The ‘impossible’ vision behind 26 billion liters of clean water

God called me out of the pew at a muddy pond in Kenya. The pond had been dug with farming tools. During the rainy season, it filled up with murky, brown water. Cows gathered along its banks, relieving themselves or wading in for a drink. 

Also along the edge of the pond was a mother named Mercy, who was filling her bucket. Her two children were beside her. The muddy pond water was all she had to offer her children to drink, wash their clothes, bathe, and cook their food. 

I stood next to her with a few packets of a water-purifying powder from my employer, Procter & Gamble. The packets had several ingredients meant to kill germs and separate out the dirt, making the water clean and purified to drink.

I asked Mercy if I could show her how they worked. She said yes. We stirred, filtered, and waited.

When the water turned clear, her whole face changed. I don’t think she’d ever seen clear water in her life. It looked like a miracle! Honestly, it looked like one to me, too.

I had known the statistics about the global water crisis for years. About 1,000 children die every day from diseases related to lack of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. But in that moment, I felt them. 

It stopped being a number and became a mother with a bucket and no choice but to give her children water that could make them sick — and I knew there were millions more like her. As I walked away from that pond, I knew the Lord had given me my calling.

A calling confirmed by a miracle

The timing was strange. The water-purifying packets were not meeting the company’s success criteria. The company was losing money, and leaders were ready to shut the program down.

I proposed something P&G had never done in its 185-year history: a not-for-profit program. Some senior leaders thought I was making a serious mistake. They had good reasons.

My boss asked me to write a vision of what would happen if the company backed my idea. I was to write it in the present tense, as if five years had passed. My first draft was rejected. So, I thought harder, and I prayed. What I wrote next, I didn't believe myself.

It said P&G would provide a billion liters of clean water. It said a retired CEO, John Pepper, would come back to deliver the billionth liter. It said the company would be praised by presidents and kings. At the time, we had provided just 30 million liters.

Every word came true. That program has now provided more than 26 billion liters of clean water. I am convinced that vision was inspired by God, because I never would have dared to write it on my own.

Matthew 25 is not a spectator sport

Jesus said, “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink” (Matthew 25:35, NIV). He went on to say that “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40, NIV).

Too many of us treat those words as a verse to admire rather than a command to obey. We sit in the pew, moved by the need, and wait for someone else to meet it.

“We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV). If the works were prepared in advance, then the calling is already waiting for you. The question is whether you'll step into it.

Here is what I've learned about finding your calling:

Look at where your passion and skills meet. Passion alone is just enthusiasm. Ask what moves your heart and what you are good at, then work to sharpen those skills.

Expect it to involve serving others. I believe we are wired to find fulfillment in serving. It doesn't have to be a humanitarian cause that serves millions; there is faithfulness to be found in the everyday tasks of life too. Look for how your calling can serve others.

Pray and watch for confirmation. I ask God what He is telling me, and I watch for the signs He places in my path. When you're on the right road, you start seeing things you can't explain.

Don't let failure disqualify you. I have failed many times and made plenty of mistakes. Get up and keep following. Often the failures turn out to be part of the preparation.

God was already at work

In 2013, I retired from P&G to join World Vision, the world's largest Christian humanitarian organization. Years later, I learned that its leaders had prayed over a list of candidates for the role, and my name was on it.

I had assumed I was hired because of my résumé. I had it backwards. God had been working all along.

In the last decade, World Vision has reached over 37 million people with clean water.

Today we reach one new person every 10 seconds. We are committed to finishing the job in entire countries, so that no one is left behind. We finished in Rwanda, and we are celebrating the same in Zambia.

The world has now reached 2.1 billion people with clean water since 2000. Fewer than 700 million remain. We have come much further than we have left to go, and the job can be finished. The global water crisis is solvable.

It will take believers who stop admiring Matthew 25 and start living it.

Find your pond.