Gabe and Livvy Feinn

#1Team: Water we doing to help?
  • My Goal:
  • $13,000
  • Raised So Far:
  • $13,085
  • # of Donations:
  • 55
$13085 of $13000 goal

WATER FROM THE WELL!

Update #10  •   Posted 2550 day(s) ago

We are so excited to post this update!  We received an update from Samaritan's Purse this week and here is what it says: 

Samaritan’s Purse Niger - MARCH 2017 YAYA WELL UPDATE

Salama church, of the Yaya community, has been implementing a sanitation project in Yaya and the surrounding area. The church has been succesful in community mobilization and has even formed womens groups who are taught regularly about hygiene and sanitation, while incorporating Biblical lessons. This water point will go a long way in helping the church to attain it’s objective of evangelism and discipliship.. The church donated to the community the land on which the well was dug. This is part of the strategy to help the church share the Gospel and love of Jesus Christ.

The Yaya community and the new well. Excavations are still on going, which is why the water is not clear. After completion the water will be cleaned and treated.

The Well Has a New Location

Update #9  •   Posted 2688 day(s) ago

Hi Everyone,

We recently learned from Samaritan's Purse that the well can't be drilled in Gapaly.  Though this made us sad, we understood when they told us the "why" behind the change in plans.  The money you all helped us raise will still be used for a village in Niger, and here are the details we received from Samaritan's Purse explaining what is going on and how the money will still help a lot of people!

From Samaritan's Purse:  "Due to security threats, digging a well in Gapaly became both dangerous and more expensive—more than doubling the cost of the project. After careful consideration, Yaya was chosen as the new site for the well. The well will not only meet the physical needs of Yaya residents, but also open the door for Salama Church to meet their spiritual needs by sharing the Gospel.

The Yaya well will directly impact the lives of 200 families, including 1,000 children.

Yaya residents currently rely on a broken water pump as their primary water source. This water pump is unreliable at best, and it is useless during the dry season, which is roughly seven months out of the year.

During the dry season, the entire population of Yaya relies on ponds that are dug along the dry river valley. These ponds present a major health risk as the water is often contaminated, leading to water-borne diseases. Consequently, many of the children suffer from preventable water-borne skin diseases.

The Yaya well will drastically reduce or eradicate water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and skin diseases. This will enable children to go to school and improve their quality of life.

The well will be dug on property donated by Salama Church and will better equip the church to reach out to the community and share the Gospel. It will be used as a tool for evangelism and will solidify the presence of the church in Yaya."

We will keep you all posted as to the progress and if we get any pictures, we will definitely share them with you!  All of this tells us we need to really keep praying for this project!  God is directing it and we need to remember that He is directing the details for His glory and His will!

 

Thanks for following along!

Gabe and Livvy

THE WELL IS UNDERWAY!

Update #8  •   Posted 2755 day(s) ago

Recently we got word from Samaritan's Purse that the well is about to be drilled.  Here are some pictures and the email we received.  THIS IS SO EXCITING if you think about it!  Imagine that your whole life, you traveled to dusty places in search of water.  Because of the well, this village of people will be able to SETTLE!  It's going to be a beautiful thing for them!  Thank you, everyone who has helped with this project!

Gapaly Well Update
Introduction
Gapaly building Gapaly is a pastoral village, just on the edge of the Sahara Desert, about 760 kilometers (470 miles) from Niger’s capital city of Niamey. Gapaly is in the Agadez region and has a population of about 100 households who are mainly pastoralists living in makeshift tents. There is a church about 5 kilometers (3 miles) outside of Gapaly village. The pastor of the church has been instrumental in trying to find a water solution for the community. The Gapaly well that will be built through this project will be a blessing to the community, providing water for both the people and their animals. In the past, the community has had to move around, continually searching for water and often consuming impure and dangerous water. This new well will be an encouragement for the local believers and a testimony of the Lord’s goodness to all those in the Gapaly village.
SP men teaching villagers about the water project• SP has sought the approvals from the Department of Hydraulics in Ingall and together prepared the tender documents. Currently, SP is receiving quotes from people who are interested in excavating the well. SP will choose one of the teams and the excavation work is projected to start in September.
• In August 2016, SP will be training the community on how to manage the water source, this is very important in order to ensure sustainability of the well and also ensure compliance with the government of Niger water laws.
• Once excavations starts, it is projected that by December the well will be completed. However, this depends on the ground conditions. Often times, when the team encounters’ bed rock or hard soil, the rate of excavation reduces and this may cause delays in finishing the excavations.

Site where the well will be drilled in Niger

THE WELL IS ON THE WAY! 100% HAS BEEN RAISED!

Update #7  •   Posted 2880 day(s) ago

All we can really say is THANK YOU!  The well can now be constructed by Samaritan's Purse because over the course of 4 months, with all of you helping, we have raised the needed $13,000!

Thanks to a family that donated $360, and went on to order 120 Derby cookies, which the girls of that family came and helped to decorate, the last funds needed were raised on April 26!

We will try to post a picture of the villagers with their new well if Samaritan's Purse sends us one!  Imagine the joy that will be in that village when their long walk is over and their animals won't die and the villagers won't always be getting sick now!   Psalm 98:4 says: Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.

Getting SO CLOSE!

Update #6  •   Posted 2905 day(s) ago

The gift basket fundraiser was a huge success!  We raised $3600 from the donation forms and so many students, children, families, groups helped to make a HUGE difference!

We need less than $800 to have all the money for the well!  It is so wonderful that so many of you feel compassion for the village in Niger!  THANK YOU! 

WOWZERS! We are getting so excited about the WELL!

Update #5  •   Posted 2921 day(s) ago

The "Walk a Mile in Their Shoes" Water Walk was AMAZING!  It is so awesome how God made it fun!  First of all, we had originally planned to take 1 gallon milk jugs, walk to the Papa John's Headquarters and fill the jugs from the pond, walk a mile around the building and pour out the water into the pond again.  But after we had told over 1,000 students about it, we found out from the local police that we couldn't do the route we had planned because the street we would have used the sidewalk on is very busy at 4pm on a Tuesday.  

That is when God totally took over the whole #waterwalk!  He lead us to check out Malibu Jack's indoor Amusement Park and they immediately told us we could do the walk at their facility!  They also immediately donated a card loaded with one free activity in their amusement park to anyone who participated in the walk!  This made the walk seem a lot more fun for everyone who was considering doing it!  Then, Xscape Theaters donated some movie tickets for us to give as a give away to some of the fundraisers.  That started us on a quest to see if there were other companies that would like to donate for the fundraising part of the walk.  Immediately we got amazing things!  The actress, Jennifer Lawrence who  is from Louisville donated a signed poster of her latest Hunger Games Movie!  Chick Fil A donated Calendars with Calendar Cards, water bottles with a breakfast item card and a whole basket for the top fundraising GROUP!  It has a certificate for food for a party for the top fundraising group who has raised at least $250 and can have up to 25 people!  Malibu Jack's donated the use of their party room for the party and an $8.00 activity card for each group member, up to 25 people.  Livvy & I decided to donate a cake for that party too!  There are so many other wonderful items in the baskets!

At this moment, we haven't finished allowing people to fundraise for the baskets so we don't know how much will be raised from that. The deadline for this particular campaign ends on Friday, April 1.   However, at the #waterwalk, $1432 was raised!  This has brought the total we have raised so far to $9472!  It is so exciting to think that we are only about $3600 away from getting the well for the village!  

God sure is good to us!  We just appreciate everything everyone has been doing to help make this happen!

EXCITING NEW DETAILS!

Update #4  •   Posted 2966 day(s) ago

You might have noticed that we just increased our goal from $10,000 to $13,000.  We are not discouraged about having to increase our goal, in fact it is the opposite!  We are EXCITED because this means that Samaritan's Purse has figured out exactly how they are going to transform the lives of this village in Niger that will get the water!  Imagine that every morning you woke up and you couldn't just go to the sink and wash your hands, brush your teeth or take a shower.  Right now this village has been trying super hard to get water and they are far away from everything.  This project is literally going to change their lives!  Let's pray that when they get water, they will listen to people telling them about Jesus who wants to give them living water!

Please pray about our water walk.  We have officially invited over 1,000 children!  We have no idea if any of them will come, but we are so glad that we've had a change to talk to this many children/students!  We are trying to help them become grateful for the water we all have at our fingertips!  We are going on a field trip to the Louisville Water Company on March 2 with some of the students so we can see how it is that we have such great water! 

If you are already on our Number 1 Team and have donated, we want to say, "Thank You"!  If you are thinking about donating, do it!  This has got to be a we project, not just a me kind of project!  In fact, if you feel like you have nothing to give, pray.  Well, actually you should always pray. 

Thanks again!

Gabe & Livvy

Water: You Doing With Your 1%?

Update #3  •   Posted 2988 day(s) ago

Livvy and I have been going to speak to different groups of students, asking them to join us in our "Water Bottle Change Challenge" and we are starting to prepare for a "Walk a Mile in Their Shoes Water Walk" which we are organizing for March 22, 2016.  Keep visiting our website at thenumberoneteam.org.visiting for more info about this!  As you can see, at this point we are at 14% toward our goal and it has been 1 month now!  If we could keep up this pace, we could be helping a village by the end of the year!  Thanks for helping us, everyone!  A little change from each of us (done together) will make a huge change in a bad situation!

Gratitude

Update #2  •   Posted 3018 day(s) ago

This was a constant scene that we saw when we were in the Congo.  Sometimes it was a mom like this picture, who was carrying water; sometimes it was a child.  The first time we saw it, this didn't jump right out at us.  But after a few days of seeing the same thing EVERYWHERE we realized that WATER dominated the lives of the Africans.  Dr. Lindsey Cooper explained to us that because water was such an issue, diseases we wouldn't see in the United States are still a problem in Congo.  (And we now see that this is the case all over the world, actually)  So today, on our third day of starting this fundraising effort, we are grateful that we have 3.5% of our goal, and that we live in the United States where we can spend our days working on solving the big water problem while we go to our sink and get a glass of fresh, clean water without even giving it a thought.

Water we doing to help others?

Update #1  •   Posted 3020 day(s) ago

Today is December 21, 2015.  After a lot of prayer, we feel that the Lord wants us to raise money to make a difference in the lives of others for a water project.  At this moment, we can't give any specifics, but already, we have seen the Lord moving in our new project!  We have been talking to a lot of people about a problem we observed and God is setting up some solutions, but we need the help of others once again!  Right now, $10,000 is our goal.  We are asking God to make it clear whether this will be enough money.  Today a wonderful lady told us she will become our first "number 1 Team" member for the new project.  We have clearly seen that if people will do 1%, the least whole percent that anyone can possibly do, together we will make a huge difference in the world!  For this project, if we could assemble 100 people, or groups of people to each raise $100, we would have a big water problem solved!  We are already praying for the children and adults who will help us.  We have also been praying for the people the water project will help.  We are so excited to see what God will do with this project .