Religion

By PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor

About 1,800 people crowded into the amphitheater at Bergfeld Park on Tuesday evening, event organizers estimated, to show their support for Blood:Water Mission, a Christian ministry to Africa. Poet-singer Sara Groves and bestselling author Donald Miller spoke to Tylerites of the need to identify with their suffering brethren across the ocean.

“We’ve really found the heart of Texas,” said Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz” a New York Times bestseller, as he surveyed the overflow crowd. “We’ve met beautiful people everywhere we’ve gone, but not of this magnitude. Something special is happening in Tyler, Texas.”

An impromptu network of local churches brought the Blood:Water Mission and the Ride:Well Tour to Tyler — a national bicycle trek from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. — on a scant 30-day notice. The effort is named Blood:Water because it seeks to provide clean water wells and an HIV-free blood supply to villages and medical initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. The ministry was begun by the Contemporary Christian “alternative” music group Jars of Clay after the band’s founder visited Africa in 2002.

The goal of the evening in Tyler was to raise $40,000 for 10 wells. The money was raised by a generous citizenry before the concert even started, said George Montalvo, an event organizer.

“People came, they sent checks, churches worked together, it’s wonderful,” enthused Montalvo as he gazed out on the crowd sitting in the grass beyond the amphitheatre walls. “This is so much more than we expected.”

Churches that bought an entire well, costing $4,000 each, were New Days Community Center, Tyler Christian Fellowship, Bethel Bible Church, Dale Chapel, Cedar Creek Baptist Church, Marvin United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church and Green Acres Baptist Church.

“A single dollar will provide an African child with clean water for a year,” Miller said to the Tyler Morning Telegraph on Monday by phone as the riders approached the city. In Tuesday’s humorous and, apparently, impromptu description of the rigors of riding a bike through the American desert in summer, he said spiritual lessons were being learned.

“There was a day in Joshua Tree National Park, a place with no shade and 108 degrees that I ran out of water,” he said. “I was by myself. A construction worker filled my bottle. Later it was empty again and as I wondered where I would get some water, I began to realize how it feels for families in Africa that live like this every day. Somehow, clear, clean water is a right to me in America and if I’m deprived of it, I feel a right has been violated. But it’s not a right at all. We can have a tremendous impact in the lives of others with a single dollar.”

“Don’t let your love grow cold,” sang Ms. Groves, a mother of three, as she opened the event. A visit to Africa had changed her, she told the audience.

“I saw a woman in Rwanda carrying a bucket of filthy water with a child strapped to her back and her small boys by her side. I realized she would be cooking tonight’s dinner with that water and I said ‘Enough. This is something we can be part of and change.’”

Ms. Groves flew in for tonight’s concert she performed for free.

Some of the team of 15 riders spoke. Gregg Mwendwa, 26, of Kenya said, “It gives me tears to think of what the children (in Africa) are going through. Children can’t go to school because they must walk for miles each day to fetch water, and don’t have the time for school. By helping them get clean water, they can be healthy and also go to school.”

Response to the tour in America has deeply affected him, he said.

“Your support is more than incredible,” he said. “There are no words to use. The people in Africa are together in appreciating your support and prayers.”

For more on Tyler’s Blood:Water Misson event, read Saturday’s Religion Section of the Tyler Morning Telegraph or view the story on tylerpaper.com. To contribute to Blood:Water Mission visit the Web at www.ridewelltour.com, www.bloodwatermission.com or www.donaldmillerwords.com.

MILLER
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