Photos courtesy of Water Mission
Molly and George Greene during a trip to Uganda.
When was the last time you offered up a prayer of thanksgiving after washing your hands or drinking clear water from a clean glass? There are 2.1 billion people, about onethird of the world’s population, who do not have safe water. This results in 842,000 deaths per year, just from not having access to safe water and sanitation. “This isn’t cancer research. We don’t have to find a solution, we just have to carry it out,” says George Greene IV, the current CEO and president of Water Mission International, a nonprofit organization that fights this battle globally. “Jesus said that we’ll always have the poor with us. We shouldn’t give up or get frustrated. We’ve been given gifts and skills to do something about this. We believe this is something that can be solved in our lifetime.” Greene’s parents, George and Molly, founded Water Mission in 2001 as a Christian engineering ministry that “builds sustainable clean water solutions in developing countries and disaster areas.” After establishing a very successful for-profit environmental laboratory and engineering firm in South Carolina, which doubled in size every two years until it became the largest privately-owned lab in the United States, this power couple sold its lucrative business to go into ministry. Why? The Greenes’ world turned upside down after responding to a call to help with the 1998 Hurricane Mitch disaster relief in Honduras, where they helped bring clean water to six communities. It became clear at that time that God was not calling them to retire and live comfortably, as many may expect folks in the Greenes’ shoes to do. Instead, they were called to do more. Neither Molly nor George had a background in water treatment, but with a fire lit within them and a test lab at their disposal, they had a mission in mind to bring more clean water to more communities in need. Now, 19 years later, Water Mission has helped bring clean water to approximately www.sportsspectrum.com
“Jesus said that we’ll always have the poor with us. We shouldn’t give up or get frustrated. We’ve been given gifts and skills to do something about this. We believe this is something that can be solved in our lifetime.” — WAT E R M I S S I O N C E O G E O R G E G R E E N E I V
5 million people worldwide. With 85 full-time employees at its headquarters in Charleston, S.C., and more than 400 full-time staffers across an additional nine countries, Water Mission has completed 2,800 projects since its inception. Seven years ago, Scott Linebrink, a former Major League Baseball pitcher, was introduced to the mission and vision of Water Mission by his financial advisor, Don Christensen at Ronald Blue Trust. As a recently-retired professional athlete, Linebrink was seeking a worthwhile charity to support and partner with. After he and his wife, Kelly, became involved with their first Water Mission project, which took place in Uganda in 2013, he knew he would never be able to walk away from the work this organization is doing. “Lepers who didn’t have safe water were being treated,” Linebrink remembers. “You take a problem that is already very serious, and then [add the fact that] they didn’t have clean water to drink and it seems hopeless. Water Mission came in and, with the help of our funding and others’, they put in a system that provided safe water.” SPORTS SPECTRUM
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