Supporter Saturday: Featuring Cat Lovers (Ewww! Gross!)

Today's supporters, Jon & Susan Menton,  come to you from Fresno, California, however, I met them in Davao City, Philippines while their church teamed up with Convoy of Hope and Family Circus Children's Ministry. They are secretly missionaries just like myself, they just masque it with their day jobs.  They're great supporters and have helped me out many times over the last few years of knowing them. BUT, they're SERIOUS cat lovers, I mean, like it's a stretch for us to be FB friends, they take offense to all my, "I hate cats!" statuses (Which I think I'm due for one lest anyone forget!) and I take offense to them blowing up my wall with "look at my cute cats" photos, nonetheless, our love for Jesus and sharing His love around the world supersede this serious flaw that they have!

They've recently be trekking all over the world sharing the love of Jesus through community development. I'm going to tell some of their most recent story in their own words and pictures, it'll give you great insight to who these great people are.

Did you know that....
More than 1,800 children die every DAY of preventable water-borne diseases and nearly 800 million people worldwide do not have safe water?

Jon & Susan know this, this is why they have teamed up with www.lifewater.org  recently going with them to southern Ethiopia a beautiful land and beautiful people surrounded by ugly water and ugly sanitation issues.

Jon & Susan GET IT! Some people cast stones and say, as Christians we shouldn't be out doing all this humanitarian aide non-sense we should leave that to the "World" we should be worried about souls not water and rice, they'd say. I'd like to encourage those people to go without eating tomorrow and maybe  walk several miles in the heat, gather up some dirty water from the river, tote it home, drink up, and then find a place outside somewhere to spend their day of diarrhea and then let me know how their soul is doing! (Those were my words not Jon & Susan's!)

They're nicer missionaries than I am, Jon & Susan would probably say, "Come along with us and see what you think should be done." And take them to the ends of the earth where the above statistics are true.  They'd teach the WASH curriculum (Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene) and train the nationals to dig and repair their own wells and pumps, and how to utilize Bio-Sand filtration, so that the work is sustainable and owned by the people there!

They're really good at Micah 6: 8:

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

I'll close out this tribute to great missionaries and great supporters of other missionaries with a quote from them: "What do you think God wants for people?"they were asked. Their reply:

  I believe God wants all people to know and to love Him and to share that love with others (the two greatest commandments).  One way to begin doing that is to empower people with the knowledge they need to transform their lives and communities.    God is the one who can truly save people, but he wants us to love and care for one another while we are here on this earth.  Something Lifewater does very well.

In hindsight, this totally would be my response to the humanitarian aide haters! Thanks Jon & Susan for being great supporters and great missionaries.