Water Works

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

“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.”

— WATER MISSION CEO GEORGE GREENE IV

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.”

A short time later, a photo book arrived at the doorstep of the Linebrink home containing moments from the mission’s efforts in Uganda. One photo displaying the image of Molly Greene hugging leper patients stole Linebrink’s breath away.

“This was a picture of the hands and feet of Jesus,” he says. “She was loving them, not just in the immediate moment, but was providing the long-term care they deserved because they are loved by Jesus just like everyone else.”

That remains the heart behind every project started and completed by Water Mission. Now a stewardship coordinator for the organization, Linebrink watches new partners experience the same “aha” moment he had the day he received the photo book.

“We show people we care about them,” Linebrink says. “They deserve safe water; they deserve to hear about the love of Jesus. Jesus, at the most basic level, served people. He healed people and touched them physically, taking away the one thing that was crippling them before giving them the message of hope. We see lives transformed after we meet people’s basic level of care.”

With more than 50,000 individual supporters, 15 corporate partnerships, and many church and nonprofit partnerships, Water Mission has earned a reputation of excellence — one of its core values within the organization. Charity Navigator, the most-utilized charity evaluator in the U.S., has given Water Mission the highest ranking of four stars for the past 13 years.

“As a nonprofit, our customer doesn’t pay for the work we do,” Greene explains. “If we do a water project and at the end of the day it fails, we can still have a good marketing program and experience growth. To know if you are actually making a difference, you have to hold yourself accountable.”

With the full knowledge that they are answering to God for the work they do, Water Mission employees never allow for anything short of excellence. This is what sets them apart from other relief organizations. What they build, they build to last.

“We have developed a remote monitoring system that allows us to zoom into each community where we have put in water systems,” Greene says. “We can pull up the data at any time and see how [each system] is performing.”

With a mission to help other organizations reach the same level of accountability, Water Mission is in the process of starting an additional nonprofit organization called The Global Water Center, which will be focused on driving standards of accountability throughout the entire spectrum of nonprofits. Many may overlook such a basic need as clean water, but Water Mission admits that without this fundamental need met, no other need — such as establishing orphanages, hospitals, educational initiatives or Bible translation methods — can be fully addressed.

“We show people we care about them. They deserve safe water; they deserve to hear about the love of Jesus. Jesus, at the most basic level, served people. He healed people and touched them physically, taking away the one thing that was crippling them before giving them the message of hope. We see lives transformed after we meet people’s basic level of care.”

— FORMER MLB PITCHER SCOTT LINEBRINK

Some pro baseball players and their families on a trip to Haiti.

“Safe water and sanitation issues were solved in the United States over 100 years ago,” Greene says. “There are standards and guidelines that drive that now. We hold ourselves to the same standard. Jesus told us the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, but He didn’t stop there. Then He said we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. With the work we do with water, we are loving our neighbor as ourselves.”

The mission to bring clean water to the world isn’t just a humanitarian project. For Water Mission, it is a calling to obey God’s desire for us to be His hands and feet on this earth.

“An empty stomach has no ears; the same goes for a thirsty stomach,”

Greene says. “The idea of preaching the Good News to someone who is starving — trying to get their attention and talk to them about eternity — is not practical when they are trying to figure out how to live today or tomorrow.”

The mission certainly grabbed the attention of Linebrink and many others who have joined the efforts of Water Mission over the years. And Linebrink wasn’t the only pro athlete influenced to consider Water Mission a worthwhile investment. St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright also discovered the life-changing, worldtransforming work being done globally, and jumped on board, dedicating his own time, money and efforts.

“It’s so empowering and rewarding to know that we are able to give water to people, many of whom have never had one glass of clean water in their whole lives,” Wainwright told TheIncrease.com in a 2018 interview. “There are too many people out there who need help. They haven’t heard the truth of the Gospel. There are people out there who need food, water, shelter, medicine and hope for life. I know that one of the things I’m supposed to do in this world is to help those people. Whenever I do leave this life of baseball, what I have been granted with in life will only spur me on to go harder and serve further.”

Other athletes who have partnered with Water Mission include MLB’s Luke Weaver and Nick Ahmed, as well as the NFL’s Benjamin Watson and Drew Stanton. With the help of these athletes, among many other individual and corporate partners, Water Mission was able to bring clean-water sources to 1.5 million people around the world just in 2019 alone. But these numbers only put a dent in the need for clean water and sanitation that is devastating our world. In response, Water Mission continues to seek partners and advocates to link arms in these efforts.

“Financial giving is what allows the resources for work to go forward, but if we stop there, we stop short,” Linebrink says. “We want advocates out there, people who can help share the message and create that ripple effect. Then there are those who sacrifice their time, spending time at a local community event where they can advocate, or in the field on a vision trip. Lastly, we need prayer warriors. Prayer works, it changes things. God has been faithful to this organization for so long.”

With story after story of how God has miraculously provided for and blessed Water Mission, so it can in turn bless and provide for millions of lives around the globe, the organization continues to grow rapidly. As Greene says, “success breeds success.”

For Water Mission, ultimate success lies in alleviating this crisis once and for all.