Photos courtesy of Neverthirst.
Children play in the water provided by a pump that was installed by Neverthirst.
Lemonade is a classic summer drink with three simple ingredients — lemon, water and sugar. But this summer, a glass of lemonade could have a third, less tangible ingredient — the ability to give back.
As part of local nonprofit Neverthirst’s National LemonAID Day on Saturday, July 15, lemonade stands will pop up across the country, fundraising to help provide clean water around the world. Neverthirst, which was started in 2008 after a group at Church at Brook Hills felt a pull to help individuals throughout the world, aims to advance the gospel and provide clean water worldwide.
Mark Whitehead, co-founder and executive director of Neverthirst, said he first felt the pull to do more in 2006, after David Platt came as an interim at Church of Brook Hills.
“It was like I was hearing something anew for the first time, about God’s heart for the nations, for the unreached, and it led to me taking my first trip out of the states,” Whitehead said.
Throughout 2007, once a week he would meet with a group that prayed for direction in starting a ministry. Three of them traveled to a village in South Sudan together in 2008, and that was where Whitehead first heard about the water crisis.
“Having prayed for a whole year for direction, the three of us didn’t have to say a word to each other,” Whitehead said. “It was crystal clear what God was showing to us.”
They returned to the United States, formed community partnerships and returned to that village in December 2008 to set up a water pump. Since then, Neverthirst has grown to do work in eight countries, five of which the organization is currently active.
“Early on, it was friends and family. It was grassroots. We’d talk to anyone that would listen to us,” Whitehead said, adding that now Neverthirst has several community sponsors and churches that support their mission.
During each of Neverthirst’s more than 7,000 projects in the last 10 years, they gather photos, stories and data to help bring back information to the donors who support their cause.
In the communities Neverthirst reaches, director of development Brandon Gossett said their technology and water purification devices can help bring credibility to local pastors and churches, thereby fulfilling Neverthirst’s mission of spreading the gospel. Countries with corrupt governments, which is the political reality of many communities they help, oftentimes have distrust between citizens and the government. It is not uncommon for citizens to present the government with money for resources, and for politicians or corrupt individuals to instead pocket that money, Gossett said.
When people give their local church money and the pastor returns on that investment with a water pump, however, the pastor ends up building trust in the community.
“It’s a way of tangibly loving on people, is helping them get access to our most basic need, which is clean drinking water,” Gossett said.
As they collect stories in their communities, they help spread information on the world water crisis, said Gossett, who added that it is something many people are unaware of.
When Neverthirst started, there were around 1.2 billion individuals without access to clean drinking water. Now, Gossett said, that number is down to 660 million.
“That number is almost cut in half,” he said, adding that Neverthirst has helped around 427,000 individuals. “I do believe we have an opportunity as a generation to see the water crisis end, if it’s cutting like that.”
As part of this year’s LemonAID event, the Greystone Chick-fil-A, located at the corner of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119, will donate $1 of each lemonade sale to Neverthirst. Chick-fil-A will hold its event July 15, a few days before the official Neverthirst event.
For more information about Neverthirst, or to hold a LemonAID stand, go to neverthirstwater.org.