Stepping Out: Embracing God's Call to Action

**Chris:** Beth had a very ordinary life growing up outside of Chicago. His dad passed away early on, and looking back, Chris believes that God was trying to get his attention. Then, at the age of 40, Chris was in a tragic car accident with his daughter, where she broke her back. In the emergency room, Chris invited Jesus into his life, and nothing has been the same since. Chris was a business consultant for 35 years and thought he would retire in 10 years and go fishing. However, he never expected to be "fishing for men" at this point.

It all started 11 years ago in 2012 when Chris' daughter, Savannah, came home from high school and said she wanted to go on a mission trip to the Brazilian Amazon. Chris and his wife were surprised by this request, as Savannah had been a believer for a long time and had been on many mission trips, but mainly to South Texas. This was a new experience for Chris, as he had never had a relationship with the church and had been living his life under his own control.

I quickly decided that somebody had to go with my daughter to Brazil. At that point, I drew the straw. The thing I need you to understand about that time was I was only going to be a dad. I had been saved about five or six years prior to that, but my only goal was bringing my child back from this foreign land. I had no expectations, and I really had no love or compassion for the Brazilian people at that point. I was so new to my faith I didn't even fully understand it yet.

We got on a plane in Dallas and flew into Manaus, Brazil. We were ushered off the airplane through the airport onto a bus, and all of a sudden we were at the edge of the Amazon River. It was like nothing I ever expected before. It was super hot and about a billion percent humidity. I was with all these people on this trip that were more mature in their faith. They had gone on multiple mission trips and were talking about being the hands and feet of Jesus. I was so uncomfortable.

Savannah and I hung our hammocks in this open-air riverboat, and it went into the Amazon basin. We went 18 hours through the darkest and most remote places in the Amazon jungle to get to where we were going to be working. That first night, Savannah came over to me and said, "Dad, I think we made a mistake."

We started working in a series of villages. On the boat, we had a variety of ministries: men's ministry, women's ministry, Vacation Bible School, soccer camp, doctor Dennis, and a faith team. I was assigned to the faith team, which I thought was pretty ironic given the fact I didn't even fully understand my own faith yet. We went door to door introducing ourselves and telling the villagers about what we were going to be doing in their village. I went with the pastor and an interpreter, and for the first two days, I did not say one word.

The third day came, and I was assigned to go out with the faith team again. I thought about going in the bathroom and pretending I was sick and saying I couldn't go out that day, but I manned up and went out. Just as I went out, the pastor I was with the first two days, Ricky, got up and walked out of the boat and said, "You got this today." I was so far stretched, but I went out and did it.

I was with Pastor Ricky on a mission trip to Brazil. We had been doing work for the previous two days, and he asked me to handle it on my own. I was overwhelmed and thought I was going to throw up because I had no idea what I was doing. We went across the river to a house and were greeted warmly by a Brazilian couple. They invited us in, and I thought I would just repeat what Pastor Ricky had done the first two days. The woman asked if I was thirsty, and I said yes. I was looking around for a refrigerator or bottled water, but there was nothing. She went to the kitchen and got two cups, which were mismatched and cracked. She then walked outside to a dock area on the side of the river and bent down to collect two cups of water from the river. I was standing in the doorway thinking there was no way I could drink that. She handed me one cup and my interpreter the other. I had to make a quick decision that would affect the outcome of my day. On one hand, if I drank the water, I would get sick, but on the other hand, if I didn't drink it, she would think I was rude. I looked at the cup and saw stuff swimming in it. My interpreter was wagging his hand no. I realized I couldn't drink it and understood the gravity of the situation. This was all these people had to drink. This experience changed my life.

I was on a trip to a foreign country, and I had a life-changing experience. I was sitting there holding a glass of dirty water, and I had never been in the business of hearing God's voice. I was skeptical when I heard people say that God said this or that to them. But then, I heard two words, "Help them." It was audible, and I looked around to see who said it, but it wasn't a loud booming voice; it was a soft voice. I had no idea what "help them" meant.

When I returned to the United States, I started researching the world water crisis and found out that 785 million people lack access to clean water, and 700 children die every day from something that is preventable. I also found out that 3.1-3.2 billion people have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

I found a water filter made by Sawyer Products that is very effective, long-lasting, and attaches to any bucket or receptacle. It removes 99.99% of all bacteria, protozoans, and parasites from unclean surface water and yields about 500 gallons a day. It lasts for over 20 years.

This dirty water is a perfect illustration for the sin in our lives. Just like the sin in our lives, this filter redeems the water and cleans it. It is like what Jesus did on the cross for us. By providing physical and spiritual nourishment, we can help people in need.

I live on the North side of a lake here in Texas, so I just went and collected a little bit of lake water. Can you guys imagine what happens if one of us drinks that? So here's the crazy thing, and this is the part that was one of the most eye-opening parts of understanding the problem: the people that we serve and that we've served around the world, many of them think that this is how water is supposed to look. Many of the people that we serve have never seen what clear water looks like.

I've got this bottle; it's got lake water in it. I'm gonna screw the Sawyer 0.1 Hollow fiber membrane on the top, and all I'm gonna do is squeeze water through this bottle through the filter and into a clean cup. And if I can do this right for the camera, I think we will see a pretty remarkable transformation in this water. It is crystal clear, but more importantly than that, it's not the things in the water that we can see that are going to make us sick; it's the things that we can't see.

As you can imagine, if this is all you've seen, when you see clear water for the first time, it really affects people in a positive way, and their heart softens. That part, what you're talking about, about introducing the living water. At that point, there's a lot of illustrations attached to the filter because of that. After 11 years, we've kind of experimented on the best way to share the gospel in that environment, and there's no better way of really introducing the gospel message than starting off with we have been separated from God, and we live in this broken world, but that was not God's plan in the beginning, and so we're separated by our sin.

In this water is a perfect illustration of that, and we just walked through what I just said, and people are visually interested in that. So when you compare the sin to the dirty water, they really get that because these people understand they're getting sick from drinking this water; they understand that, but they have no other option.

I'd love to go back into your story a bit. A lot of listeners here wrestle with this concept of hearing God's voice and how to discern it. So I would love to know when you heard God's voice, what did that look like for you? What was going through your head?

Well, I think if I'm being completely honest and transparent, it took a while to understand, but honestly, there was no one in the room that said that, at least no one that I could physically see. I wouldn't say that has happened to me many times since then, but now knowing who spoke, because there's evidence of that through the fruit of this ministry, that was He who spoke this ministry into existence, and that day He showed me why it was created, and it was simply with two words: "Help them." Those two words weren't really clear, like I said, and it became evident that after I witnessed what they were drinking, it had something to do with providing clean water. But in the beginning, it took a little bit of unpacking because I wish I could.

At that very moment, I knew that was God's voice. It took a little while to understand that and to put it together and then to start searching for a solution for these people. I called the trip doctor that was with us on the boat, Dr. Casey, and asked him how many of the people he treated were due to drinking unclean water. He said, "All of them." I was convicted that what helped them had something to do with water, but I didn't understand the connection to the gospel yet. It took a lot of research and investigation to understand the problem and figure out what God wanted me to do.

I worked full-time in ministry and full-time in business consulting for six years before I left my secular job in 2018. During that time, I saw many miracles that helped my own faith journey grow. I still had doubts along the way, but those miracles helped me to gain clarity and navigate through them.

In early 2018, I used to work for a company that managed an online calendar for vacation schedules. I had put in seven weeks of vacation, but only got three. My boss, Brian, called me and said, "Hey man, you got seven weeks of vacation; you know that you only get three, right?" I said I figured I'd take the rest as unpaid time off and figure out how to pay our bills. He said, "I think we can do better than that." He then told me that the executive board had met and decided to allow my co-workers to donate their vacation time so I could do the work. I was amazed. After he said this, I had eight weeks of vacation, and the CEO gave me a week of his vacation. These were affirmations for me and my wife. We were about to give up a 35-year career with insurance and all that stuff that makes us think we're happy. When you get to see miracles like that happen, you know that God is with you, and that made the transition so much easier.

My faith continues to grow because I get to see God work. It's often in those areas of uncertainty that God's glory shows the most because He gets to do things that we never would have thought possible or things that are just unheard of. Just like my CEO donating vacation hours. Once we watch and see where God is working, and He allows us to join in His work, it gets so much easier. It reminds me of the story of Moses and how he had no idea what he was doing, but God provided everything that Moses needed for what He assigned Moses to do. This experience has allowed my own faith to grow because of being able to witness these things. It's been a beautiful time.

I can only speak to what I experienced, but I had to be stretched in order to understand how God was calling me to discover my God-given assignment. I had to be put way out of my comfort level, and if I wasn't stretched, I'm not sure I would have ever gotten to that point of being able to understand and discern His voice. So, the first thing I would advise people is to get out of their comfort zone and start to serve people in a way that gets them outside the four walls. This goes for the church as well. The more we are stretched, the closer we get to Him and can receive His direction.

My own family has seen God work in my life. I have two kids, a son and a daughter, and they have seen their dad change 180 degrees and start walking a different direction with God. This has allowed them to become closer to the Lord and understand what God can do in their own lives.

My wife was a nurse for 30 years, and this year she quit and works full-time in the ministry with me. Our entire family now works in this ministry. My daughter Savannah is the director of children's communication, and my son Griffin is our communications guy. We are blessed to be able to serve the least of these as a family, and this has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. We all share in these stories and get to see these miracles happen every single day.

We recently experienced an amazing God-sized miracle that has drawn our family closer together. However, it has come with a little bit of baggage, just like anything would. To maintain a sense of normalcy, we have a rule that we don't talk about the ministry at Sunday dinners.

The Bucket Ministry is focused on walking through the doors that God opens for us. We have placed filters in over 20 countries and are actively working in 12 of those countries. Our vision is to identify where God is allowing us to work and be able to scale up to serve the people He puts in front of us. It costs us about fifty dollars to be able to provide a family 20 years' worth of clean water, share the gospel with them, and start to teach discipleship lessons in their homes.

We are currently working in some very large slums in Africa and have been called to those people living in inner-city situations who don't have access to clean water or God. We want to make those introductions. For fifty dollars, we can take a family to Applebee's for one meal, give them a bucket, the Sawyer 0.1 Hollow fiber membrane filter, anti-parasitic medicines, do three follow-up visitations, and equip them with a Bible, either printed or audio.

The problem is easy to solve; we just need more friends to help us do it. If anyone wants to get involved or help out, the best way to contact us is from the website, thebucketministry.org. Harvest is plenty, but laborers are few, but hopefully, more labor is to come. Amen.

All this also just reminds me of the power of getting outside your comfort zone in experiences that God might be nudging you towards. You know, I'm just thinking not just mission trips but just things in general that really stretch you and go beyond your familiar bubble. I mean, both of us have gone on mission trips too, and those have marked our lives. Like not just helping other people, when you go there, even though it might seem like a short-term thing, sometimes you know it's actually depositing a lot of encouragement and a lot of fuel into the people on the ground on mission there.

And you also get to see more visibly how people live, what their struggles are, what their needs are outside of your often first-world bubble and problems. I just want to encourage people, if you have an opportunity or you feel God tugging you, nudging you to go on that trip or do that experience or go to that conference, whatever it is, really consider and pray about going and taking that step of faith because you never know how God will show up and speak to you and show you His heart for people and His presence in amazing ways you've never experienced before.

Yeah, and grace, it's so beautiful. I was in Nepal in 2018, and I probably had a lot of the same experiences that you did. And I think that that charge that you just gave everyone to get on a trip and get out of their comfort level, and it doesn't matter if the trip is across the state, across the country, or across the world, just getting out of the four walls of either their home or their church and being the hands and feet of Christ is the first place to start. And the more uncomfortable, honestly, the better.

So what I'll leave you with, and I think if I do nothing else, I hope that one person that is sitting there on the couch that is listening to this, that maybe says, "Man, I'm just this ordinary guy, I'm not even educated, what can I do to help people?" I will tell you that for the last few minutes you've been listening to probably the most ordinary uneducated guy there is. And to date, we celebrate, and all this praise goes back to God that through the Bucket Ministry and through our supporters, and most importantly by God's grace, we have been allowed to deliver over a million people clean, safe drinking water for over 20 years and then to share the gospel with that million people.

So, good. So, if this ordinary uneducated guy can be part of that work, I think that there's an awful lot of people there that can reach the world, do amazing things, deliver amazing hope, but it takes that understanding that God has given you the gift. Let's just go out and figure out what it is and use this crazy. It is crazy, and I never ever thought I would ever say that out loud, but it's just amazing what God has allowed us to be part of, and we just praise Him for it.

Thanks so much, Chris, for taking the time to just come on here and share your story. It's so inspiring! To end this, we just want to encourage you guys, whoever's listening or watching, to really be open to however God may be wanting to move in your life. Exodus 3 reminds us that it wasn't until Moses had turned aside that God actually spoke to him from the burning bush. For many of us, this is God's invitation to us - don't just be stuck in a rabbit hole or a narrow-minded tunnel of our daily mundane tasks. Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the things that we think we need to do when God is actually inviting us into something that He wants us to do that's even better than that and more important for His mission.

We should look for those open doors, get off the couch, get out of our comfort level, and get our hands and feet dirty. Maybe even get them wet and go to work. The more positive reviews we get, the more people we can reach. So if you haven't already, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcast. It really means a lot to us. We'll see you again next week. Bye!