IMMEDIATE NEED FOR BLOOD:WATER MISSION!

Letter From Jars and Jena Lee
July 3, 2004

Thank you to those who have expressed interest and involvement in the Blood:Water Mission! We wanted to pass along an update on the past couple of months with the mission. The vision and goals of BWM continue to be refined and revealed. We are thankful for some specific people God has placed in our lives to walk through this process with us. In July we will be having our first board meeting, specifically to work out the organizational details and walk out the door with a clear, concise knowledge of BWM that is easily shared and easily captured.

In August we will be heading to Africa to play a few shows and to experience Africa first-hand. We plan to visit The Living Hope Center, which BWM funds have greatly assisted thus far, as well as many other places and facilities that BWM has impacted and will affect in the future. Jena, our program director, will have an extended trip with some of our guests in order to continue the established BWM relationships in Africa and develop new ones along the way. This group will specifically be researching and developing our spring campaign.

Which brings us to our first major effort—tentatively named the 1000 Wells Project. We plan to launch this project in the Spring of 2005, which will raise funds over 1000 hours (about 40 days) for the building, rebuilding, and repairing of 1000 wells in urban and rural communities in sub-saharan Africa. We hope to get involvement from churches throughout the U.S., artists throughout all musical genres, as well as other avenues that become apparent in the next few months. Part of the vision is to show that even $1 matters in this issue...anybody can help make a difference. We are also emphasizing the importance of local community involvement in this project. We feel that the more the African communities are involved in the process, the more ownership they will feel with the wells—and the longer the work will be sustained and successful.

So what can you do? We are in need of some immediate seed money, about $20,000, to do our work over the next few months. We are excited about other funding that will begin by September and October, but we have immediate costs that need to be covered before that money is delivered. This seed money will go towards the director's costs for the Africa trip (and some costs for our guests while in Africa) and a website overhaul (which you know is needed—and critical). We look forward to continuing to give funds directly to our neighbors in Africa, but for the next few months we need to develop the infrastructure so that the funds will indeed go to the right people at the right time in the future. Over the next few days and weeks we ask you to consider giving $5, $10, $1000—no gift is too large or too small, and to continue to pray for wisdom and guidance for BWM as we seek to impact the world with everything we do. Below is the P.O. Box information, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Dan, Charlie, Steve, Matt, Aaron, and Jena

Please write tax-deductible checks to: Blood:Water Mission
PO Box 682545
Franklin, TN 37068-2545

For questions: info@bloodwatermission.com