My absolute favorite thing to do these days is read to my son, David. David is three now and enjoys hearing all sorts of stories. We read to him from the Harry Potter series (especially the tales of Beedle the Bard), we read to him from the assorted stories of Beatrix Potter (who doesn't love Peter Rabbit) and, of course, we read to him from the Bible - our favorite "version" being the
Children of God Storybook Bible edited by Desmond Tutu with full-color artwork.
Our son will learn so much from the stories he imbibe when he is young and that's why I'm so excited about Ariah Fine and Don Robb's book,
Clean Water for Elirose, which was one of David's Christmas presents this year.
Clean Water for Elirose tells the story of a number of children who all have different favorite things to drink. The book then tells the story of Elirose who, like so many in today's world, lacks access to clean water to drink. The book goes on to tell stories of how children just like yours and mine found ways to help children like Elirose to finance and build a well in their village so they could have access to clean water.
Access to clean water is one of the best defenses that people can have against disease and malnutrition.
Clean Water for Elirose is a simple yet highly effective way to teach young children to care about this crucial issue. But it doesn't just want them to
care it gives them concrete ways to change the world, one person at a time. Problems like access to clean water are not going to go away any time soon and any resource that helps parents talk to their children about such issues is exciting to me.
My three-year-old, David, talks about Elirose all the time. This, at first glance, may not seem like much. However, the fact that the story of a young girls without access to clean water already has a special place in my son's imagination is not lost on me. As someone who believes that spreading the Gospel of Jesus means
both sharing one's faith
and addressing the social problems facing the people we seek to love, I find
Clean Water for Elirose an amazing resource for other parents hoping to plant the seeds of advocacy for justice in the hearts of their children. I highly recommend it!
You can view a full preview of
Clean Water for Elirose by
clicking this link. I encourage you to preview it and then to buy it -- it's definitely worth more than the $3.00 minimum donation you'll give for it!
I'd love to know what other resources you have found to help teach young people about similar issues? Feel free to comment below.
"We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood,the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work." 
