Water Challenge

WATER CHALLENGE - June 2021

What is a “Water Challenge”? What does it have to do with Wellness Ministry?

We could say that this particular Water Challenge IS NOT - an invitation to a water fight at the pool (though summer is coming soon!).

This Water Challenge is an invitation and encouragement to be intentional regarding personal hydration. We all know that drinking a sufficient amount of water each day is good for us. It is actually essential for good health. At the same time many of us find ourselves too busy to monitor our intake of water. This Water Challenge is an opportunity to make an intentional commitment:

- to drinking at least 64 ounces of water each day during the month of June

- keeping a record of your intake of water

- drinking with grateful intention and consciousness - such as praying a prayer of appreciation for this gift and affirming the benefit for your wellbeing

- sharing the results with others who are joining you in that intention, commitment, and practice.

The Health Ministries Team is inviting the congregation and community to participate in a Water Challenge for the month of June, 2021’

Here are guidelines:

  • If you are dealing with a condition such as excessive water retention, or there is a medical need to limit fluid intake, check with your health care professional before participating! You could participate by following medical instructions as to fluid intake!)

  • Only water counts as the 64 ounces of hydration (not tea, coffee, alcoholic beverages, or soda)

  • Use the available water tracker.

  • A Health recommendation is: 1 8oz cup upon arising; 1 cup 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after each meal, and one cup in the evening. (Please note the 8 oz cup designation.)

  • Those who are able and wish to do so may place a coin in an envelope each day they meet their goal as a symbolic reminder that as hydrate ourselves we can also hydrate our siblings around the globe. Any funds thus raised will go toward a Water Share in another country.

  • If 50 people complete the Water Challenge a donor will contribute funds for a share of a Safe Water Project (ELCA Good Gifts Catalogue) https://goodgifts.elca.org/share-of-a-safe-water-project

  • The idea is “we hydrate here so others can safely hydrate elsewhere”

  • Appropriate prayers and readings could be included as one part of your intention. Include a prayer with each cup of water. One suggested prayer is _ “We give you thanks, O God for the waters of life; for water that gives life to our planet. We give you thanks, O God, for the waters of life.”

  • Decide and carry out your plan

  • Report your successes! * (We will research starting a blog post where we can share our success, challenges and get support from one another to develop this important life sustaining habit.)

A general recommendation is that an individual consume at least 64 ounces of water per day. If you want to get more specific, divide your body weight in half, then aim to drink that many ounces of water per day. For example, a person who weighs 150 pounds would have a goal of drinking 75 ounces


Some basic facts about hydration, courtesy of Atrium Health –

• Adult humans are 60 percent water, and our blood is 90 percent water.

The goal is consciously, intentionally drinking 64 oz of water each day of June. (Remember, coffee and sodas do not count! - water only)

There are various YouTube and Ted Talk presentations regarding the benefits of staying hydrated. Feel free to check those out. Let us know any resources you find helpful.

Here are some prayers to spark your thinking:

Pray for clean water for the thirsty.

Loving God, we ask for Your blessings on children, mothers, fathers, and communities who are thirsty. Purify, protect, and multiply their water sources. Strengthen their resolve so they may fully enjoy the benefits of clean water — essentials like education, gardens of fresh produce, and good health.

(from World Vision,

God of ocean, river, stream.

God of creek, rivulet, groundwater.

God of rain, snow, sleet.

You are the Living Water

Who moves through us and all your beloved creatures Enlivening, and nurturing.

Protect us from our shortsightedness.

Protect us from our greed.

Protect us from ourselves.

Living Water Be with us.

Be in us.

-- prayer by Beth Norcross, Arlington, VA, http://www.nrpe.org/water-prayers.html

Praise and gratitude to the sacred waters of the world, to the oceans, the mother of life, the womb of the plant life that freshens our air with oxygen, the brew that is stirred by sunlight and the moon's gravity into the great currents and tides that move across the earth, circulating the means of life, bringing warmth to the frozen Arctic and cool, fresh winds to the tropics.

We give thanks for the blessed clouds and the rain that brings the gift of life to the land, that eases the thirst of roots, that grows the trees and sustains life even in the dry desert.

We give thanks for the springs that bring life-giving water up from the ground, for the small streams and creeks, for the mighty rivers.

We praise the beauty of water, the sparkle of the sunlight on a blue lake, the shimmer of moonlight on the ocean's waves, the white spray of the waterfall.

We take delight in the sweet singing of the dancing stream and the roar of the river in the flood.

We ask help to know within ourselves all the powers of water: to wear down and to build up, to ebb and to flow, to nurture and to destroy, to merge and to separate.

We know that water has great powers of healing and cleansing, and we also know that water is vulnerable to contamination and pollution.

We ask help in our work as healers, in our efforts to ensure that the waters of the world run clean and run free, that all the earth's children have the water they need to sustain abundance of life.

Blessed be the water.

— Starhawk in The Earth Path https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/practices/view/22041/blessing-for-water