By Brooke Helder, GACX Content Creator
Growing up in Michigan, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore was one of my favorite places. About seven years ago, my dad and I decided to backpack along the lakeshore for a week, making memories I will always cherish. Alongside the blisters and finding a place to pitch our tent, another challenge was retrieving water.
Most of the time, we would hike down to Lake Superior or a nearby stream and use a water filter to fill our bottles with clean water. It was a lifesaver when backpacking in the summer heat. Even more of a lifesaver is a GACX member organization that provides water filters for thousands worldwide needing clean drinking water.
For ten years, Filter of Hope has manufactured and distributed water filters for families living without access to clean water. They take U.S. teams, such as church small groups, college students, and others, to distribute their water filters on short-term mission trips. As they distribute the filters, they also share their faith in Jesus. Last spring break, Filter of Hope sent seventy groups to distribute filters and invite people to experience the “living water” Christ offers.
“We’ve seen thousands of people receive clean water, but most importantly, we’ve seen people give their life to Jesus and watched the local church grow.” shares Seth Swindle, Director of Global Expansion at Filter of Hope.
When COVID began, Filter of Hope could no longer send mission teams and needed to collaborate with GACX members to continue distributing filters. The staff started to think bigger than their typical mission trip locations and hoped to reach areas dealing with persecution. They began to focus on the 10/40 window, starting in Pakistan.
Filter of Hope met Advancing Native Missions at a missions conference. Advancing Native Missions connected them with some of their partners in Pakistan. Filter of Hope sent filters to these partners and saw excellent results and new opportunities to share the Gospel. Within the last month, they sent 3,000 additional filters to these Pakistani partners.
Filter of Hope collaborates with GACX members, Renew World Outreach and Jesus Film Project. They were inspired by Renew World Outreach's efforts in Rwanda and provided vision for Filter of Hope to start water filter distribution in Sudan. Jesus Film recently connected Filter of Hope with a new partner in Myanmar for further filter distribution. International Mission Board (IMB), another GACX member, similarly collaborates with Filter of Hope by sending filters into areas recovering from man-made and natural disasters.
With these GACX collaborations, Filter of Hope sent over 30,000 filters to partners worldwide last year.
“There is a huge need for water, but we know the greatest need is Jesus, right? We want that filter to be a tool to share the Gospel.” reiterates Swindle.
Interested in partnering with Filter of Hope? Learn more at filterofhope.org.
This Tuesday email is part of our ongoing series of stories highlighting collaboration within GACX, a Global Alliance for Church Multiplication.
