In addition to project photos there are a bunch of photos from the clothes distribution which took place at New Life Children’s Home. These clothes were made possible by the generous giving of quite a few of you along with the fundraising efforts of others. All the funds collected were sent to New Life for 2 new sets of clothes, Christmas day treats and a special meal.

I trust you’ll enjoy the photos and thanks again for your generosity this past Christmas!

Picture sets

Video sets

I am going to India with 2 guys, one which was with me last February and the other is traveling to India for the first time, so its going to be a big adventure for him.

Once we fly from Kansas City to Chicago I will jump on the AA nonstop flight to Delhi then change planes to a Jet Airways flight down to Hyderabad.  In Hyderabad, it will be off to the Novotel for about 6 hours of sleep then back to the airport for a flight to Calcutta.

Never been to Calcutta before, I have made it on numerous occasions to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore but never Calcutta.  For some reason I was always scared to go there, maybe because it is supposed to be a lot poorer than Mumbai and if you travel the back streets of Mumbai, it can get really depressing fast.  Plus, knowing the work of Mother Theresa I was always scared that if I visited and she were alive she would look into my eyes while holding my hand and say something about me moving to Calcutta to work with the her and how could you look back into her eyes knowing her history of service and say No?  Now that she is with Jesus I think it’s safe to venture to Calcutta.

Actually Calcutta is just a stopping off point, when we exit the airport with our stuff we’ll be looking for a smiling Indian hopefully having a placard with my name on it.  If this fellow doesn’t then were just going to stand outside the airport and look lost and see who comes up to us and says “you must be Mr. Mike”.  Whoever tells us that, we’ll follow.

From the airport we’ll go about 5 hours I hear in a car to about the middle of a state called Orissa.  Never been to Orissa before and some time back Orissa made the front lines because of the religious violence.  Within the past several years things have been quiet though tensions still exist between the conservative Hindus and the Muslims and Christians.  My excitement rests in the fact that ever since the violence I thought it would be cool to venture into this area and take a peaceful stand against the violence, sort of a visible act of disobedience to the other worldly forces that are engaged for the lives of those in Orissa.  You could say that for me this is a covert mission for God, sneaking into enemy territory and plundering it and then getting out without causing uproar with the locals.

 There is more to traveling to Orissa than this, actually the main reason we are headed there is to dedicate a water project which we will have completed within the next day or two.  This project is on some property recently acquired by a charitable organization there in India which wants to do some cool things within the surrounding areas and yet before any of this can happen they reached out to us for help in bringing water to this land and it didn’t take long for me to jump on this opportunity.

From Orissa were headed back to the East Godavari District, more specifically the Tuni area and dedicate at least 4 projects recently completed.  In addition to the water projects we hope to spend some time with the kids at New Life Children’s Home and Light of Love Children’s Home and maybe even make a side trip to the Bay of Bengal to jump some waves.

Last thought to leave you with is this, more water.

That is what our partner, Fr. Dhana in Trichy is asking of me. 

Villages throughout his area have made application for fresh water projects and he continues to set priorities for me and these aren’t just hand pump projects for villages in need of water but schools also.  I have 15 project proposals waiting for funding, all hand pump projects which need donors.  Our drilling prices along with material has increased dramatically these past 2 years and I have been absorbing this cost and now with the latest increase I have to do the inevitable and unfortunate thing and that is raise my rates. 

In Trichy our projects now will be $2,000 for a hand pump; same number of people will benefit from each project, just an increased price due to the economic conditions in India and the dollar’s decline.

I would appreciate your continued support in bringing water to rural India and not allow this increase to detract you from saving lives and providing life’s most basic necessity which is clean water. 

To read about the villages, schools and the community center which has made application for clean water, click this link – http://www.wellsforlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Community_water_projects_.docx

To get involved and fund all or a portion of any of these projects, send me an email or call me and let me know which village you want to make the gift of life to.  In November I hope to travel to Trichy and dedicate those projects which can be funded between now and the end of October.

 Thanks for your support and for making a huge impact in the lives of India’s rural people.

I share the radio spot and bring up this fundraising event for the sole purpose of reminding us all that we can make a difference in changing lives.  Many people don’t get involved in a cause because they don’t know what will happen to their money or they think that their time doesn’t really make a difference in the grand scheme of things but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The fact is, you can make a difference regardless of who you are.

I remember being about 8 and sending in the mail a couple of bucks because I thought they needed my money, after all I received a post card with an autographed picture of the President of the organization on the front and a personalized letter stating that my gift was needed for their cause.  Little did I know that those letters are really easy to produce thanks to technology but hey, I was 8 and this was way before offices had computers.  They had something that generated these things before the digital age as born.  Anyway, having a personalized letter appealed to me and so I mailed in a couple of dollars every month and boy was I excited when one day a lapel pin was sent to me.  A free gift, wow, maybe I should give more was my thought and so I did; after all every little bit helps.  Oh, the mind of a naive 8 year old boy.

Now, I have my own non profit organization, I am the founder and the president and thanks to the digital age I could easily produce autographed and personalized pictures of me pointing at the reader asking them for their gift and thanking them in advance for that gift on the back side.  Thankfully, I haven’t sucummed to that form of fundraising and I promise not to ever send out an autographed picture of me.

I share this story only to say, even at 8 I realized a difference could be made with a couple of bucks and I still feel this to be true today.  If every 8 year old in America gave $1 or $2 a month to me for clean water in India, think of the difference that could be made.  There have got to be at least a million 8 year olds in America and if they only gave $1 each month; wow, 1 million dollars coming in every month for clean water in India.  Think of the impact and the difference that could be made.  I could go on and on with what kind of impact I could make with that kind of money, especially since 95% of what we bring in we utilize on programs which fulfill our mission in India.

I think I am on to something here but had better stop because I need to go pick up my kids from school and I don’t want to be late but I think you get the picture; we can make a difference, each one of us.  All we need to do is to work collectively together and some good will take place provided of course we are all working towards the same goal, were organized and focused and we accept the fact that we all can’t be leaders.  Enough of the organizationa end of things; that can all be worked out, what matters is the difference that can be made if we all just did something, that is the point I am trying to make.

Now back to this Saturday, if you can, join me at BollywoodH2O as it promises to be a fun event and if you don’t live in Northern California well, I don’t have much to offer you other than this – join us by supporting our mission of bringing life change to rural India, one life at a time.

Unfortunately for me, being a small operation, I get to do the annual tax return which means headaches and nausea.  Why someone can’t come up with Turbo Tax for nonprofits and the completion of the 990 is beyond me.  I guess they do have that out there in the form of a CPA that you pay but who wants to pay??  Not me, so I stopped my complaining and got to work and here is the end product. 

I only post this because technically I have too, not that I am hiding anything because I’m not; never have and never will, it’s just that this form is ridiculously long and cumbersome and I don’t know anyone save a tax accountant or an auditor that enjoys reading this kind of stuff. 

Give me back my 990 EZ is my cry, unfortunately it falls on deaf ears.  OK, I will quit my complaining after all, I’m done and it’s right so enjoy.

Should I give any hightlights for those who don’t want to dive into the 12 pages?  How about this: we completed 64 water projects last year which is 1 more than 2009 and we did it with a down economy and we also funded some goats, cows and seed for 5 villages to engage in income producing activities not to mentioned provided a health worker and 4 teachers to help tutor kids in 5 rural villages with the goal of bringing up their test scores so they can compete with the city kids.

How’s that for results?

I am optimistic that 2011 will bring increase both in donor dollars and in impact within the areas of rural India that we are working in.  I find no better joy than to carry out God’s work and the provision of clean, safe water is just that – God’s work.

5 villages were identified by our partner DPWA and through a series of interviews it was concluded that the villagers most needed some type of income generating activity, supplemental education for their children and help with health and hygiene issues.  Resultantly a proposal was submitted to us by DPWA requesting help with the provision of water, goats/cows, teachers and a community health worker.

Today I received a check from The Water Project, Inc. for the water portion of DPWA’s proposal.  I am so thankful for The Water Project, Inc. and their continued support in our efforts in Trichy.  (Their gift is the result of generous giving by individuals of all ages, churches, community groups, businesses and corporations, without which we wouldn’t be able to embark on this journey so quickly, so thank you to all those supporting The Water Project, Inc.) 

In addition to their gracious gift, I took the liberty of submitting to them a proposal concerning the introduction of a community health worker who would be in charge of the 5 villages and who would be responsible for providing village level education on health/hygiene/sanitation as well as infant care and maternal health. 

Now I am looking to you, my Wells for Life® supporters.  I need your help in funding for this new holistic endeavour in Trichy. 

Specifically, funding is needed for each villages income generating activities which is centered around goats (a couple of villages have also requested milk cows).  To provide goats for a village at $2,500 per village and there are 5 villages needing funding.

This is how it will work: we will purchase 2 or 3 goats for 2 members of each village’s Self Help Group, 10 groups per village.  After the 1st year, the goats will have increased their numbers where the group will give 2 or 3 goats to 2 other members of each village’s Self Help Group.  This process will continue until every 6 months until all 10 members of the 10 Self Help Groups have goats, once this occurs then goats can be sold and money received can go towards paying the salary for the community health worker and the after school teacher.  Further income will also be derived from the expanding goat population to enable the Self Help Groups to assist the villagers in providing their own income and familial support.

The 2nd part of this equation is to provide for a teacher in each of the 5 villages supplemental education facility at a cost of $1,100 per village.  The teacher will be responsible for providing educational assistance after school and possibly on weekends for the children in the village.  This $1,100 investment will enable the teacher to spend the next 2 years in the village, at a minimum, providing the much needed educational instruction.

To be involved in this new exciting venture, I need you to Give now, using our web portal or by sending us a check.

100% of what you give will be used on this initiative with nothing being held back, just memo your gift goats/cows or teacher, or better yet if you just memo holistic, I’ll put your gift wherever it is needed most.

Thanks so much for your help!!!

Ok, enough of this but I was driving fast and enjoying most of the experience primarily because I had the AC going full blast, music was playing and a cold 2 liter bottle of water resting in the center console. Having the opportunity to take a drink whenever I wanted was magnificent and never really thought about until I got outside and again experienced the rush of hot, humid, Indian summer heat.

We finally rolled into a village which Prasanna was taking us to because in this place they requested water and according to Prasanna it was a needy tribal area so I decided to shoot some video to give you the reader a glimpse of what I experienced. I have edited a lot out as who wants to sit through 20 minutes of video listening to people you can’t understand? So I give you just 5 minutes I think and in this 5 minutes you will see and hear the need. This place unfortunately is typical of many places requesting water. I will say though that at least they have water. Many places in which we carry out our work there isn’t water in the village suitable for drinking. The suitable water is some distance from their dwelling and a considerable amount of time is spent each day in water collection for that day.

My goal in capturing this video is to just bring awareness to how millions of people live each and every day. The reality for this is harsh compared to us. They struggle to survive, we, better yet, I, struggle to find something to drink cold enough to satisfy my whim. For these rural people, they struggle to find just plain water safe enough to use without fear of sickness.

Village needing water (Click on the link to watch the video.)

For this village and countless others, money is all that is needed and not much of it. For less than $2,000 I can outfit this village with a hand pump water project and villages just like it. All I need is your help, your money. Do you want to change a life and make a real difference? Give me some cash and I will change a village with something as simple as water.

2009 990ez

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It is not that the city is anything special, its that there are a group of believers here that have formed a wonderful commuinty which in so many ways reveals what community life must have been like in NT times.  For this reason Tuni has become my “oasis” that I can go to whenever I am in India.  The community at NASA, for me is a place of love, rest, acceptance and resultantly rejuvenation. 

This trip is no different.

We arrived Sunday afternoon aftr a short flight from Chennai to Vizag and then a 1.5 hour car ride for which I assumed command of the SUV.  Pulling into Light of Love was everything I hoped for; warm greetings, lots of familiar faces, Esther and coffee, Schaun, Troy, Jason, KC and Allen from Kansas and my good friend Bob from NM.  

After moving our things we were treated to a wonderful meal and at that pointed we could have called it a day, yet it was only 2 in the afternoon and more was to be done.  Just outside were hundreds of people suffering from HIV/Aids and leprosy, and yet you wouldn’t know it by looking at their faces. 

These folks were singing, clapping and expressing joy and it wasn’t because we showed up or because they were fed.  My belief is that it was because we were now all together, we were in community and so we began by worshipping the One who has secured our future. 

Witnessing this event brought tears to my eyes and allowed me to share a message which confirmed their hope and belief in a God who knows their name, their situation and has a place waiting for them because they have put their faith in His Son, Jesus.

The joy that can literally flood our souls when we come together in community and truly worship God for who He is and for what He has done is amazing.  I can only imagine what heaven will be like and I have a longing in my heart to get there.  My suspicion is that it is going to be a lot like yesterday; enjoying community, sharing a meal and worshipping Father God.

All I know is India and from what I know about India, rural south India to be exact school is already in session which leads me to my request; water.

This past trip I received several proposals for water projects for schools.  Hundreds of kids are barely making it each and every day because they lack access to safe drinking water.  I want to do something about it but I need your help, specifically your dollars.

Without donations we can’t help, hundreds, no, thousands of girls and boys go to school each day to learn and grow and yet they do this at their own risk.  They don’t run off with a lunch and a water bottle, many of them don’t have a lunch to take and if the school does serve a meal it is very simple and plain.  Juice to drink?  Forget it.  They will be lucky to have water and if they do, the chances of it being safe to drink, free from contaminates is slim.

So yes, each and every day that I don’t or can’t act is a day they suffer and are at risk and thus the urgency to act.  Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated issue but a prevelant one and even with the widespread demand which can easily be overwhelming, I, better yet, WE, must act.

Do you want to be involved and save a life?  Send me any amount you can and together we can and will not only make a difference – we’ll save thousands of lives!

Visit our GIVE page to make your donation or send us your check by mail, however you choose to give is fine, just give!