By Wayne Allen

Wallen@

communitycommon.com

Justin Meeker, a Lucasville native, along with his wife Jessica who now resides in Lexington, KY are preparing to hike the Appalachian Trail. Before they begin their journey in April they will quit their jobs and sell off all of their belongings in an effort to raise $10,000 for an organization called Charity: water (www.charitywater.org). The organization provides clean water and funding to build wells in impoverished countries.The journey is expected to last 6 months, in the end they will cover the 2,200 mile trail.

"Last year my wife and I had started reading a book by Richard Stearns, who is the president of World Vision. His book was called, 'the hole in our gospel.' In the book he talked about making a life transition from everyday upper class American life to actually making a difference in the world," Meeker said. "We started reading it (the book) last year, and it hit us in a big way."

Meeker said about half way into the book Stearns began to talk about his travels to third world countries.

"He talked about a water crisis, we (Meeker and his wife) had never really heard of. He was painting this picture of communities that had no sanitation and no fresh water supply. He said sometimes people would have to walk between 3-5 hours a day to get to the closest water source and bring it back," Meeker said. "This really hit us hard. We did more research and came across an organization called Charity: water."

According to the Charity: water website, Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s one in eight. charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. One hundred percent of public donations directly fund water projects."

"In the midst of ourselves wanting a change in our own lives, it (Charity: water) was the springboard to say we can make something happen with this," Meeker said. "One of the things we have come to realize is that, this will give us a chance to press the reset button, on our lives. We started out as a young couple chasing after what everyone else wants a nice house, great job. We also realized we do not have to go that direction."

Meeker said there journey will serve two purposes, "our first goal is to raise awareness. We will be walking approximately 5 million steps, the total number of steps an average person in a developing country will walk in one year to find and draw a few gallons of dirty water per day," Meeker said. "Our second goal is to help us better understand how much we take our access to clean water for granted by spending 6 months without the convenience of clean running water. We will be drawing and filtering water from creeks, lakes, and puddles along our journey with personalized filters (which is still much more than most people have worldwide)."

"We think this will be a defining moment for us, with the whole idea of pulling out of life as we have known it for so long. Our goal is $10,000 (to raise and donate), we are pulling our friends, our family and people that we know into this to do something for people that we have never met before," Meeker said. "This will be a defining point in terms of hopefully what the rest of our lives will look like."

He said this has drawn the couple closer in looking at humanitarian work.

"The biggest question we get from people is, 'in this economy why are you quitting your job.' I think the question we had to ask is 'can we afford not to," Meeker said.

Meeker said he and his wife will be carrying between 25-30 pounds in there backpacks. Included in there packs they will have a tent, two changes of cloths and a five or six day supply of food.

"We are asking people to start giving while we are out on the trail. We have a website setup where you can go on and either do a onetime donation or you can make a pledge," Meeker said. "We are asking people to fullfill the pledges in September when we finish the trail."

He said faith has played a big roll on their journey thus far.

"I think something clicked in us to help us realize, 'you know what, if we really want to exercise our faith, it cannot be within the walls of a building. It needs to be out helping others," Meeker said.

He said the couple began, "to look at your faith as not your own, but something that can help real people in real ways, not just telling them about stuff."

It's estimated by Charity: water that, "an average american uses 150 gallons of water daily to cook, clean and drink. A person in a developing nation struggles to find 5. It's also estimated by the organization that a donation of $20 can give a person in Africa clean, safe drinking water for 20 years."

The couple will be keeping a blog and updating those interested on where they are on the trail. Visit www.walktowater.com for up-to-date information and for ways to donate.