Christmas - a time of celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. A time for family, comfort and love-
Joy to the world, right?

Here's the reality, though, of Christmas in our world: People of the United States spend around $500 billion a year on Christmas gifts. That's more than $600 a person. We also spend another $8 billion on decorating for Christmas.

Isn't there something wrong with this? Just doesn't feel right.

For one, we give each other so much stuff. We are trying to truly show someone we care but we're still essentially material-rich people giving other material-rich people more... materials. The purpose of the holiday, though, is Christ. And Jesus made his purpose clear to us - sacrifice. He died so that we could live. And we struggle to keep that the focus of Christmas while we're busy buying and unwrapping gifts.

This Christmas, the Van Putten family is taking a step back from that world. This Christmas, we want to give more than stuff to each other. We have all said no to gifts for ourselves this Christmas. Our family will be swapping charitable gifts this year. Don't feel badly for the girls. There is no sadness- there were actually sighs of relief. (Pretty accurately shows you how much we don't need more stuff!)

We put our heads together and chose what we thought is a really great project for our family to direct attention to this Christmas.

More than a billion people are living without water on our planet. Some walk miles every day to get to the nearest source: a stagnant, parasite-infested stream or pond. They lug it back to their families. They suffer from diarrhea, worms and skin diseases because they can't wash themselves. 45,000 people die each day from waterborne illnesses.

Our mission is to raise $5000 by the end of this year. 100% of every penny we raise will go directly to the water projects. (they raise admin. funds separately). That mission sounds exceedingly crazy. We are not a family that receives $5k in gifts each year. However...we think we can raise some through redirecting our gifts but the rest will have to come from people like you just getting excited about helping people get clean water. We would never normally ask for a present from you. This year we are. Give, give, give. An even better idea is for you to set up a campaign and get your friends and family involved. We don't care if the $5k comes on this page - let it come through your page! Set up your own mywatercharity site.

One billion people, one cause. We are so excited to give one Christmas away. We are pretty sure it will feel much more satisfying than Christmas pasts.

Please join us by donating.

Just $20 is enough for one person to have clean water for two decades. We chose our goal of $5,000 because that will build one well. Lots and lots of small gifts can get us to $5k!

I recommend you check out the founder of charity:water's story. I first heard his story on Mosaic's podcast posted November 14th. That story is linked on this page. Charity:water.org has Scott's story too. http://www.charitywater.org/about/scotts_story.php
It was recorded from Omaha of all places!! The Mosaic podcast is recorded as he spoke to a Christian community so there are details Christians would appreciate. :)

.