From Nightmare To Dream Come True: Part 1
June 30, 2008
This post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine.
Jeff Shinabarger, co-founder of the Fermi Project and Rwanda Clean Water, is the creative director & experience designer for all Fermi Project initiatives, the editor of Fermi Words, a digital media magazine educating leaders on shaping culture, and the creative mind behind the Catalyst Conference. Jeff lives in Decatur, Georgia with his wife, Andre, and dog Max. (contact: jeffs@fermiproject.com)
It was a nightmare. I dreamt of a boy, about 8 years old, 4 feet tall, no shirt, only ripped up mud stained pants, with a big little belly. I still can’t remember what his face looked like. It was like a Hype Williams music video where he focuses on the sun gleaming around the product he wants you to see. Suddenly the angle of the sun moved and an empty glass of water appeared. The boy leaned down to fill the glass again, and the shot panned back in a cinematic style. I watched the boy dip the glass into a filthy puddle on a mud street. He took another drink. I woke up.
It was 3:27 in the morning. I was sweating. I went to the kitchen, filled up a glass of ice water from my refrigerator door, and took a drink. I woke up my wife Andre. I had dreamt of injustice. Rwanda Clean Water Project began.
That nightmare birthed in me a real world dream to bring clean water to Rwanda. I shared the idea with my good friend Gabe Lyons who gave it legs. He found a foundation partner to help us receive money and provide it to our implementation partners on the ground in Rwanda. We decided to launch the idea of bringing clean water to Rwanda at an event of about 10,000 church leaders called Catalyst in October 2005. As they entered one morning, every person was given a bottle of water: no explanation, no tag, no branding, no cost, just pure clean water. Then we shared the story of the needs in Africa. We take clean water for granted in America. The reality is if there were clean water in developing countries today, sickness and illnesses would literally be cut in half. The leaders responded by giving $134,000!
In the spring of 2006, a group of 15 of us went to Rwanda to report on the first wells that had been dug since that 10-minute offering. Here is what I wrote the day we met the families benefiting from its existence:
Wells. We all saw the child that pumped the well and balanced the tin of water on his head and posed for us to take pictures. He was only one that gains. From that one well alone, there are 2,999 others that smile just like him everyday. That was one of the proudest and most humbling moments of my life. We saw how the simplest modern convenience can change the health and hope of an entire village. This is so simple, yet could change humanity today. What if we worked to give everyone in the entire world an opportunity to have access to clean water? Can you imagine the smile on that child’s face multiplied by millions of smiles from all over the world? Now that would be priceless. A small offering has the ability to change a society.
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