About Us

"What do you guys do?"

We share God’s love through the gift of clean, safe, drinking water. We provide under-resourced communities around the world with long-lasting water filters, forge and nurture new relationships with Jesus Christ, and inspire systemic, Christ-centered change through discipleship training.

"What do you guys do?"

We share God’s love through the gift of clean, safe, drinking water. We provide under-resourced communities around the world with long-lasting water filters, forge and nurture new relationships with Jesus Christ, and inspire systemic, Christ-centered change through discipleship training.

"Why Water?"

The World Health Organization estimates that roughly 785,000,000 people around the world lack access to clean, safe, drinking water. Over 800,000 die every year due to health complications caused by unclean drinking water. 300,000 of those are children under the age of five.

This reality of clean water scarcity is commonly endemic to regions of the world that also lack any evangelical presence or knowledge of the gospel message. Where there isn’t clean water, there usually isn’t any Living Water either.

The mission of The Bucket Ministry is to provide underprivileged communities around the world with both.

When we first meet an individual’s physical needs, they become much more open and receptive to their spiritual needs being met as well. It’s through this holistic approach that we’ve been able to watch God move in the hearts of thousands around the world and help end the physical suffering of even more.

Read our Statement of Faith HERE

“How do you do it?”

1: Assessment

We conduct a door-to-door census for each community we work in and test the local water sources for the presence of pathogens that our filter can and cannot effectively treat. We do this to confirm that our filter will be a viable solution for the community’s water issues and identify, down to the individual family, the exact dollar amount we need to raise through donations and grants to provide every last person living there with generational access to clean, safe, drinking water.​

2: Distribution

Once we have determined the true scope of clean water scarcity and the effectiveness of our filter to treat it, we begin a systematic distribution of long-lasting water filters throughout the community. Each family receives a water filter along with several rounds of anti-parasitic medicine to treat their preexisting waterborne illnesses. These resources are given to families without religious bias or stipulation. This step is also where we begin gently introducing the gospel message to the recipient family – a message we will expand upon and strengthen in later visits with them in their home.​

3: Follow Up

In the months following the filter distribution, we return to each recipient family’s home a minimum of three times. We do this for two reasons: 1) To evaluate if they’re correctly performing the daily maintenance of the filter needed to ensure its long-term effectiveness; and 2) To encourage and foster their spiritual growth if they were receptive to the gospel message at distribution. If so, we will also provide them with a Bible in their native language – a text Bible if they can read, a solar-powered audio Bible if they can’t.

4: Discipleship

Finally, provided they responded positively to the gospel message, we will begin in-home discipleship training and connect each recipient family with a local church. Or, lacking one, we will search and identify a “person of peace” (Luke 10:6) who can shepherd and strengthen the faith of new believers and begin a homesteaded ministry in the community.

1: Assessment

We conduct a door-to-door census for each community we work in and test the local water sources for the presence of pathogens that our filter can and cannot effectively treat. We do this to confirm that our filter will be a viable solution for the community’s water issues and identify, down to the individual family, the exact dollar amount we need to raise through donations and grants to provide every last person living there with generational access to clean, safe, drinking water.​

2: Distribution

Once we have determined the true scope of clean water scarcity and the effectiveness of our filter to treat it, we begin a systematic distribution of long-lasting water filters throughout the community. Each family receives a water filter along with several rounds of anti-parasitic medicine to treat their preexisting waterborne illnesses. These resources are given to families without religious bias or stipulation. This step is also where we begin gently introducing the gospel message to the recipient family – a message we will expand upon and strengthen in later visits with them in their home.​

3: Follow Up

In the months following the filter distribution, we return to each recipient family’s home a minimum of three times. We do this for two reasons: 1) To evaluate if they’re correctly performing the daily maintenance of the filter needed to ensure its long-term effectiveness; and 2) To encourage and foster their spiritual growth if they were receptive to the gospel message at distribution. If so, we will also provide them with a Bible in their native language – a text Bible if they can read, a solar-powered audio Bible if they can’t.

4: Discipleship

Finally, provided they responded positively to the gospel message, we will connect each recipient family with a local church. Or, lacking one, we will search and identify a “person of peace” (Luke 10:6) who can shepherd and strengthen the faith of new believers and begin a homesteaded ministry in the community.

“Who does all this work?”

We support local missionaries, pastors, and laborers from within the very community we’re serving. We do this so the people carrying out this mission are the friends, neighbors, and family of the people on the receiving end of it. Only locals can navigate the cultural and social subtleties that we, as Americans, are blind to and commit long-term to the physical and spiritual reformation of the community because it’s their home.

 

“What water filter do you use? And how does it work?”

We use the Sawyer PointONE Hollow-Fiber Membrane Filter or the Sawyer “Squeeze” Filter. It will effectively remove all bacteria, parasites, protozoa, cysts, eggs, and other harmful particulates from unclean drinking water, down to 0.1 micron in size, for over twenty years or one-million gallons. This filter utilizes the same sophisticated technology as kidney dialysis – capturing all potentially harmful pathogens in a densely-braided cluster of straws – rendering almost any color and quality of water safe to drink.

It attaches to virtually any water receptacle, but we use five-gallon buckets for their simplicity and commercial availability. It is also threaded, so it can be attached to almost any plastic water bottle.

This filter contains no replaceable parts, nor does it require professional servicing. The recipient family merely needs to “backflush” – forcing clean water in the opposite direction of the natural flow of the filter with a kit-included plastic syringe – the filter once a day to optimize its performance and longevity.

In partnership with Hope College, we conducted a longitudinal study on the effectiveness of this filter in an urban slum environment. Our friends at Hope College studied the distribution of 10,000 filters to 10,000 families living in one of the largest slums in Africa, Kibera. Of those 10,000 families, 52.7% presented with chronic diarrhea as a result of unclean drinking water. Three months following the distribution of these water filters to each family, that figure had shrunk to 2.2%.

You can view the published study by Hope College here. 

And you can buy one of these filters for your family while donating another one to an underprivileged family overseas through our GOGO program (Give One, Get One).

“Why a filter? Why don’t you use something like a well?”

Well, while there are many solutions to this problem, the tool we use affords us the unique opportunity to develop a personal relationship with each recipient and share the gospel with greater intimacy and boldness in their home. The filter serves as a key that opens previously locked doors and helps establish immediate relational equity with the recipient.

The gospel message we share is simple, couched in the same language we use to explain the utility of the filter, and goes a little something like this:

“How do your donor's know you're responsibly using their resources?”

In every nook, cranny, and corner of our organization, we prioritize financial transparency so our donors can feel confident that their hard-earned resources are truly changing lives around the world. It’s in this spirit that we created Mission Mapping.

Mission Mapping is the proprietary GPS enabled software developed for and championed by The Bucket Ministry. It is based in GIS (Geographic Information System) technology. What does this mean exactly? Well, think of GIS as the engine that powers our Mission Mapping platform and allows us to track every bit of work we do, every minute, every day, everywhere.

It all starts with a barcode on a filter. At the point of filter distribution, we scan the barcode and deliver the gift of the filter to the recipient family. We then collect baseline data on the family’s physical and spiritual health to begin to chart their progress after they receive a water filter and recurrent gospel shares. This data is then permanently connected to each family and filter via the barcode, and is sent to our office to be analyzed and mapped on our global Mission Mapping dashboard. The data becomes our physical report card.

We use Mission Mapping to accurately and transparently communicate our progress and disbursement of resources with our donors through real-time updates of when work was completed, where it was completed, what the results were, changes in physical health, and changes in spiritual health. Through Mission Mapping, our donors can receive text notifications on the exact moment a family receives their filter and the exact moment our indigenous partners follow up with the recipient family to monitor the maintenance of their new filter and advocate for Christ in their household.

You can view our live Mission Mapping dashboard and meet the thousands of recipient families we’ve had the privilege to serve around the world here:

“How can I get involved?”

Join our intercessory prayer team to receive updates on our missional efforts and pray over their success, either during our weekly prayer meeting or independently.

Give: Make a generational impact in the life of an individual, the lives of a family, or an entire community by donating clean water and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Make a one-time donation or commit to recurrent, monthly giving through our Ripple program.  

Join us on an international mission trip to directly serve the disadvantaged people of any one of the countries we currently operate in. Help us distribute water filters, share God’s Word, and inspire hope on the frontlines of Christian ministry.

Join our Storyteller Program and connect your friends, family, coworkers, church, and other local groups with our mission. As a Storyteller, you can serve the Lord, transform lives, and be a part of building God’s kingdom worldwide…right from your very own community.

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