Christopher Beth | Tackling the Global Water Crisis: Inspiring Stories of Faith and Innovation
In this episode of The Last 10%, host Dallas Burnett interviews Christopher Beth, founder and director of The Bucket Ministry. The global organization has provided clean water and hope to over a million people through innovative solutions like the bucket filter system. Christopher shares his riveting journey from being a business consultant to answering a higher calling, leading humanitarian efforts in places like the Kibera slums in Kenya. They discuss transformative experiences, challenges faced in implementing clean water solutions, and the incredible impact of faith and unity. Christopher also delves into future projects, including a new initiative serving 152,000 homes in another Nairobi slum. Tune in to hear inspiring stories, valuable leadership lessons, and the transformative power of simple yet effective solutions.
Learn more about The Bucket Ministry here: https://thebucketministry.org/
Transcript
dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Hey, everybody.
Speaker:We're talking to Christopher Beth today.
Speaker:What an amazing guy.
Speaker:He's the founder and chief storyteller and the director of the bucket ministry.
Speaker:It's a global organization that has provided clean water and a message
Speaker:of hope to over a million people.
Speaker:He's got some incredible stories of life changing moments like his journey
Speaker:from being a business consultant to leading this impactful ministry.
Speaker:That's transforming lives in places like The Kibera slums in Kenya.
Speaker:he's an ordinary guy who answered an extraordinary call
Speaker:and a great new friend of mine.
Speaker:You don't want to miss this incredible conversation.
Speaker:Welcome to the last 10 percent your host, Dallas Burnett dives into incredible
Speaker:conversations that will inspire you to finish well, the best way to finish.
Speaker:And finish strong.
Speaker:Listen as guests share their journeys and valuable advice on living in the last 10%.
Speaker:If you are a leader, a coach, a business owner, or someone looking to
Speaker:level up, you are in the right place.
Speaker:Remember, you can give 90 percent effort and make it a long way, but it's
Speaker:finding out how to unlock the last 10%.
Speaker:That makes all the difference in your life, your relationships, and your work.
Speaker:Now, here's Dallas.
Speaker:Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker:I am Dallas Burnett, sitting in my 1905 Coke Brothers barber chair.
Speaker:Thrive Studios, but more importantly, today we have a fantastic guest.
Speaker:He is the founder of the bucket ministry, an organization that shares God's
Speaker:love by providing clean, safe drinking water to people in some of the toughest
Speaker:conditions around the world, from the Brazilian Amazon to the Kibera slums and
Speaker:beyond this man has followed an amazing journey of fate and impact and obedience.
Speaker:So welcome to the show, Mr.
Speaker:Christopher Bath.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Dallas, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:It's such a blessing to be here with you today.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: I'm excited because this is the second show.
Speaker:We got to talk with Kurt a little bit, at the Sawyer products.
Speaker:And now I get to talk with you.
Speaker:And so I'm getting to nerd out again on water.
Speaker:We had no idea about your ministry, what you're doing, the impact that
Speaker:you're having until just recently in last, the last few weeks.
Speaker:And so it's just been so cool to learn more about what you're doing and
Speaker:helping people all around the world.
Speaker:And so tell us a little bit about, cause you haven't been doing this forever.
Speaker:Tell us a little bit about how you got started.
Speaker:Tell us your story.
Speaker:how did Christopher Beth become Christopher Beth and the bucket ministry?
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Wow.
Speaker:That's,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Nick question.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: yeah, that's a deep story to unpack and
Speaker:just grateful to be able to share it.
Speaker:for most of my life, I was a business consultant.
Speaker:I, more or less help people make more money.
Speaker:Or I helped them lose, less money.
Speaker:And, I think I was okay at that.
Speaker:I wasn't great at that.
Speaker:but honestly, after spending 35 years doing that, I thought that
Speaker:maybe I would retire and maybe 10 years and just go fishing a lot.
Speaker:thought that, there was anything there, more than that.
Speaker:I never thought I wanted to be involved with the church.
Speaker:I never thought I wanted to be involved with.
Speaker:A global organization.
Speaker:and I certainly never thought that I was going to be, dedicating my
Speaker:life to helping people have hope.
Speaker:and, I think that was my path that I just assumed how that chapter
Speaker:was going to close, but, clearly God had other plans and, I'm still
Speaker:discovering a lot of those plans today.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: That's awesome.
Speaker:What was the, was there a seminal moment that you came to this realization that
Speaker:was an eye opening moment that will woke you up out of that kind of mindset?
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Yeah.
Speaker:And, I think woke me up is an interesting term that you use Dallas because I really
Speaker:hadn't thought about it like that before, but I think that's exactly what it was.
Speaker:So in 2012, my daughter, who was then in high school, came home, and she said
Speaker:she wanted to go on this mission trip.
Speaker:To the Brazilian Amazon.
Speaker:And, she announced this to my wife and I, and she had been on mission trips before
Speaker:to South Texas, but the Brazilian Amazon, come on, that's a lot further away.
Speaker:So my wife and I quickly looked at each other and we're like, this
Speaker:is a little scary to think about her going on this trip without us.
Speaker:So we quickly made a decision.
Speaker:We told her number one, if you're going to go on this trip, you have
Speaker:to raise all the money yourself.
Speaker:And, and that was our way of saying.
Speaker:Probably not gonna happen.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: and, it's sad that we thought that way, but
Speaker:we're, we wanna protect our child, right?
Speaker:And
Speaker:that's an unknown.
Speaker:And and then we said that if she raises the money.
Speaker:One of us is going to have to go with her.
Speaker:So about two weeks went by and she had sent out letters, in
Speaker:emails to friends and family.
Speaker:And within two weeks, she raised 3, 500 bucks
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: to pay for the trip.
Speaker:So I'm sitting here and I'm like, Oh my
Speaker:gosh, you did it.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Now one of us is going to have to go.
Speaker:So Sherry and I thought, okay.
Speaker:One of us is going to have to go.
Speaker:So that became my job at that point, but my only reason for going on this
Speaker:trip, Dallas was to bring her home.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Mm
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: to be a dad.
Speaker:My only instructions that I got from my wife is make sure you bring her home.
Speaker:And so I did not go because I had love or compassion for the Brazilian people.
Speaker:I did not go because I felt like I was supposed to be
Speaker:the hands and feet of Jesus.
Speaker:I just went to bring my kid home.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: mm
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: So, uh, we, I remember, we went to an
Speaker:early trip meeting, with this team and, there were people I'd never met before.
Speaker:And quite frankly, they were different than me.
Speaker:They spoke a different language.
Speaker:and what I mean by that is.
Speaker:Most of these people had been on mission trips for their entire lives.
Speaker:they had gone all the way around the world serving people and they spoke a
Speaker:language that I didn't quite understand because prior to this day, I started
Speaker:a relationship with Jesus about four or five years prior to this day.
Speaker:So
Speaker:they were talking about being the hands and feet of Jesus and all this.
Speaker:And I would just wasn't comfortable because I had not.
Speaker:been exposed to that before, but my child wanted to go.
Speaker:And so, we were going to make that happen.
Speaker:So fast forwarding, several meetings we went through and then we jump
Speaker:on a plane in Dallas, Fort Worth, and we fly into Manaus, Brazil.
Speaker:And, Manaus, Brazil is the.
Speaker:the, is the epicenter of the Brazilian Amazon.
Speaker:And it's also, I think the place where humidity was invented.
Speaker:Um, because you step off the plane, you get off on the tarmac and
Speaker:you're hit with this oppressive, like 150 percent humidity.
Speaker:And
Speaker:I now realize what.
Speaker:We're not in Kansas anymore here.
Speaker:so we jump on a, we jump on a bus that takes us about 20 minutes to the Amazon
Speaker:river, uh, to a dock and we unload off this bus, we get our suitcases and we
Speaker:board an open air Amazon river boat.
Speaker:And, when I say open air, we're sleeping in hammocks, uh, on
Speaker:the boat, open air, no cabins,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: oh my goodness.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: And
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: day.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: so it's like,
Speaker:it's like midnight Dallas and we're hanging our hammocks and, Savannah, my
Speaker:daughter and I are, are talking and we're like, dad, we might've made a mistake.
Speaker:So
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yeah.
Speaker:cause I, I went, I would hate to know.
Speaker:like laying in a hammock on an open air boat in the middle of the Amazon
Speaker:at 12 o'clock at night, I'm sure you're hearing some stuff in the trees and the,
Speaker:the rainforest, that's like just nuts.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: It was like National Geographic came
Speaker:alive at that very moment, and, I mean,
Speaker:there's bats flying around that are giant, and it's just craziness, but,
Speaker:at that point, We, the boat starts moving and we go 18 hours into
Speaker:the Brazilian Amazon from Manaus.
Speaker:And, we're winding through the darkest tributaries, places where
Speaker:you only read about in books and in the pages of National Geographic.
Speaker:And, we end up, working in a small river system with several villages.
Speaker:And on this trip, we were ministering to the people in several villages.
Speaker:And on the boat, we had a doctor, we had a dentist, we had a, a VBS
Speaker:team, Vacation Bible School for Kids, and, we just had a variety of, small
Speaker:ministries on this boat that were there to serve each village that we came upon.
Speaker:And, I remember on the first day in the first village, The team leader
Speaker:assigns me to do these home by home, what she called faith visits, which
Speaker:were basically door to door evangelism.
Speaker:But we were telling people about what we were going to
Speaker:do in their village that day.
Speaker:And then we were praying over them.
Speaker:I knew nothing about this.
Speaker:And you might as well have shoved a square peg in a round hole because
Speaker:I was so uncomfortable, Dallas.
Speaker:they wanted me to pray for people, and I had never prayed for anybody
Speaker:my entire life at that point.
Speaker:So I was definitely
Speaker:praying.
Speaker:But if they were on this side of the house, I was on this side of the house
Speaker:on the other side of the house, and I was praying, but I was praying nobody
Speaker:would talk to me and make me pray.
Speaker:I was just so incredibly uncomfortable.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: not only that, could they even
Speaker:understand what you were saying?
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: we had a translator.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: you had a translator.
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: And they speak Portuguese.
Speaker:So we had a wonderful translator.
Speaker:So the first two days of this trip happened this way.
Speaker:And on the third day, we had breakfast on the boat.
Speaker:And I woke up and I thought, man, if she assigns me to this door to door thing
Speaker:again, I'm just going to pretend like I'm sick and I'm going to stay on the boat.
Speaker:Because this is so uncomfortable and so awkward.
Speaker:I can't do it.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: You're done.
Speaker:You're done.
Speaker:You're checking out.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: So sure enough, she calls off roll
Speaker:and she said, okay, Chris, I've got you with the faith team again.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:so I'm now having to make this decision.
Speaker:And so I decided, okay, I'm just going to man up and I'm going to do it another day.
Speaker:So we board the small boat off the big boat and we go across a
Speaker:small river and we're meeting some people that lived on the other
Speaker:side of this river, a small house.
Speaker:we pull up to the bank, we walk across this small makeshift dock, and, we're
Speaker:warmly greeted by this Brazilian couple.
Speaker:And, they were so happy to have a visitor.
Speaker:It was like Christmas day for them.
Speaker:They got that excited.
Speaker:Uh, so
Speaker:it was cool.
Speaker:They invited me right in and this Brazilian woman looks at me and
Speaker:she's like studying me, right?
Speaker:And she said.
Speaker:she said, are you thirsty?
Speaker:And my translator asked me that question.
Speaker:I'm like, yeah, I'm thirsty.
Speaker:And Dallas, I will tell you prior to this day, I don't even, I'm not even sure I
Speaker:ever heard the term world water crisis.
Speaker:I never gave consideration that people did not have clean water to drink.
Speaker:It
Speaker:wasn't even on my radar.
Speaker:And, she asked me if I'm thirsty.
Speaker:So I'm like, I'm all in, I'm just this giant sweaty American
Speaker:and I am thirsty at this point.
Speaker:And so I watch her walk into her kitchen and she grabbed two cups.
Speaker:And they were mismatched and they were correct.
Speaker:And she walks outside and to this little dock area and she bends down and she
Speaker:dips these two cups into the river.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh no.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: jealous.
Speaker:I'm standing in the doorway.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Uh, right behind her and I'm thinking to
Speaker:myself, what is this crazy woman doing?
Speaker:And sure enough, she dips these two cups of water out of the river.
Speaker:She comes and hands one to me and one to my interpreter, Nelson.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: please tell me you didn't.
Speaker:you did you, you can't, you couldn't drink it.
Speaker:Did you drink it?
Speaker:You can't drink it.
Speaker:You
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: well, there's these, you're hanging
Speaker:on to this cup of dirty water that you just made a big deal to tell this lady,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Right.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: So there's two decisions
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:One decision is drink it and spend the rest of the trip in the bathroom.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: hundred percent.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: The second decision is don't
Speaker:drink it and figure out how to get out of this situation.
Speaker:And as I'm pondering this decision, I'm holding a glass of water with things
Speaker:that literally I can see swimming in it.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: man.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: And I look over,
Speaker:I look over at my interpreter, and his name is Nelson Campos.
Speaker:He's still involved with us.
Speaker:I look over at my interpreter and he's got his hand under his
Speaker:elbow or under his arm like this.
Speaker:So she can't see.
Speaker:And he's literally wagging his finger.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So at
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: afraid you were going to down it.
Speaker:Just drink it.
Speaker:Oh goodness.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: at this point.
Speaker:The gravity of the situation is starting to weigh on me.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Hmm.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: now I realize that A,
Speaker:they think that's normal.
Speaker:B,
Speaker:they expect me to drink that.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yes.
Speaker:Yes, they do.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: And C, and the heaviest weight of all,
Speaker:this is all these people have to drink.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Hmm.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: So that's where I started to understand
Speaker:the gravity of the world water crisis.
Speaker:While I In May, probably many of, your listeners, when they're thirsty, they take
Speaker:their cup, they go to the refrigerator, and fill it up with water from a filter.
Speaker:Or they have bought a bottle of, water.
Speaker:When I'm thirsty, that's, those are the actions I take.
Speaker:Uh, I never considered walking outside and dipping water out
Speaker:of a mud puddle to drink it.
Speaker:But, what I saw that day in 2012, that taught me that is more normal
Speaker:than I could ever even imagine.
Speaker:So this is the part of the journey that, really, stretched
Speaker:and increased my faith, Dallas.
Speaker:so I'm holding this glass of water and I will tell you prior to this day, if
Speaker:I heard a friend of mine or somebody at church or just anyone in my network of
Speaker:people say, I got a word from God today.
Speaker:got this instruction from the Lord, and I'm not proud of this.
Speaker:I'm just going to, let you know.
Speaker:And I'm not
Speaker:proud of the way I used to think, but if I heard that.
Speaker:I would say,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yeah.
Speaker:Did you really, are you serious?
Speaker:Are you serious?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: did he stop his day to give you
Speaker:instruction on what you're supposed
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: as I'm holding this glass of
Speaker:dirty water with things swimming in it, I heard something I'd never heard before.
Speaker:I heard two words audibly that said, help them.
Speaker:And it was clear.
Speaker:It was so clear.
Speaker:I turned around to figure out who was saying this Dallas.
Speaker:But it came with no instruction.
Speaker:I didn't know if help them met.
Speaker:Am I supposed to give him 20 bucks out of my wallet?
Speaker:Am
Speaker:I supposed to repair their boat?
Speaker:Am I supposed to cook him dinner?
Speaker:Am I supposed to give him a hug?
Speaker:I had no idea what help them meant.
Speaker:I leave there with that day with this incredible burden on my heart.
Speaker:who is this?
Speaker:that said this, what does it mean?
Speaker:And how in the world are these people drinking water out of a river?
Speaker:And that is normal.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh, yeah.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: So I clearly know today as I think I knew
Speaker:that day that was God speaking to me.
Speaker:And in that home in 2012, two, Magnificent things happened in my life.
Speaker:Number one, God breathed life into the bucket ministry.
Speaker:Number two, he showed me why he created me.
Speaker:And, so I get home from this trip with my daughter and I start
Speaker:researching the world water crisis.
Speaker:And I try to find out.
Speaker:And I'm only thinking about Brazil right now, about the Amazon.
Speaker:I'm trying to figure out how big is this problem?
Speaker:And, uh, I learned
Speaker:from the world health organization that 785 million people lack access.
Speaker:To something that I've taken for granted my entire life.
Speaker:And that's clean water
Speaker:in now 785 million.
Speaker:That's a big number, but I really didn't realize how big that number
Speaker:was until I considered the population of the United States at 331 million.
Speaker:So more than twice the population of the United States around the
Speaker:world doesn't have access to clean water in today's society.
Speaker:Where we're delivering stuff from Amazon with a drone.
Speaker:How in the world can people not have clean water, right?
Speaker:And it's insane to me at this point.
Speaker:So then I decide I'm going to call the doctor that was on that trip with us.
Speaker:And his Casey.
Speaker:So I called Dr.
Speaker:Casey and I said, Hey, Casey, of all the people you treated on that trip.
Speaker:can you tell me how many of them you treated because they had some sort
Speaker:of symptom of waterborne disease?
Speaker:And he goes, Chris, that's really easy.
Speaker:And I'm like, okay.
Speaker:And he said, all of them.
Speaker:And I'm like, all of them?
Speaker:How is this even possible?
Speaker:And he said, Chris,
Speaker:they're drinking out of the river.
Speaker:Every single person had symptoms of waterborne disease.
Speaker:skin rashes, upset stomach, diarrhea, all these things.
Speaker:And he said, that's all they have to drink.
Speaker:So at this point, I'm starting to refine in my mind, at least how big
Speaker:this problem is and what is the problem.
Speaker:And then as I'm doing all this research on my own, and I'm still working
Speaker:a full time, business consulting job is I'm doing this research.
Speaker:I also stumble upon a website that's called the Joshua Project and talks about
Speaker:all the unreached people groups around the world that have never heard about Jesus.
Speaker:And I learned that 3.
Speaker:1 billion people.
Speaker:Over half the population of the world at that point had never heard of Jesus
Speaker:and I'm like, oh my gosh There's this many people without water and there's
Speaker:this many people that don't know Jesus so that really became our marching
Speaker:orders and so what we do is the bucket ministry is we use clean water as a
Speaker:tool to be able to earn the right to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with
Speaker:people and earn the right to start discipling them and pointing them to
Speaker:local like minded churches, but it is not.
Speaker:it is not restricted to the people that, believe the same
Speaker:thing I believe, because when
Speaker:we serve an area, we blanket that area with hope and we blanket and we
Speaker:put a water filter in every single home, and it doesn't depend on.
Speaker:If they believe the same things we do, if they're in the same social
Speaker:class, we blanket this area regardless with hope of what people believe.
Speaker:And we just hope to have the opportunity to be able to share the most important
Speaker:thing in our lives, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Wow.
Speaker:Man.
Speaker:So that's an amazing, founder story.
Speaker:like definitely an impact.
Speaker:I mean in the middle of the amazon and you're I'm still wondering how you got out
Speaker:of not drinking that water to be honest Like I mean if you like i've got to go to
Speaker:the bathroom, you just dump it out on the way out like I you know, because I can see
Speaker:the because these people they have That you were visiting with, they had nothing.
Speaker:they're on the banks of the Amazon in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Well, here, it's another
Speaker:not so proud moment of mine.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:that lady that gave me that water left to walk into another room.
Speaker:and I ended up pouring the glass of water back into the river.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: you know what?
Speaker:I think that's not a bad ending.
Speaker:I think that actually worked out good for everybody on that one.
Speaker:That, you could save save face and not offend her and her.
Speaker:Service to you.
Speaker:And then at the same time, man, just being on the boat sick for a week
Speaker:would be the best case scenario.
Speaker:If you drank that water,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Indeed.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:And after engaging
Speaker:in this work all the way, all around the world, the effects of waterborne
Speaker:disease are so dramatic on people that, I now realize what would have happened.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh, yeah.
Speaker:And so that's, man, that is such a great story.
Speaker:I think that's a great starting point where you feel the, you
Speaker:see a need and you feel motivated to be a part of the solution.
Speaker:I'm very interested in, What let, what was the genesis of buckets?
Speaker:cause that's a very unique, there's a lot of people that's been, the water
Speaker:crisis has been around for a long time.
Speaker:There's a, there's even other nonprofits.
Speaker:I'm very aware of that go and drill wells, in remote places.
Speaker:They'll go build cisterns, to catch rainwater, or other ways to treat water.
Speaker:You landed on buckets.
Speaker:why buckets?
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: well, and that's, I guess an interesting
Speaker:story too, now that I'm considering it.
Speaker:So when I got back from that trip, I started researching solutions.
Speaker:I tried to make myself an expert on a lot of topics with, uh, and how it
Speaker:relates to improving water quality.
Speaker:So I looked at wells, I looked at bio sand filters.
Speaker:I researched a variety of other filters, including some very cool
Speaker:stainless steel pressurized, UV light filters that, practically will
Speaker:wash your dishes for you at the.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: ha,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: And I came across all these options
Speaker:and I thought, once again, there was literally a million different
Speaker:options to solve this problem.
Speaker:and, I thought, how is it possible that this problem isn't solved yet?
Speaker:And, I kept on coming back to this basic thing of.
Speaker:Thinking about these people in the Amazon.
Speaker:in the Amazon basin, the water rises and falls in that place because
Speaker:of seasonal rains, 30 to 40 feet
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: oh wow,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Yeah.
Speaker:in one part of the season, the water will be right up to someone's house.
Speaker:In another part of the season, they may walk a mile.
Speaker:to get to the water.
Speaker:It's that
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: goodness
Speaker:gracious,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: that kind of ruled out wells if you
Speaker:drill a well and it becomes flooded, it's going to become contaminated
Speaker:and thus there's a problem.
Speaker:Uh, and then I started looking at these other forms of filtration
Speaker:and they were fantastic.
Speaker:But they were heavy.
Speaker:They were cumbersome.
Speaker:they required an engineer to keep them running.
Speaker:They required replacement parts.
Speaker:So then I started
Speaker:looking at simpler options and Dallas, if you spend about 10 minutes with me,
Speaker:I'm a super simple guy and I believe the simplest option is almost always the best.
Speaker:my wife.
Speaker:And children and I in 2013 were at a camping supply store
Speaker:here in Dallas called REI.
Speaker:And while everyone else was in the store looking for shoes or clothes
Speaker:or something, I was looking at water filters for backpacking and camping.
Speaker:And I was, there's a big aisle of water filters, right?
Speaker:And I'm studying.
Speaker:And I'm thinking maybe this is an option.
Speaker:And I came across this one, this one package, by a company called Sawyer
Speaker:products, from safety Harbor, Florida.
Speaker:And, I saw that this filter attached to a bucket.
Speaker:And I was like, man.
Speaker:I saw buckets in the Amazon.
Speaker:Maybe that is a simple fix.
Speaker:So I, again, I studied this package and the package made some ridiculously
Speaker:huge claims and I'm like, eh, that's probably just marketing.
Speaker:yeah, when we were checking out, I bought two of these filters and I
Speaker:remember there were 69 at the time.
Speaker:And my wife was like, why are you buying 70 water filter?
Speaker:And I said, I
Speaker:just need to bear with me here.
Speaker:So I took
Speaker:this filter home and started reading about it and one online
Speaker:and one on the Sawyer website.
Speaker:There's all kinds of research papers, scientific journal
Speaker:published reports about the filter.
Speaker:And I thought, Oh my gosh, this thing was made for camping and backpacking,
Speaker:but it features a technology in there that's called hollow fiber membrane,
Speaker:derived from kidney dialysis
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: yes,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: it filters down to a 0.
Speaker:1 micron pore size, which at that time I had no idea what that
Speaker:was, but all I needed to read was it filtered out bacteria.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: that's right.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: and so then I started reading more and I
Speaker:found out that filter takes out typhoid, cholera, mebic dysentery, giardia, E.
Speaker:coli, salmonella, as well as other waterborne diseases.
Speaker:And I thought, man, this might be the thing, right?
Speaker:the next thing I do is I go to my wife, Sherry, and, she was
Speaker:a registered nurse at the time.
Speaker:And I said, Hey.
Speaker:I want to conduct an experiment and, I'm going to get some water from the
Speaker:lake and we're going to drink from lake water instead of the bottled water that
Speaker:we normally drink through this filter.
Speaker:And she goes, what?
Speaker:And, I said, listen, I think this might be the solution for
Speaker:what I've been talking about.
Speaker:And she goes, okay.
Speaker:But if anybody gets sick, it's on you.
Speaker:And, so I went and got water from Lake Ray Hubbard and we drank from
Speaker:that water for a week in Dallas.
Speaker:I will tell you if the water was the same temperature as the bottled water.
Speaker:By the end of the week, we could not tell the difference
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Wow.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: of us was completely healthy.
Speaker:So that was the first test passed.
Speaker:Thank
Speaker:goodness.
Speaker:So at that point, we realized that filter, that Sawyer water
Speaker:filter that attaches to a bucket of receptacle is the, is a simple.
Speaker:Opportunity because it lasts over 20 years.
Speaker:It provides 350 to 500 gallons of water.
Speaker:per day and which will provide more than 10 families enough water.
Speaker:so we thought this is the solution, this bucket filter by Sawyer products.
Speaker:And that's before we knew the company.
Speaker:Before we knew their heart and before I knew Kurt, and that's how we got
Speaker:to, using that particular filter.
Speaker:Now, the reason why we still use that filter 13 years later is a lot of what you
Speaker:impact with Kurt already and his heart.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: unbelievable.
Speaker:What a cool story.
Speaker:I love how you're just going into REI and just looking on the shelf, it's like, all
Speaker:right, let me look at all these products and read the back labels and see what they
Speaker:say and see if any of this works for me.
Speaker:I think that your solution was just.
Speaker:As simple is sometimes so overlooked that it takes some, it's just genius
Speaker:that you were able to link those two up because a lot of the times when you
Speaker:see clean water efforts in, in areas around the world, Bob, I have a brother
Speaker:in the Philippines right now and he was in, remote parts of China for a while.
Speaker:He was in remote parts of South, South America and water is always
Speaker:a deal, it's always an issue.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:It's almost like if it takes a lot of power, if it takes a lot, like you said,
Speaker:engineering to keep it up, there's so many hurdles that bringing a large,
Speaker:robust, clean water system to a people group, especially if they're not in a
Speaker:centralized location, a town, a village, if they're out in remote on the side of
Speaker:the Amazon, it, there's so many challenges that people, Would have to overcome and
Speaker:hurdles that they would have to jump that makes that Not accessible, or not
Speaker:feasible from a how much money it takes to create per gallon And so this bucket
Speaker:solution that you're taking it almost not only I mean it's instant Bridges the
Speaker:gap between the time that they are where they are and the time that they would
Speaker:have access to a more robust, system from a city or a country or a town or
Speaker:whatever that was providing water to them.
Speaker:This is just instant.
Speaker:It's you literally can deliver this bucket and filter.
Speaker:And it's like, boom, you now, day one, no power, there's no electricity in
Speaker:your house or hut or shanty or whatever.
Speaker:You immediately have clean water.
Speaker:And so just being able to put those two together, the S the product
Speaker:and the solution I think is.
Speaker:Unbelievable.
Speaker:Well done on that because that's, that was huge.
Speaker:And I love how it's so funny because your experience as a business consultant, I
Speaker:love how you said, all right, I just had to become an expert in water, like all
Speaker:things, water every, and you're learning about pathogens and you're learning
Speaker:about the micron, size of different things and what needs to be removed.
Speaker:And I think as a business consultant, that many business consultants are
Speaker:having to be experts in a lot of areas because they're having to understand.
Speaker:Different industries of their clients and how different industries work
Speaker:and different systems processes inside of that client and having
Speaker:to absorb all that information to add value to that client, at the
Speaker:project level, at the company level.
Speaker:And it's almost like you just took all of that training on how to absorb
Speaker:information and put it together in a meaningful way to offer a solution.
Speaker:You just totally translated that from the first, number of years in your
Speaker:Professional career to now this new thing, this new motivated calling that you
Speaker:have to help people all over the world.
Speaker:So man, well done.
Speaker:Well done with that.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: well,
Speaker:I love the way you framed that.
Speaker:And honestly, when I was consulting, I used to leave, clients with an action
Speaker:list in the early days of consulting.
Speaker:This action list might have 20 things on it that if they do this,
Speaker:and this, it will have this result.
Speaker:And then at the end of my career, when I jumped from the secular world
Speaker:to the ministry world, the list that I used to leave people had
Speaker:two to three items on that list.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And was no one ever did the list of 20 things I
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yeah.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: be said for simplicity.
Speaker:And, this filter.
Speaker:If we were going to use this effectively.
Speaker:And honestly, I was thinking just about myself.
Speaker:I don't want to be hauling something giant into the Amazon
Speaker:basin to try to solve this problem.
Speaker:And so if we use something, it's got to be simple.
Speaker:And in the early days of this, I learned the education level of many
Speaker:of the people that we're serving isn't quite to what we would have
Speaker:standards of here in the United States.
Speaker:So whatever we used had to be usable by a five year old or a 95 year old,
Speaker:and and that durability of that product
Speaker:is key.
Speaker:And, I also believe that there's nothing new underneath the sun
Speaker:that we've seen in scripture.
Speaker:And I believe that the solution to every problem already exists.
Speaker:We just have to go and find it.
Speaker:And the cool thing about this is my friend Kurt and the team at Sawyer
Speaker:already solved the problem many years before I even saw the problem.
Speaker:solved it ahead of time.
Speaker:And, so this product existed well before, I S I was in the
Speaker:Brazilian Amazon that time.
Speaker:So you have simplicity and then you have the ability to really
Speaker:look elsewhere to find a solution rather than having to pioneer.
Speaker:a solution, right?
Speaker:And using existing tools.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: think that's a great point.
Speaker:And I think if you're listening to the last 10%, I don't want you
Speaker:to miss the value that Christopher just dropped on us right there.
Speaker:If you're coaching someone, I think to your point, Christopher,
Speaker:that if this, if you're coaching someone and you're wanting to move.
Speaker:It's a whole lot easier to give someone a smaller list.
Speaker:If you're focusing on a team effort, if you're focusing on an individual,
Speaker:giving someone, two or three things and say, I want you to focus on really
Speaker:focused on getting these two or three things done, the Pareto chart, the
Speaker:80, 20, focus, take the 20 percent of the things that make a percent.
Speaker:If you, the longer the list of something, if you're coaching
Speaker:someone or leading a team, the longer the list, the harder it is.
Speaker:For you to move through it and have that momentum carry through.
Speaker:But if you just do it a little bit at a time, it just does.
Speaker:I don't think I think our brains can't hold that much information.
Speaker:And so we just get overwhelmed with it.
Speaker:But if I've got a couple, two or three things that I'm looking at, man,
Speaker:that's just, I can knock those things out or I can work on those things.
Speaker:I can focus on those things.
Speaker:I think that's the first thing.
Speaker:I think the second thing is what you said is.
Speaker:Brilliant as well.
Speaker:And I think that is that sometimes in business, when we're solving
Speaker:problems, if you're leading a team and you're solving problems, sometimes we
Speaker:overlook the simple solutions, or we don't look enough for simple solution.
Speaker:That's maybe outside of our target, of our expertise, of our craft or
Speaker:our history, our own experience.
Speaker:I think this is where, when you bring people in with different.
Speaker:Kinds of thinking, different mindsets, a diverse thinking approach.
Speaker:you tap into different resources that maybe you didn't see the first time.
Speaker:And I think that, like you said, I think there's so many problems that have.
Speaker:Already been solved.
Speaker:It's just, they haven't been applied to the application that we're using it for,
Speaker:and we're wanting to use it for, and maybe it's just finding that solution
Speaker:instead of creating the solution.
Speaker:that is that just, I think too, it makes it so much faster because when
Speaker:we create things where it's going to be messy, it's going to take a lot of time.
Speaker:It's going to take a lot of money.
Speaker:It's going to take a lot of.
Speaker:Effort and all of that's moving the solution down further away.
Speaker:If you're wanting to solve a problem quick, and then absolutely
Speaker:the fastest thing is to find the solution that already exists.
Speaker:So I love that.
Speaker:I hope those that listen to that, can apply that in problems that they're
Speaker:facing in their organizations right now.
Speaker:So that's very good.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Dallas, you hit on something there that
Speaker:I'm super passionate about and that's speed, I really didn't discover this
Speaker:until further into this ministry journey, but speed matters, when you're dealing
Speaker:with the physical parts of our lives.
Speaker:UNICEF tells us that every day 700 children die from waterborne disease or
Speaker:condition linked with dirty water.
Speaker:So, and that tells us that we've got a big job and that we need to move fast with it.
Speaker:Now, there's some tensions that arise from what I do.
Speaker:There's a tension of moving fast with a water filter to going deep
Speaker:with a relationship with Jesus going deep can't be done fast.
Speaker:it's more about a long walk, but when you're addressing this issue of, people
Speaker:not having clean water, the faster we can get to them with the solution,
Speaker:the better off they're going to be.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: I think you're working at the same speed.
Speaker:the speed of buckets in both is just the results you're seeing it play out, because
Speaker:if you think about that, you're delivering clean water and this message of faith,
Speaker:and what you're saying is that message of faith takes a long time, but it's, they're
Speaker:still drinking that water every day.
Speaker:they're still drinking.
Speaker:So getting the initial bucket to them so that they can take the water and
Speaker:also your initial message of hope.
Speaker:They're just drinking both over time and seeing the value of both their
Speaker:spiritual health and their physical health improved because of that and your work.
Speaker:So I think that's really.
Speaker:I think that's awesome.
Speaker:And I do think speed in your work is, having that many kids every single day,
Speaker:lose their life over clean water is, it does seem like something that a global
Speaker:community that cares about people would.
Speaker:Be able to whip, you know what I mean?
Speaker:And I appreciate and applaud your efforts on that.
Speaker:I would love for people to hear, because at the last 10%, we talked so much about
Speaker:finishing well and finishing strong.
Speaker:And, you had talked about, finishing your career and what
Speaker:and strong look like before.
Speaker:And then you had these experiences.
Speaker:You've got this calling, this motivation, finishing well and finishing
Speaker:strong look much different to you.
Speaker:Now, I would love to hear, and you're moving through that as
Speaker:you create more opportunities and deliver more of these water, buckets
Speaker:and filters all over the world.
Speaker:I would love to hear what is it like?
Speaker:When you go into a new village town, cause you're in, in Kenya
Speaker:as well, so it's not just in South America, you're in Africa as well.
Speaker:So when you go in, and you said, you've got a five year project.
Speaker:This is mine.
Speaker:This is mind boggling to me.
Speaker:You take on a project.
Speaker:Project in Kenya that has 400, 000 residents and you deliver
Speaker:and get clean water to them.
Speaker:I just want you to take us through what that looks like.
Speaker:What does it look like to walk, go there the first time to decide
Speaker:this is what you're going to do.
Speaker:And just take us through some stories about that experience to let the
Speaker:listeners see what that would be like.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: know, in, in all aspects of our
Speaker:life and even in the business world, we see evidence that
Speaker:we build confidence from wins.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yes.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: we see that if we're successful with
Speaker:something, now we have this extreme level of confidence to attack a bigger problem.
Speaker:uh, that's no different in this
Speaker:journey for me as well, because, in the early days of this,
Speaker:we served remote villages.
Speaker:villages that if they had 20 homes, that would be a lot.
Speaker:And, so we had always worked, where it took two days by boat to get to
Speaker:someplace, or it took two days in a bush vehicle to drive across sub
Speaker:Saharan Africa to get to, a village.
Speaker:These are the people we used to serve.
Speaker:And then in 2017, I got an opportunity to be in Nairobi, Kenya, and we
Speaker:were finishing up with a work in Nandi County, Nairobi, which is
Speaker:about six hours north of Nairobi.
Speaker:And our driver was bringing us back to Nairobi because we
Speaker:were going to fly out of there.
Speaker:And on that trip, he, we were on this bypass and I looked over outside the
Speaker:car and I saw this sea of rusty metal shacks and Dallas, when I say sea,
Speaker:I'm talking about, what looked like acres and acres of rusty metal shacks.
Speaker:And I looked over because I'd never seen anything like this before.
Speaker:And it's right in the middle of Nairobi, Kenya,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh wow.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: of 6 million people, a modern city.
Speaker:And here's this place with all these rusty metal shacks.
Speaker:And, my driver goes.
Speaker:that's Kibera and he just kept driving.
Speaker:He clearly didn't want to talk about it.
Speaker:And so I, I didn't ask because it seemed like a sore subject to him.
Speaker:So and I started to Google search and what is Kibera?
Speaker:And if your listeners will do the same, you'll find that it's
Speaker:a, it's one of the largest.
Speaker:darkest, scariest, slums, in the world.
Speaker:And slum might be an aggressive word.
Speaker:a lot of times, we use the term informal settlement, but more or less it's a slum.
Speaker:And, so I start researching this and try to find out about this place.
Speaker:And the internet had been.
Speaker:Wild statistics and everyone disagreed with each other.
Speaker:So the next year in 2018, I went back there to walk around and to look at it.
Speaker:And, I saw this place that the average home was eight feet by eight feet, uh,
Speaker:no running water inside their home,
Speaker:no toilet, dirt floors, any electricity they had was scabbed on.
Speaker:and a lot of times the metal.
Speaker:Had current going through it.
Speaker:So you couldn't touch the metal on the outside of the home because
Speaker:there's electric current going
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh my goodness.
Speaker:Good
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: I'm walking,
Speaker:Dallas, I'm walking through this place and I say, Hey, I need to use the bathroom.
Speaker:And the guy was with us.
Speaker:Hey, we're going to have to find one.
Speaker:Cause there's not that many in this place.
Speaker:And I said, what do you mean?
Speaker:There's not this that many in this place.
Speaker:There's a million people here or something.
Speaker:he goes, I don't know how many people are here, but there's not many toilets
Speaker:and we now know that this area of this slum is about three square miles.
Speaker:There's 81,777 homes, and there's roughly 78 toilets to serve, 408,000 people.
Speaker:So what you see
Speaker:happening is you see open defecation.
Speaker:a term that, is.
Speaker:infamous on the internet called flying toilets, where people used to defecate
Speaker:in plastic bags and then wait till nighttime and they would throw it away.
Speaker:So this place is just a mound of refuse and sewage that people
Speaker:that are created in God's image.
Speaker:that are sequestered to live there, called that place home.
Speaker:And so as I'm walking through this place, Dallas, it was the
Speaker:scariest thing I'd ever seen.
Speaker:family in this place living in an eight by eight metal shack.
Speaker:Uh, makes about 26 a month.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Ugh.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: I went through this place for the first
Speaker:time, and then I ran away from it.
Speaker:Literally, I saw this and it scared me so much.
Speaker:I ran away from it.
Speaker:Then later in 2018, God brought me back to that place.
Speaker:And, I had a meeting with a group of stakeholders, some pastors
Speaker:and missionaries in the area.
Speaker:And again, I ran away from that place.
Speaker:I thought this is too big.
Speaker:There is no way that the bucket ministry can do anything in this place.
Speaker:We have no business being in this place.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Right.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: at that point, I come back to Kenya
Speaker:yet again that year, and I'm drawn to Kibera and, finally I meet with this
Speaker:group and they said, would you consider a trial of running your program here?
Speaker:So I brought this idea back to our board of directors and I said, I'd like
Speaker:to place a hundred filters in here.
Speaker:And I'd like to test to see if our program will work in an inner city slum.
Speaker:Because remember, we've always worked in the bush and our program
Speaker:is providing clean water as a mechanism to share our faith.
Speaker:And, I'm going to be honest, Dallas, and I don't tell this story very often
Speaker:like this, but we did this trial.
Speaker:I did this trial because I was confident that it would show that
Speaker:we weren't supposed to be in that.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Yes.
Speaker:it was
Speaker:the same as it was telling your daughter to go raise her own money.
Speaker:You're
Speaker:trying that approach again.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: I was confident that we were going
Speaker:to find after this 100 filter trial, we shouldn't be there.
Speaker:So we did the trial, the board approved it, we distributed the
Speaker:100 filters, and then we did follow up visitations on those homes.
Speaker:For a series of four months and what we found after that was staggering
Speaker:to me of those hundred homes, we lost about 20 of those people.
Speaker:They moved and we didn't know where their filters went, but of the 80
Speaker:homes that we served, 80 homes had waterborne disease stricken from the
Speaker:entire family for those four months.
Speaker:nobody reported any symptoms of waterborne disease anymore.
Speaker:In of those 80 homes, 78 of those homes engaged and
Speaker:started attending local church.
Speaker:So at this
Speaker:point, I now have this data that's now proving without a shadow of a
Speaker:doubt that we should be in this place.
Speaker:So then I start looking at this project and say, look how big this thing is.
Speaker:I don't even know where to start.
Speaker:And it's three square miles in what looked like zillions of homes.
Speaker:So early in 2019 we decide that we're gonna just start a small
Speaker:trial organic project there and try to wade through this.
Speaker:Didn't really have a whole lot of direction.
Speaker:And then at the end of 2019, we did a first distribution, large
Speaker:scale distribution of 800 filters.
Speaker:And, then 2020 came and we all know what happened in 2020 with
Speaker:COVID and, uh, good grief, all the craziness that ensued from that.
Speaker:2020 came and, our, Our foundation of donations went down dramatically and I
Speaker:was just going to be happy to finish at what half of what I budgeted for the year.
Speaker:And, but I got a phone call from somebody and, that somebody, had a question for me.
Speaker:And that question more or less was, Hey, if I gave you some
Speaker:money, what would you do with it?
Speaker:And, I said, I made a joke.
Speaker:I said, is it for me or for the ministry?
Speaker:And he goes, no.
Speaker:No, stupid.
Speaker:It's for the ministry.
Speaker:And I said, I would take it to Kibera.
Speaker:And he goes, why would you take it to Kibera?
Speaker:And I said, because the population density there is so high that we
Speaker:can influence change on a large group of people relatively quickly,
Speaker:and we can deliver a lot of hope.
Speaker:And, and he said, okay.
Speaker:And I said, okay, what?
Speaker:And he said, you'll have a check next week.
Speaker:And, so that was Kurt Avery with Sawyer products.
Speaker:And, Kurt started our initial funding for that campaign with a very large gift.
Speaker:And Kurt wanted to solve.
Speaker:A very big problem.
Speaker:And that's the people of Kibera to have clean water,
Speaker:generational access to clean water.
Speaker:And he also wanted them to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker:So he gave us our original funding to be able to start that project.
Speaker:We ramped a team up of a hundred.
Speaker:Indigenous Kenyans that were living in the slum.
Speaker:We recruited them.
Speaker:We trained them.
Speaker:We commissioned them out to be missionaries.
Speaker:And that team of a hundred over three years distributed 81, 777 bucket
Speaker:filters, one in every single home.
Speaker:They did over 240, 000.
Speaker:Follow up visits with the average time of the visits, about 30 minutes per home.
Speaker:They taught about 400, 000 discipleship lessons in people's homes.
Speaker:Uh, we saw over 22, 000 people come to faith.
Speaker:Over those three years and waterborne disease has been stricken from 400,
Speaker:000 people in the middle of Nairobi, Kenya that had no hope before
Speaker:because ordinary people decided they were going to solve a problem.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh man, that is, man, that's a great story.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:there's just so much there.
Speaker:I think that is so true.
Speaker:It's so cool that you partnered with people in that area to help distribute
Speaker:and train and disciple and all that.
Speaker:And I also love it because you were very, you're very open about we're
Speaker:here to serve people and we're here to deliver clean drinking water.
Speaker:Solutions to people regardless of what they believe and out of the
Speaker:400, 000 people, you said about you had a little better than 20,
Speaker:000 people that had conversions of faith, but it's not like you said.
Speaker:And so we got the filters back from the other 380, 000 people.
Speaker:No, you delivered it to everyone regardless and everyone in a 400, 000.
Speaker:person, town village, slum were positively affected by the work.
Speaker:And so I just, man, that is really great.
Speaker:I have to ask just out of curiosity, because this is.
Speaker:You're doing something.
Speaker:So this is a, you're solving a big problem.
Speaker:but you're doing it in areas where, you know, like the, I think back
Speaker:to your story about the taxi cab driver, he did not even want to say,
Speaker:he didn't want to talk about it.
Speaker:It was like that place.
Speaker:He didn't want him to say it existed.
Speaker:When you start engaging in work that are helping people that may
Speaker:be cast out or maybe pushed to the side, marginalized, whatever, in
Speaker:any culture all over the world.
Speaker:did you get any pushback from anybody?
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Dallas, while this is a long podcast,
Speaker:you don't have enough time for that.
Speaker:I will tell you the, the opposition frankly was staggering.
Speaker:And, it's unusual to think of, okay, we have a solution for a problem.
Speaker:And, we want to employ that solution.
Speaker:We want to put it into action and we want to execute that solution.
Speaker:And, it's a tested, it's a proven, it's a researched out solution
Speaker:that it's functional and it will end with this result, right?
Speaker:Uh, but, there are people waiting in line.
Speaker:To tell you every reason why it will not work and why you should not do it rather
Speaker:than people that are standing in line saying, Hey man, high five, go for it.
Speaker:You know what I mean?
Speaker:And so a lot of these, a lot of
Speaker:these, a lot of these people came from areas you wouldn't expect.
Speaker:They came from the academic community.
Speaker:They came from the church community.
Speaker:They came from the government.
Speaker:community.
Speaker:And, it's surprising to me.
Speaker:And that's part of this mission is just staying focused and
Speaker:keeping the most important thing, the most important thing, right?
Speaker:And there's always going to be those people, whether it be a ministry like the
Speaker:bucket ministry or a for profit business, there's always going to be these people
Speaker:that are ready to dog pile on you that.
Speaker:it's not possible.
Speaker:But, and you asked an earlier question, what does it mean to finish strong?
Speaker:What does it mean for all that?
Speaker:And, this, what we've seen in that Kibera slump and literally at the point
Speaker:of recording this with you today, we just finished that campaign last week.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh, wow.
Speaker:Congratulations.
Speaker:Congratulations.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: that's the magnitude of this, but in,
Speaker:in finishing this campaign, it has showed us just how big God is in Dallas.
Speaker:This is a 5 million campaign to finish this thing, right?
Speaker:And
Speaker:as an organization, we are tiny organization.
Speaker:We had no business on paper.
Speaker:Looking at that or being part of that.
Speaker:In fact, the people that we saw earlier in this process that I went to, and I
Speaker:said, Hey, I think we're going to, I think we're going to start working in Kibera
Speaker:and, it's about a 5 million project.
Speaker:most of those people said, Chris, you might just be a special kind of crazy.
Speaker:And, but the confidence.
Speaker:From what we've seen God do in that place, uh, and how we've seen him
Speaker:transform that community three years ago, you could not walk through there
Speaker:without a security person with you.
Speaker:Today,
Speaker:you can openly walk through this place.
Speaker:It has changed at the foundation of what this place is because the gospel
Speaker:has been preached into that place.
Speaker:And because
Speaker:these people have hope that has come from clean water.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Wow.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: all of, all these things add up
Speaker:to, being able to build confidence.
Speaker:So when the opposition comes, which you just asked about in the
Speaker:future, and it will, and it does daily, we're able to testify.
Speaker:To what we've seen and what we've heard, to, yeah, you might not realize
Speaker:what God's already done in Kibera.
Speaker:Let me tell you about that story.
Speaker:And that's why I think is going to work in this place,
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: I love that.
Speaker:, , and I think that it's interesting though, that you had opposition from, people
Speaker:in church, that's a, because it is a ministry that you're actually taking out.
Speaker:And , that might be a topic for another day, but,, and I think you are encouraging
Speaker:a lot of leaders because if you're leading an organization or if you're leading a
Speaker:team, , we all know the world is changing.
Speaker:Around us and our businesses are changing.
Speaker:Our competitors are changing.
Speaker:the, our offerings are changing.
Speaker:And so therefore we're having to lead our people through change
Speaker:initiatives and do new things and do things differently and grow and,
Speaker:you know, innovate and be creative.
Speaker:, what are some things that work that leaders could take to their own teams
Speaker:or their own organizations as they try to bring about a positive change or
Speaker:these change initiatives that you've seen help you as you bring this amazing
Speaker:change to people in Kenya, in Amazon.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: man.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And if I would have known what I know now.
Speaker:When I was consulting, I think I could have done a better job what
Speaker:I've learned from this work, and I'm going to use Kibera as an example.
Speaker:we have a team there that's a hundred people, about 50
Speaker:percent men, 50 percent women.
Speaker:But in that team, there's 20 different tribes of people represented.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Wow.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Now, your average listener may not
Speaker:know much about the tribal system in Africa, but, it's alive and it's well,
Speaker:and it's culturally a thing, and many of these tribes do not get along.
Speaker:Many of the tribes that we have people, missionaries working on
Speaker:this team together, don't get along.
Speaker:And shouldn't get along on paper, but through a deep process and investing
Speaker:in people, we have found a way to unify those people together and, in
Speaker:essence, figure out a way to glue them.
Speaker:Together in a way to solve a big problem.
Speaker:And what I will tell you that will translate directly to the
Speaker:business community is most of the business leaders out there,
Speaker:they're not leading by themselves.
Speaker:They're not one person shows.
Speaker:They've got
Speaker:the entourage of people around them.
Speaker:And, obviously the bigger the organization, the larger the
Speaker:group of people, but as a leader, you have to find a way to unify.
Speaker:that unity of the team takes a concerted effort.
Speaker:It takes a intentional effort at making it happen.
Speaker:Just saying we're going to unify our team isn't good enough until
Speaker:you have a solution to do So in our world, unity comes around God's word.
Speaker:And prayer and worship.
Speaker:So I'll give you an example of how we unified or how I think we unified
Speaker:a team of a hundred different people from different tribes and every single
Speaker:day before we went out, the team of a hundred started their day with prayer.
Speaker:Then, they heard God's word.
Speaker:And then they worshiped God.
Speaker:Every day before they left, they did this for three years.
Speaker:So think of this like a short little church service.
Speaker:For us, Westerners starts every day the same way.
Speaker:And, I believe that through that process, through that intentional
Speaker:investment, the team was unified and allowed them to solve this big problem.
Speaker:Because again, on paper.
Speaker:This should not work with this diverse group of people.
Speaker:Wherever we work around the world now, we don't have any presence of Westerners.
Speaker:It's all of our work is done by indigenous missionaries and pastors.
Speaker:And
Speaker:most of them.
Speaker:are some sort of tribal, blend.
Speaker:And so what we saw in Kibera was that through unity allowed
Speaker:us to solve a big problem.
Speaker:And for business leaders, if you find a way to unify your teams, and it
Speaker:could be unity around the problem, it even could be unity around the leader
Speaker:and following the leader, that well.
Speaker:But if you find that unity.
Speaker:You can solve big problems and you can achieve very large goals.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh man.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:That is so good.
Speaker:Well, I hope you're encouraged today.
Speaker:If you're listening to the last 10%, that is, that is an encouragement
Speaker:and a challenge at the same time.
Speaker:And I think it does us all well to think about as we go into, whether
Speaker:it's a change initiative or just, our normal performing and how we approach
Speaker:our work every day, I think a great.
Speaker:check for leaders is how if you were to judge and rate the unity
Speaker:of your team around a mission, a vision, values, purpose around
Speaker:the leader, what would you rate?
Speaker:What would you rate your team?
Speaker:what's the rating that you would give your team?
Speaker:And if it's not, Extremely high.
Speaker:Then it's something that you can take some time to think about how
Speaker:you can grow the unity on your team.
Speaker:Christopher, let's do this and then we're going to wrap up.
Speaker:I would love to hear what's next.
Speaker:you just finished giving clean water to 400, 000 people.
Speaker:That's hard.
Speaker:That's just amazing.
Speaker:and you just finished that project.
Speaker:What's next for the bucket ministry?
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: because we work a lot like a
Speaker:business, uh, we structure campaigns to get them ready for funding.
Speaker:And so at any time we have between eight and 10 campaigns that, have been
Speaker:assessed, there's censuses that have been completed, we've visited with
Speaker:stakeholders, we visited with residents, we know the people and we have budgets
Speaker:for them, and we're just waiting.
Speaker:Forgot to bring the resources.
Speaker:So we have eight to 10 different projects right now from Sierra Leone, West Africa,
Speaker:to Nigeria, to Ghana, to Uganda, to Kenya, to South Africa, and the Philippines.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:India and South America.
Speaker:We have a lot of projects in the hopper, but, this project that we
Speaker:just finished in Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, there's another slum that is, 20
Speaker:minutes away and it's called Cowinguari.
Speaker:And, The Kibera slum was 81,
Speaker:777 homes.
Speaker:And we just got done censusing the entire Kalanguari slum and it's 152, 000 homes.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: my
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: Uh, so it's one and a half
Speaker:times the size of Kibera.
Speaker:And here's what I will tell you, Dallas, because of what I've
Speaker:seen, because of what I've heard.
Speaker:I have a ridiculous amount of confidence to wade into the Cowanguari project to
Speaker:provide hope to every single resident in that place and hope that comes
Speaker:from clean water, hope that comes from relationship with Jesus, that we can
Speaker:accomplish this in the next four years.
Speaker:It's about an eight, it's about an 8.
Speaker:3.
Speaker:Million dollar project and, we haven't even started.
Speaker:We'll start January 2nd.
Speaker:We've al we've counted the homes.
Speaker:We put GPS pinpoints in every home.
Speaker:so that's really what's next is we have, a significant amount
Speaker:of work left there in Nairobi.
Speaker:Uh, and then we have a significant amount of work that we've
Speaker:identified all around the globe.
Speaker:At reaching people without hope and reaching people without clean water and
Speaker:reaching people that are far from God.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh man.
Speaker:That is a heck of a project.
Speaker:I love your vision.
Speaker:I love the passion that you're bringing to it.
Speaker:I love your confidence and, man, that's awesome.
Speaker:I know that you've inspired a lot of listeners today on the last 10 percent and
Speaker:I would love to give everyone a chance to connect with you and the bucket ministry.
Speaker:If they are part of it.
Speaker:If they want to be a part of your passion and they're, and you're inspiring their
Speaker:passion, they want to connect with you.
Speaker:How can people connect with, with you and the bucket ministry?
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: for that Dallas.
Speaker:And just know, as you have a lot of business, people here as
Speaker:listeners, we speak business.
Speaker:and.
Speaker:What we like to do is we like to give our partners that are businesses
Speaker:tools to allow your customers to understand that there's more to your
Speaker:business than just making profit, that you're changing the world.
Speaker:So we have tools in place that businesses can use, to be
Speaker:able to show their customers.
Speaker:just what they're doing on a global scale to improve conditions
Speaker:for people around the world.
Speaker:And the best way to start each and every one of those
Speaker:conversations is on our website.
Speaker:And that's simply the bucket ministry dot O R G.
Speaker:thebucketministry.
Speaker:org and, you can, look up my contact information from there and I'm happy
Speaker:to have personal conversations.
Speaker:we have a team of people that are able to have conversations and that's
Speaker:the best place to start your journey.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: that's awesome.
Speaker:we will definitely put that in the show notes.
Speaker:So if you're driving right now, don't worry.
Speaker:We will put that, website in the show notes.
Speaker:lastly, Christopher, we always ask.
Speaker:Our guest who they would like to hear as a guest on the last 10%.
Speaker:So do you have any ideas of people or a person that you would
Speaker:like to hear on the last 10%?
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: am I stuck with just one
Speaker:person or can I give you a few?
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: we don't limit the recommendations.
Speaker:So yes, please give us
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: All right.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: as you like.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: I've actually got four.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: Oh, okay.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: uh,
Speaker:so yes.
Speaker:first is my friend Elliot Stovall from the filter project.
Speaker:they are doing similar work to we, where we are.
Speaker:He comes out of the business world as well.
Speaker:And, I think you will enjoy his story.
Speaker:The next is my friend Seth Ray from a organization in Florida
Speaker:called Go Build Love that he does a lot of work in Haiti and the
Speaker:Dominican Republic also with filters.
Speaker:And then I have a friend, James Grayson from Kingdom Ventures and James works
Speaker:in the Peruvian Amazon with filters.
Speaker:And then lastly, my friend Parker Hall, who has an organization called The Rising.
Speaker:And he is using filters as well as other, techniques to reach
Speaker:people in the Philippines.
Speaker:Those guys, all have connectivity to the business world.
Speaker:And I think would be fascinating for your, listeners to hear their stories.
Speaker:dallas-burnett_28_12-17-2024_101608: There is a whole community of
Speaker:people now using filters and to, to reach people with clean water.
Speaker:So that is amazing.
Speaker:thank you for sharing those I'll check, we'll check out all those, folks and, and
Speaker:their projects and their organization.
Speaker:So this is great.
Speaker:Christopher, this has just been an absolute blast.
Speaker:I've had the best time hearing your stories and your heart for.
Speaker:Getting your message of faith and clean water to people all over the world.
Speaker:And thank you for helping save lives of people all over the world and improve
Speaker:their health and give people hope.
Speaker:and I know that's a, I know that's something our
Speaker:listeners appreciate as well.
Speaker:So thank you again for being on the last 10%.
Speaker:christopher-beth_2_12-17-2024_091607: thank you so much.
Speaker:Many blessings.
