Posts Tagged ‘One Thousand Wells’
(Don’t) Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day
Today has been declared “Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day,” but we’re here to offer some encouragement to help you reach your 2018 goals! In fact, we can’t think of anything better to encourage you than giving your resolutions a bigger purpose. How does providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene for people living in…
Read MoreThe Heart of Giving: Community:Builder Stories (Part II)
Read Part I Dave Vercellino About ten years ago, the Lord just broke my heart for those who lack clean water. My family won’t even drink from a water bottle left overnight in the car or on the counter, but people who God loves are drinking from ditches and other polluted streams. Tens of…
Read MoreThe Heart of Giving: Community:Builder Stories (Part I)
Our monthly donors are called Community:Builders because they are not only providing clean water, sanitation, hygiene, and HIV/AIDS care and prevention services in Africa; they are helping build stronger communities. Blood:Water’s model focuses on empowering grassroots organizations and their communities to take ownership of their health, on both individual and community levels. Some of…
Read MoreChoose Love Every Day: An Intern Reflection
“I believe that to love well, we must choose love every day. I believe that the point of life is community: letting others transform us. I believe that our grief over wrongs can become a passion to make things right. And I believe that God is good.” — Jena Lee Nardella, “One Thousand Wells”…
Read MoreWhat It Means to Be Fully Human
“To be present with our brothers and sisters in Africa, to understand their suffering, we need to risk being fully human with one another. What I could do was tell their stories.” — Jena Lee Nardella, “One Thousand Wells” For the past nine months as an intern, Jena’s words are what I have seen…
Read MoreBlood:Water Book Club: “One Thousand Wells,” Section 4
Summary Jena’s sense of defeat continues as she faces more brokenness in the world, and she starts to question if justice is really worth fighting for. As she begins to look for a way to step out of Blood:Water, thinking she can no longer fight against the intense brokenness of this world, her husband, James,…
Read MoreBlood:Water Book Club: “One Thousand Wells,” Section 3
Summary Upon attending the funeral of a college friend in Lwala, Kenya, Jena learns about the practice of ignoring grief due to the high frequency of death in the community. She also witnesses extreme cultural differences when she spends time with women in the village–including the women’s lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, the abuse the…
Read MoreBlood:Water Book Club: “One Thousand Wells,” Section 2
Summary After touring with Jars of Clay for a while, Jena Lee Nardella flew to Kenya with Joel, a Blood:Water volunteer to investigate possible partners for Blood:Water and strategize for the 1000 Wells Project. While in Kenya, Jena and Joel learned the importance of doing work with the poor community, not for them; that it…
Read MoreBlood:Water Book Club: “One Thousand Wells,” Section 1
Summary In the first section of “One Thousand Wells,” we begin to understand Jena’s sheltered childhood and what evolved from her early life in the Bay Area and Colorado. Her first experience with poverty marked her life forever, and it was not experienced in Africa. Instead, it was something most see daily in Union Square–a…
Read MoreBlood:Water Book Club Celebrates the One-Year Anniversary of “One Thousand Wells”
It’s back! Blood:Water Book Club returns this month with a book selection we can’t wait to read with you! To celebrate the one-year anniversary of co-founder Jena Lee Nardella’s memoir release date, we will read “One Thousand Wells” together! We can’t believe it has been a year since Jena once again hit the road with…
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