The Bucket Ministry is a passionate group of ordinary people singularly committed to bringing The Gospel and the gift of clean, safe, drinking water to all the underserved areas of the world. From the thicket thronged bush of Ghana to the frost-bitten foothills of Nepal, the dry and unbearing plains of Mexico to the deep green jungles of Brazil, the slick and hardpacked streets of the Kibera slums to the steep pitched mountains of Vietnam—The Bucket Ministry has boot prints in many of the world’s most physically and spiritually uninviting places. Yet, in serving such an unwavering God, The Bucket Ministry is never without a shepherd for our steps.

The Bucket Ministry was founded in 2012 on the heels of an opportunity to join the non-profit organization, Amazon Outreach, on a mission trip to the Brazilian Amazon. In witnessing the pervasive lack of access to clean, safe, drinking water in Brazil, we were inspired to return stateside and begin drafting ideas for the provision of clean water to the Brazilian people. Not long thereafter we had a name, a team, a mission, but no tool. What good is our passion and motivation without an instrument to turn them into material relief? Then, we were introduced to the Sawyer PointONE filter. Using the same technology as kidney dialysis, the Sawyer PointONE filter removes all harmful bacteria, protozoa, and cysts like E. coli, Giardia, Cholera, and Typhoid once water passes through its membrane. Equipped with these filters and enough buckets to drain the Red Sea, we returned to Brazil, administered medicinal aid, distributed the buckets and filters, and, most importantly—delivered the Gospel of Jesus Christ to any heart willing to receive it.

Such was the success of our Brazilian trip that we soon returned again…and again…and again…and again. With the model of first meeting a physical need so we can then meet a spiritual one proven in Brazil, we realized that there were so many other places around the world yearning for this kind of aid. So, we asked God where next we should take these resources, and He answered, “Anywhere without them.” To that end, The Bucket Ministry now has a growing presence in over twenty countries around the world with new ones added yearly.

With such rapid expansion, we, of course, need a fairly sophisticated method of tracking the distribution of our resources so we can maintain financial transparency with our donors. Thus, the GIS system was integrated into our data collection practice. Since February of 2019, The Bucket Ministry has employed the GIS system to provide our staff and donors with a much richer dataset of the specific location and recipient of our filters. Each filter receives a unique, waterproof barcode which, at that point of distribution, is scanned with a tablet or smartphone. Then, our field missionaries will collect brief, but useful, information on the physical and spiritual health of the recipient. This data will serve as the starting point for three follow up visitations that our teams will perform in the field. Upon each follow up, the pastor or missionary will again scan the barcode and collect further data that can be compared against the original distribution data to show if their health and faith are improving. All donors can have access to this information.

Our commitment to this cause has only strengthened over the years. Not only have over hundreds of thousands of people tasted clean, safe, drinking water for the first time in their lives courtesy of the largesse of our donors and the indefatigable spirit of our team members, they, as well, have tasted for the first time the living water that only a relationship with Jesus Christ can provide. Nonetheless, we are not satisfied with hundreds of thousands. The Bucket Ministry’s mission will not be complete until we reach a very specific amount of people with clean water and the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Everyone in need. Yet, as willing as our spirit is to realize that goal one day, there are material limitations that make it impossible to do alone. That is why we have partnered with the #NoPlaceLeft movement. The thrust of this partnership is to plant robust networks of disciples and churches in the underserved areas of the world that can autonomously generate more disciples and churches in their communities and beyond. With such a partnership, the future of The Bucket Ministry has never been so promising.

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