This year, Holy Covenant is once again participating in the Advent Conspiracy.  Advent Conspiracy is an invitation to Spend Less, and Give More, so that we can Love All and Worship Fully this Christmas season.  Christ came to bring peace, hope, and love to all God’s children.  The Advent Conspiracy challenges each of us to honor the true meaning of Christmas by redirecting some of our spending to make a life-saving, world-changing difference for “the least of these”.

Our goal as a congregation is to redirect funds that we might have used to purchase gifts and instead, raise $5,000 for Living Water International.

Living Water is an organization that demonstrates the love of God by helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water.  In 2006, I had the opportunity to be part of a Living Water mission team to a small, rural community in El Salvador.  Our team built 2 wells – one near the local health clinic, and one at the local elementary school.  The children were so excited the entire week we were there, and their excitement grew even more the day the well was finished and clean water started flowing through the pump.  Our hearts were filled with joy as they danced and splashed around, taking turns cranking the pump and splashing their friends.  And the nurses at the clinic were so grateful that they would no longer have to wait on clean water, travel miles to get it, or just go without.  Now they would only have to travel a few feet to get clean water anytime they needed it for the clinic.  The entire community would have access to either well anytime they needed water for drinking, cooking, or cleaning.  And the best part is – the entire community will continue to have access to clean water for countless generations to come.  Throughout the world, 5,000 children die each day – that’s one child every 15 seconds – due to water-related diseases.  But that doesn’t happen anymore in this little town in El Salvador.  The wells provided by Living Water International are saving lives every day, all over the world.   

If you would like to support Living Water by joining Holy Covenant’s Advent Conspiracy, there are several ways you can get involved:

1.) You can simply make a donation.  The ushers are distributing special Living Water envelopes.  You can drop these in the offering plates later in the service.
2.) You can purchase Living Water gift certificates for any amount as alternate gifts for family and friends.
3.) And you can join a mission team, we are distributing water botteles in our neighborhoods as an awarness program.  The bottles tell a little about Living Water and share an invitation for our community to join us in this effort.  The bottles also carry an invitation for our neighbors to join us for Christmas Eve services where we will celebrate our success.