Run for Water

Water borne disease kills more children than AIDS/HIV, malaria and measles combined, killing one child every 20 seconds. 

In the face of such statistics by the World Health Organization, on Dale Boulevard is hosting a Mission 5K fundraiser this spring to raise money to build a well in Kenya.

The 5K run/walk will be held May 28 at Leesylvania State Park in Woodbridge. The church is trying to raise $13,500 to build a well—in partnership with Water 10:42 in Texas and Word of Faith Ministries in Kenya—to bring safe, clean water to a village in central Kenya. Registrations for the 5K opened this week.

“It is about water… but it’s about more than water,” said FFC Pastor Kurt Wallace. Water 10:42—a non-profit devoted to building clean wells, specifically in Africa—says that 80 percent of sicknesses and diseases in the world are caused by unsafe water and bad sanitation. “We want to meet the physical need,” Wallace said. “But we also want to come behind and help people learn about hygiene, self-dignity, and identity. Not Americanize them, but find out where they are and what they really need. So it’s bigger than just water.”

Wallace met and made friends with the leaders of Water 10:42 at a church conference and later decided to partner with them in one of their well-digging projects this year. The organization gets its name from the gospel of Matthew chapter 10, verse 42, which says, “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

“They had exposure to the work in Kenya and connections with a pastor in Kenya who is working on wells,” Wallace said. “And God really put it in my heart to help bring water. Then I came back here and another brother here had a heart to dig a well in Kenya too. So God was working.”

FFC and Water 10:42 will be building the well in connection with Bishop Thomas Muthee and World of Faith Ministries in Kiambu, Kenya. Muthee has already found a village with a need for fresh water. Muthee said the village is located in a mountain region of north central Kenya and is battling with the harsh realities of human trafficking, female genital mutilation, sickness, and extreme poverty. Muthee is quoted in a fundraising letter from FFC. Muthee has secured the permits necessary to drill in the area and is waiting on the funds to do the actual digging and construction of the well.

That is where Wallace and the 150 members of FFC want to step in. Already the church has raised $1,100 for the project—$750 of which was raised by children between the ages of 8 and 12.

Individual runners can register for the 5K for $40 until the end of April and then $50 after that. But the larger goal is to get runners who will find people to sponsor their run.  

“Our goal is to have 50 people race each having raised $350,” Wallace said. “But we would love to have a couple hundred runners out there.” The church is also offering businesses the chance to support the cause by becoming sponsors.

The church plans to put money raised beyond the needed $13,500 for the well towards scholarships for college students in the church and other mission projects. “All of it will go out, it won’t become part of the church’s general fund,” Wallace said. He said the church does one major fundraiser a year to bring enough money to give away to missionaries and other ministries.   

This is the first time FFC has done a major project like the well. “This is bigger than me, and that’s the way I like it,” Wallace said. “Our little group of folks can do something great here—and everyone can get involved.”  

Wallace said he is excited about the opportunities for growth and continuing relationship with the Kenyan village after the well project is complete. “We don’t want to just throw money and leave,” he said.

Once the well is built, Muthee and Word of Faith Ministries will establish a local pastor to maintain the well and plans to eventually build a church, school, community center, and orphanage in the village. Wallace plans to visit the village within the next year and investigate how FFC can help even more. He also hopes to bring a short-term team from the church there to help with more specific needs in the future. “We are a lot of broken people who just want to do the right thing,” he said.

You can register for or sponsor the “Mission 5K” race here.