God delights to works with us and through us – to sow love and reap justice.   The prophet Amos implores us to seek justice with the words: ‘Let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-ending stream’ (Amos 5:24).

Fourteen-year-old Katy, a young supporter of Toilet Twinning, travelled to Zambia to see what her giving means for 14-year-old Monica and her family. Katy raised money when she asked for donations to Toilet Twinning instead of Christmas presents.   [show film – see next slide – click play icon]

[After showing the film – press the link on the page above – you may have to enable the link] In the village of Chimbilwa, Monica spoke of the shame she felt when friends discovered her crouching in the bush, going to the toilet. Katy began to think differently about the things she takes for granted.   Monica says, ‘Before we built a toilet, I could be sick for up to two weeks in a month, and sometimes, the diarrhoea was so bad that my family had to borrow an ox cart to take me to hospital. My mum and dad had to sell some of our chickens to pay for medicines.’ Katy says, ‘Monica doesn’t have much, and it’s made me realise how much I have that I don’t need, and how easy my life is in comparison. It’s made me want to study harder at school, so I don’t waste the opportunities that I have.’

Fourteen-year-old Monica wants to be a nurse – but to achieve this, she needs to remain healthy. Without clean water, a toilet at home, or a toilet at school, her dream is near impossible.

In the Bible, water can be:   1. A place of chaos 2. A context of trust 3. A means of blessing

A carrier of chaos Water as a place of chaos is there from the first page of the Bible – the creation story of Genesis 1:   In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ’Let there be light’, and there was light.

A context for trust In the Bible, there are several incidents where water is used as a context that God uses in order that we would learn to trust his faithfulness. In Exodus 14, we see Moses demonstrating to the Israelites that God is in control of their future: Moses parts the Red Sea, so that the Israelites can be liberated from slavery as they flee from Pharaoh and his army who are pursuing them towards the Red Sea.   In Joshua 1, we see Joshua taking the Israelites across the River Jordan as the final part of their journey into the promised land In Mark 4, when the disciples and Jesus were in the boat, and a storm whipped up, the disciples were afraid – but Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm And, in Acts 27, we read of Paul’s shipwreck - and what it took for everyone to reach shore safely.

A channel of blessing And we also see in the Bible that water is also used as a means to bless us. In Matthew 3, we have John baptising Jesus in the River Jordan (Matthew 3:13-17).   In John 4, we have Jesus describing himself as the Water of Life to the woman at the well, saying to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). And as a means of blessing, we also have Jesus’ first miracle being the water turned into wine. (John 2:1-11) The image that Amos uses for God’s justice draws on water as a means of blessing – let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never ending stream. (Amos 5:24). Time and again, the Old Testament prophets tell us how important justice is in God’s kingdom – and how God expects us, his co-workers, to pursue justice passionately on behalf of the last, the least and the lost (Micah 6:8).

Jackie Pullinger is a missionary who serves God amongst addicts in Hong Kong – and she says we must have soft hearts and hard feet – but she says that too often we have hard hearts and soft feet.

Fourteen year old Katy realised that she didn’t need anything for Christmas, and that a small act of giving up her Christmas presents one year could signify something much greater for someone else.   When Katy decided to do this, she hadn’t travelled to Zambia; she hadn’t met Monica and her family; she hadn’t encountered poverty herself or understood what it really meant for a girl the same age as her, who was growing up in a country many miles away. But Katy had heard stories of children getting sick because their family didn’t have a toilet; and she’d heard of teenage girls being attacked or bitten by snakes as they crouched in the bush too go the toilet, and she knew that her giving could make a difference.

Monica’s life has gone from chaos to blessing – because of the compassion of people like Katy. That’s why supporting Toilet Twinning matters. Toilet Twinning’s fundraising for Tearfund’s water and sanitation programme has meant that the Brethren Church of Christ in Zambia has been able to work in villages like Monica’s to teach families about the link between sanitation and health, and show families how to build toilets, and where to put the latrines so that streams aren’t contaminated; and also to learn about hygiene and the importance of hand washing after going to the loo, or before eating, or preparing food.

In Zambia, the local church is chosen as the venue for community meetings about sanitation because it’s the focal point in the community for gatherings. The community are encouraged to draw a map on the floor, showing which households do and don’t have toilets. Then they visit nearby sites where people are going to toilet out in the open, and talk about the amount of flies around, and the smell – and the problem that flies are going from these sites to people’s food at mealtimes, and this is why people are getting sick.   The project worker at Brethren in Christ Church (BICC) says his favourite story is of a village leader who was celebrating the transformation in his village that had happened within a few months of the church project happening. BICC asked the village leader, “Is the transformation because of the borehole we installed?” And the leader replied, “No, it was the toilets. The toilets changed everything.” When a husband builds a toilet for his wife and children, he is demonstrating that they have value, and that he cares enough to spend up to a week digging and building a toilet for them, so they have privacy and safety. As a result of this, family relations improve. And once the family unit is functioning better, this family is then able to start reaching out and demonstrating love to fellow neighbours. As a result, the whole community begins to change, and work together and enjoy better relationships with one another. Jesus says we are to love God with all we are, and all we have, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. (Luke 10:27). Neighbours can begin to love one another when their own family life is harmonious and loving – and Brethren in Christ Church say they’ve seen that that can’t happen without a toilet.

If we, as a church, donate £240 to Toilet Twinning, we can twin our church toilets with church loos in Zambia – or, for a £60 donation, we can twin with individual household toilets at the homes of families like Monica’s.

PHOTOS: RALPH HODGSON/TOILET TWINNING & ADOBESTOCK