A note from Joe Westbury, missions project chairperson:

Here in Georgia we have come to a fresh appreciation for the most basic necessity of life; next to oxygen and food, we have to have clean water. A rain shortfall (I believe the word "drought" is not appropriate in our case), coupled with unrestrained development has resulted in a water crisis not seen in decades. Today you can be fined $1,000 for washing your car or watering your flowers.

There's a similar drought going on in Arizona where BCA will be meeting in just six weeks; a spiritual drought where the Water of Life is desperately needed. As our mission project for this year we are asking members to provide funds to help NAMB missionary Louis Spears provide Spanish Bibles for those he is trying to reach in the Phoenix area.

Louis will be speaking at one of our sessions to give you a first-hand feel of the challenges on his mission field.

The challenge we, as officers, are making to you is simple. Just one dollar will provide a paperback Spanish language New Testament; $20 will provide a nice quality English/Spanish Bible for an individual who has accepted Christ and needs to read God's Word in order to grow in his or her faith.

Specific Bible types and translations will need to be purchased, so BCA members need not purchase Bibles; simply bring monetary donations to the BCA workshop in Phoenix or make your tax deductible donation online.

On the Starbucks scale, bypassing just two cups of a tall coffee ($1.50) a week will provide three Bibles. Doing that for the next six weeks will provide funds to purchase 18 New Testaments or one larger English/Spanish version of both testaments.

Join me in the coffee challenge and lets bring the Water of Life to Phoenix.