Blood, Sweat and Jars
Committed to a vision of clean blood and water for all Africans, Jars of Clay and Blood:Water Mission are working hard to see that these dreams become reality.
by Andy Argyrakis | posted 5/29/2007
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Jars of Clay is thrilled that critics and fans have taken a strong liking to Good Monsters, which won the 2007 Dove Award for Rock/Contemporary Album. But the band is especially passionate about missions and outreach, especially through their Blood:Water Mission charity. BWM's vision includes, among other things, a future for Africa with clean blood (free of the HIV virus) and clean water; the organization is already providing much of the latter by digging wells throughout the continent. And Jars is doing more than simply raising awareness about the issues and BWM; they're rolling up their sleeves to experience the mission field first hand. Guitarist Steve Mason and keyboardist Charlie Lowell talk about their recent trips, the growth of BWM, and the importance of breaking beyond church walls and cultural stereotypes to do the Lord's work.
The guys in Jars of Clay mix it up with new friends on a recent missions trip to Africa.
You started Blood:Water Mission a few years ago and have been promoting it heavily at shows. How is it going?
Steve Mason It's a slow growth. When we started, a really wise man encouraged us that we didn't want to be a speedboat rather than a sailboat. A speedboat is full of gas, very fast, makes a lot of noise, and has a nice paint job. A sailboat uses effects of the wind and the environment to get where it's going. It sets a course and ends up heading that direction a little slower and more methodically. Blood:Water Mission needs to ebb and flow at its own pace, sustained as a small organization that continues to be in a place of connectivity and donorship.
Why was it so important for you to go on the front lines and actually see the well situation first hand?
Mason We went to South Africa a few years ago to put a face on AIDS, and we also went on a trip in January. To learn about it can be really messy and requires a lot of elements put together that we weren't necessarily experts at. We had to go and drink from a well and sit with the people whose lives had just changed. We wanted to—needed to—and it was really mind blowing to hear stories about how their lives have changed. There seemed to be this mile marker of "pre-well" and "post-well." They're not spending four or five hours every morning walking miles to a dirty water hole. They can pump it right there, plus they're given sanitation and hygiene training before it's installed.
Did the depth of the purification process surprise you, especially considering filtered and bottled water is taken for granted in America?
Mason Even before a well goes in, the community has to show that it can sustain it. In the '80s, when Africa came on the map with Live Aid, there was this sort of knee-jerk reaction to put wells everywhere. There was no hygiene training and no community supporting it, so they fell into disrepair. One of our sailboat ideas is that we really want to make sure communities can sustain themselves. Women's groups do it a lot—they pool together shillings and raise what little they have for maintenance and other things. It's not like bottling Dasani!
You mentioned Live Aid. Jars participated in Live 8, which had a different goal but put Live Aid back in the news. Did it help bring awareness back?
Charlie Lowell I was fairly young when Live Aid happened, and to me it was just a cool music event on MTV. I didn't understand or connect with the real reason behind it, but Live 8 certainly helped put it back in headlines. Bono (of U2) also continues to remind the media about AIDS and clean water in Africa while the country is obsessing over how Anna Nicole Smith died or obsessing over Alec Baldwin's angry voice mail to his daughter.
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