World Water Day is an annual observance highlighting the global water crisis. It is organized by the United Nations each year on March 22 and is an opportunity to educate the public about the reality that 2.2 billion people live without access to clean water. Use World Water Day to share with your church members information, resources, and opportunities to support organizations leading the way in connecting people with clean water.
Learn about Clean Water Access
Provide resources to your church to educate them about World Water Day and the global water crisis in a variety of ways – social media, emails, texts, the church website, slides shown in worship or on livestream before or after service, a display in the church building, or a mailer. Visit water.org or worldwaterday.org for statistics, shareable images, and stories of people impacted by a lack of clean water.
Pray for Clean Water Access
Provide church members with either a printed or digital prayer guide regarding World Water Day with prayers for each day. The prayer guide can encourage households with individuals of all ages to pray.
- Pray for the people and organizations who are helping to find an answer to the global water crisis.
- Pray the truth of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well in John 4 would become the truth in the lives of those without clean water – that they would believe in Jesus and the living water only He provides.
- Use a story from water.org/our-impact/all-stories and ask for prayer for the specific person. This website has stories featuring adults and children.
Support Clean Water Projects
The emphasis on World Water Day also provides Southern Baptist churches a unique opportunity to share the WMU Compassion Ministry Pure Water, Pure Love (PWPL), with their congregations. PWPL exists to provide missionaries with water filters and water resources to the people they serve. To support PWPL, visit wmu.com/PWPL and click on Support PWPL.
Do and Tell
Host an event to promote World Water Day and raise funds for PWPL that could involve all age groups in your congregation.
One event idea is a World Water Day trivia and game night. Utilizing facts and stories from the previously mentioned websites, creating games and trivia questions related to World Water Day, PWPL, and the facts about those without access to water. Make any donation to PWPL the “ticket” for the event. Prizes for winning a game or answering trivia can be water themed, and you could serve water-themed food too.
Tips for a Virtual Emphasis
If needed, utilize livestreaming, Zoom meetings, social media, email, or text to bring World Water Day to those not physically in your church building.
Reprinted from Missions Leader WMU Planning Guide 2021-22, Woman’s Missionary Union, Birmingham, Alabama. Used by permission. To purchase the Planning Guide call 1-800-968-7301.