Liberty ministry partners with The Last Well

After six years, more than half a million people in Liberia now have access to clean water thanks to The Last Well, which has recently partnered with Liberty University’s Revive Ministries to continue to serve the African nation, according to Executive Director of The Last Well Todd Phillips.

The Last Well is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide safe drinking water to the entire nation of Liberia and to spread the gospel to all those they serve by the end of this decade, according to its website, thelastwell.org.

According to Revive Ministries’ website, Revive operates under Liberty’s Center for Ministry Training and aims “to uniquely expose the youth of today to the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ and encourage believers to lead a life of discipleship and servitude.”

Quincy Thompason, Revive Ministries co-leader, said the missions of Revive and The Last Well are compatible, and he explained that the two groups chose to become partners in order to bring awareness about the lack of drinking water in Liberia to Liberty’s student body.

“This event marks the beginning of a movement on campus to end the water crisis in Liberia and share with millions the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Thompson said.

One way Liberty students and faculty can help to provide more clean water in Liberia is by participating in The Last Well’s newest fundraiser, the Pass the Bottle campaign.

According to Phillips, the Pass the Bottle campaign is an initiative that aims to leave a lasting image of Liberia’s need for clean water in the minds of all who participate.

The Pass the Bottle project involves bottles of dirty water that are accurate representations of the quality of water Liberians are normally able to access. In order to act on the need, those who choose to join in The Last Well’s mission can text “Revive” to 27722 to make a $10 donation.

Because this chapter of Pass the Bottle is specific to Liberty, a website is set up to track donations from the Liberty community and friends of Liberty, according to Phillips.

Thelastwell.org/give/revive is constantly updated to show the exact amount given as result of Revive’s partnership with The Last Well. According to the website, $513 has been raised by the Liberty community so far, and the goal of the campaign at Liberty is to raise $12,000 in the next 346 days.

Phillips also said that 100 percent of donations given through Pass the Bottle go directly toward providing clean water in Liberia, as other donors pay for all other operating costs for The Last Well. Additionally, a matching grant is in place so that all donations from Pass the Bottle are matched dollar-for-dollar, resulting in twice as much funding going toward building wells.

According to Phillips, patrons can feel confident that their donations are making a difference in Liberia, as more than 500 wells have already been built with a 90 percent success rate. Phillips said that while there are often problems with wells not being drilled deep enough to continue to provide clean water, nine out of every 10 wells The Last Well builds endure.

To date, The Last Well has significantly reduced the number of people in Liberia who do not have a clean water source, providing pure water for 506,000 people in six years of operation, Phillips said.

The Last Well and other organizations have combined to reduce the number of people lacking clean water in Liberia to 850,000, down from 1.8 million in 2008, according to Phillips. But unlike The Last Well, other organizations that provide clean water do not provide the gospel message as The Last Well does.

And because there are hundreds of thousands of people who are still without a clean water source and who have not heard the gospel message, Phillips said The Last Well’s mission is not yet accomplished. According to Phillips, there is still much more to be done in order to reach the entire nation of Liberia with safe water and God’s love by 2020.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *