s North American office. She works in the Lutheran Center in Chicago.

Global Water Facts
▪Every 10 seconds a child dies of diseases linked to contaminated water.

▪Last year, 3.4 million people in the world died of diseases associated with inadequate water supply.

▪1.4 billion children in the world have no access to clean water near their homes.

▪Less than a quarter of rural households in Cambodia have safe drinking water.

▪The World Health Organization states that perhaps the greatest failure of the twentieth century was the failure to prevent water–related deaths of children anywhere in the world.

Our Ministry in Cambodia Through the LWF
The LWF’s contribution to safe water in Cambodia
▪571 deep wells constructed or rehabilitated

▪518 shallow wells constructed or rehabilitated

▪2,135 sanitary latrines constructed

▪370 active village water committees developed

▪91,950 villagers now using clean, fresh water