Episode Transcript
<p><!--block-->Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple O' Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and I am still celebrating my recent episode with Steve Wright, Japan to Jamaica, where, you know, we were both in a different country than normally, and we celebrated global communication and connection. And now here I am about to have another episode about global impact. I think it's so important, and now more than ever, we have more resources and ability to make an impact wherever we go or wherever we choose to go, and there are a lot of places outside of our home country that need help, that need an impact, and not enough people are helping one another. We're so hell-bent on hurting one another and all these different feelings of racism and global difference. But today I we're gonna sit down and have a conversation about the need for support and human unity, so I'm very excited about this episode. And before getting into it, I have to acknowledge Mr. Mark Porteous, the Soulful Leader, for this connection. He connected me and the guest today, so shout out to Mark Porteous. Great guy. I have had the pleasure of going on a few cruises with him to mastermind and have conversation, guest on his podcast. So, thank you to him for this connection, for connecting me with Paul Waterboy Brown. I am excited for this conversation. Mr. Brown, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Absolutely. So grateful to be here. My life purpose is seeing the water problem fixed, the global water problem, such that everyone has their own system of clean water. My name is Paul Waterboy Brown, and I'm currently in the middle of a walk across the African continent to that end. And like I said, thank you for having me, Mr. Whiskey. For sure. Now, I wanna start with your experience as a US military service member, especially you know, how that impacted leadership and global perspective for you. Yeah, absolutely. I was in the Army for six years, three years enlisted, three years officer, infantry both sides. It taught me a whole lot about planning how to use time, and that it's really, really, really important to have a plan, and also your plan sucks. Meaning that you're gonna get out there and and it's gonna unravel or, or something, something else is gonna happen. But without a plan, you're not even gonna get started, and there's nothing to even adjust from. The, I remember a big cultural impact happened right after I came back from Iraq. And in a, in an officer training school, our commander, for some reason he was talking to us about litter. 'Cause in various places that you go, sometimes in America, sometimes in other countries you'll see litter. And he said to us he said, "Don't judge those people for having litter. Like, a lot of them are concerned about what they're gonna eat today, like, where they're gonna get their next meal from. And also hoping- Mm ... hoping to not get shot at or blown up." So generally, when you're concerned about where your next meal is or where you're gonna get water or if you're gonna get shot at, you're not as concerned about litter. And people start to take care of those things once their basic survival needs are, are taken care of. So that helped me to, That helped me to put that in perspective and, and, you know, I don't like litter, and when I go places, no matter how clean or messy it is, I won't contribute to it. But a rule that I set for myself and my team as we walk across Africa is that there's no... We don't litter and nor do we judge the same. So- Mm ... we're not here to judge people for littering on their own land, but we're certainly not gonna add to it, if that makes sense. For sure. I think the perspective of, you know, the concern over litter versus like, hey, they're trying to meet their basic needs, I mean, that's a huge perspective changer right there in its own. You know, a lot of these countries that are struggling, especially financially and politically, people are like, "Why are the, why are the buildings so run down? Why are the streets so run down?" And like you said, it's a matter of priorities, you know? And I think a lot of what we think is a priority is actually a privilege. It's a privilege because we're able to focus on those things because we already know everything else is taken care of. And then of course, you being both enlisted and officer is a huge leadership advantage. On my podcast as a enlisted guy, I always jokingly say, "You're one of the cool officers," right? 'Cause the cool officers were always enlisted first. You know- Yeah ... I even considered going officer at some point. So yeah, we always say, "You guys actually understand it." But you did get to see leadership from two different perspectives within the military, which I think is really important and impactful, and I really appreciate that you even had leadership who addressed that subject, because plenty of leaders would just... When you get to another country, they can really impact how you see it. I actually had a conversation- Yeah ... recently, and I've been talking as I'm here in Japan, you know. A lot of military guys, the brief they get is, "Go find a hot girl, get drunk, but stay out of trouble. You know, don't add or subtract to the population." There's very few leaders who are saying, "Hey, guys, be respectful of this culture. There's a lot of history to take in. There's a lot of cultural differences to take in, and explore the country for what it is rather than this generational perpetuation and echo chamber of women and liquor." You know? Mm. Because so many people that I talk to in the military, any time I said, "Hey, is this a good port of call? Is this a good base to be stationed at?" Their answer revolved around women and liquor. It was never- Oh ... what is there to do or the history. And I think it really perpetuates certain perspectives on other countries, and also perpetuates certain incidents that we see happen reoccurringly. Especially Japan is infamous for military members causing trouble with raping, with sexual assault, with drunken behavior, right? And it's like I've seen it pre-programmed though, and we need good men to set up as military leaders. Like, "Hey, this is what this place is about. Not this." And I interviewed someone recently. They were like, "You know what, Mr. Whisky? I was in Japan for years. I couldn't tell you what it looked like outside of," what was it? "Like, the airmen's club on base, you know, because that's where I spent all my time." And we really miss out on global perspectives sometimes when we treat it as just a... Like, I've seen here some of the military members are like, "Because I'm just stationed here, I'm not gonna interact with the culture or try to be a part of it. It's just a, a hotel stay." And I think that's- Hmm ... a really wrong perspective to have. So I think it's really important that you have leadership who sets that up properly. And then another thing from the military that I, I do, like they said, "Have a plan, and if your plan fails, don't be a jerk." That was, that was- Yeah ... number one. If your plan fails don't just let it down spiral everything, and I think that's really important. That's right. And one thing I talk about, especially with veter- veteran to civilian transition, is the military trains you to have a lot of backup plans. Working nuclear operations side, you know, everything has safety backups and other countermeasures. Same with you're going combat deployed. You're gonna have backup strategies. But so many veterans get out of military with no plan or more so no backup plans, and I think that's- Yeah ... really important. So looking at you had some global perspective within the military, but what led really to Africa, to this idea of I'm gonna walk across the entire place and help raise awareness for a global water crisis? The, the thing that got me into water from the jump, just being concerned about people getting water period, was saying something dumb back in 2010. Mm. And the thing that, that caused me to come to this idea of walking across Africa to, to help more people get water was being criminally defrauded of about $1.5 million that I didn't have, that was borrowed money by a friend in, in 2022. So, I can, I can go down either one of those trails, the dumb thing that got- that I said that got me into water, or the the criminal defrauding that brought me to this walk. Which one do you want to hear? We- we'll do both in chronological order. Okay. 2010, I was still in the Army recent Army officer, and I was on my favorite author's website learning about early Christian history. And I saw a book on there about giving to the poor, and I said, "I don't want to hear about giving to the poor. I want to, I want to learn about early Christian history." Mm. And then I was, I was like, "Paul, do you, do you hear yourself right now? You are an idiot. You need that book." So, I ordered it, and it convicted me. It's one of my favorite books. It's called Through the Eye of a Needle. And the conviction that I left that book... I mean, it taught me a lot of things, but the main one was, if I don't need it this month, then it needs to go to someone who does. And I then read a second book by the former president of World Vision, and that book taught me that there's still a billion people in the world that don't have water, and that if you just do a small amount of things to help a family solve their water problem, it helps them solve, like, all their other major problems. So that caused me to start giving to organizations that that were doing systemic things to help people have permanent water solutions, like drilling wells, boreholes and other things like that. And and that, that shift also caused me to be outside myself and, "Oh, well, how am I gonna provide for my future now I'm gonna retire?" And other, other money and wealth and, and worry chasing things, and just got me more present with people who, who need, you know, need some help today. Right. And I wanna assume that the through the eye of the needle reference comes straight from scripture, correct? That's right. Yeah, the book is about what he calls the doctrine of non-accumulation, and he's, he's talking about how, I think it was the rich, young ruler or someone asked him about being saved and, and he said how difficult it is for a rich man to be saved. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than to than for a rich person to be saved. And people put all sorts of interpretations on that, and there's all sorts of explanations for it. But other places Jesus says things like where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And modern readers of that scripture, especially evangelicals, and that's, that's kind of how I grew up, will be like, "Oh, well, you know what? I don't treasure my things. Really what I treasure is heaven." But he didn't say, "Oh, well, your treasure will be wherever you say it is, or wherever you think it is." Your heart will be wherever your treasure is." So the way we decide where our heart's going to be and even end up is ultimately not just in what we say we treasure, but where our actual treasures are. That's how I take it. 100%. And a story I like to share all the time I heard a long time ago was this man was told you're going to die soon," from an an angel told him. And this is more of a biblical comic than a truth, but there's great value and a lesson there, which is this angel tells this man, "You're gonna be dying soon. Get your orders into affair and you can bring one thing into heaven, so plan accordingly." And this rich guy, he goes and sells his mansion, his cars, all his assets. He liquidates them into just a suitcase packed with gold bricks. And he passes away, gets to heaven with his suitcase, the one thing he was allowed to bring, and he opens it up and he's showing off to the angel, "Look at all this wealth I accumulated. Look at all this that I've made." And the angel was perplexed, scratches his head and said, "Why did you bring the paving bricks to the street to heaven?" And he looks and the streets- ... are made of gold bricks. When I heard that, it really stuck with me. I was like, wow, he spent his- Yeah ... whole life, and you read Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, you know. To what means do we toil for all this stuff and then pass away and never even use? Why do we accumulate all this wealth? And like you said, it's- That's right ... to serve others. And I, I really, like, if I don't need it this month, someone does. And if we can fix their water, it fixes a lot of things. Goes back to you and I earlier talking about the chain reaction of priorities and perspective, right? If they have water, now they can focus on maybe it's food or maybe it's whatever else it is, but I agree 100%. So that's the first part. And then you mentioned it sounds like being scammed, if I'm tracking correctly? Yeah. Yeah, and there's something in between that I'll need to tell you too. But I'll point out just to make sure that you'll hear me talk about water systems, and for me, everything needs to be a system. Because if I go over there- Right ... and I just give somebody water, or even if I go over there and I drill a water well for them, that doesn't really do much. But when we train people on how to drill their own wells, which is what we like to do, or we train people on how to maintain their own lifetime water filter and distribute- Mm more to their neighbors, well, that's a system, and that empowers them, and that also leaves the responsibility with them, and it respects their abilities. So instead of being help that hurts, it's just, hey, there's a little bit of gap here. I can help with it once. You can own it and run it and expand it. The fish versus fishing. We've heard that. Yes. You know, if you give a person a fish, they're fed for a meal. You teach them how to fish, they can feed and sustain themselves, so. That's, that's right. That's right, and when we make sure that they own the pond and the fishing equipment, and have some say in what happens- Yeah upstream and downstream- Yeah ... then their grandchildren are going to be eating for a lifetime. Amen to that. And even helping, helping others eat. So, so, in between those two stories in 2016, I went to my first real estate investors conference, and there was a guy on the stage talking about how you can be awesome, and you can do real estate, and you should buy my coaching program. And right about then God just spoke to me and said, "Paul, you're gonna take care of this water problem in this generation." And Mr. Whiskey, you can have four thoughts at once just like that. And they were God, I don't have the net worth or network for that. I guess that's not my problem. If you're calling me to it, you'll provide. Three, it's already done. I've just gotta walk into it. I didn't know the significance of walking into it yet, but that comes in. And then the fourth thing was I already knew that nothing good is done by just a single person. Like, it's always done with teams, or in this case teams of teams. And yet there's still a power, there's a significant power in one person stepping up and being like, "Yeah, okay, I got this. Here I am. Send me." And I don't mean I got this in a, oh, I'm gonna... It's all about me. But just somebody needs to take responsibility and coordinate and and answer the call. And I didn't come up with the call. I would've never come up with this call. But I'm also not gonna say no or let it go. So it's, it's not something I would've ever chosen or even thought of and yet I can't escape it and don't want to. So, so I left that conference with this call of, of seeing the water, the world's water problem fixed by 2035. And it didn't cause me to run off to India or African nations to immediately start helping people get water, 'cause one, I didn't know how to, and two, I didn't have the, I didn't have the monthly sustainable income for that. So I would've just been back three weeks later out of money not knowing what to do, not have even made a dent in the problem, and back to work for the man. So it caused me to build a better real estate business than I would have with this positive pressure of if I don't do what I'm here to do, then a billion of my best friends might die or get sick. And I'm not being dramatic. Those are actually the stakes. And I'm also not, like, stressed every single second like, oh, another person died, because that's just- That kind of guilt and pressure I don't think is meant for me to bear. Mm. But for me to say, "Hey, over the course of the next 10 years," you know, it was 20 years at the time, but 10 years have passed since I got that calling. Yeah, it's on me to make sure that as humans we build systems for everyone's way of water, and it's really, it's, it's seven of us looking out for one. And what I mean by that is the water problem impacts one out of eight people. So Mr. Whiskey, you know, you've got systems of water. You're not worried about how you're gonna drink today or bathe. I'm not either. There's five more people like that on this call. And then for the seven of us that have water autonomy, there's one person that doesn't, and they might have a choice between being thirsty or drinking water that will make them sick. Mm. They might have a choice of, well, do I work today or do I spend, you know, three to eight hours walking to get water? And those are all impossible choices that I don't want anyone to make, but the point I'm making is if there's seven of us with water autonomy and there's one without, it's not that hard for the six or seven of us to work together to help the one. So this is an easy fixable problem. But anyway, so I left the conference. I built a better real estate company than I would have. I would've been satisfied with just one or two houses. This pressure caused me to do more and know that it wasn't about me and building wealth. And so around 2020 the business had mainly freed up my time, which was the goal of the business. It wasn't to build, you know, a big bank account. It was to get my time freed up for this work. And I was in my commercial banker's office, his name's Jeffrey. In walks this other client of his, and the banker says, "Oh, hey Jim, this is Paul. You two should talk. Paul's life purpose is getting water to the poor." And Jim said, "Well, hey buddy, I run One Million Wells, and we do just that. You should come with us when we go overseas to go train folks on drilling their own water wells." And so I was super excited about that God moment and provision. I agreed to. They taught me their method here in the States of reverse flow water well drilling, which is actually good for the aquifers, good for the environment, it's sustainable and it lasts. And then I got sciatica, and I was in this excruciating pain, and all I could do is, is lay on my best friend Britannia's living room floor for like six weeks. And I would crawl to the bathroom, but all I could do was lay on my stomach, and I thought I'd never walk again at 41, and the pain was so bad I didn't care. I just wanted the pain to subside and I did heal up from that. And the next year I went to the field with One Million Wells to Malawi, Uganda and India, and we trained folks in all three countries on how to drill their own reverse flow water wells And at that same time, a friend of mine was criminally defrauding me and 200 other investors and himself of about $50 million. And we found out about it in '23. He actually, he actually got the feds involved himself and told on himself and his partners who were lying to him and us. And the whole thing unraveled and a lot of people lost money and like I said, I was on the hook for about 1.5 million. And again, I've never had just a pile of $1.5 million- Right like I believe in deploying that into something that will produce or, or giving it to somebody who needs it or both. But I had borrowed that money to invest with him through business loans and such. And my things, my the properties and the accounts associated with them were protected each in their own trust. So I didn't actually own them, so they weren't actually subject to, to seizure or lawsuits or whatnot. So, it wasn't as bad as it sounds, but at the end of 2023, I still felt stuck and stopped in my life purpose. And I asked myself a question, "What's the biggest thing I could do to get unstuck, to move forward anyway?" And I saw this map on Facebook called The Longest Road in the World to Walk, and it was a map from Cape Town, South Africa up to Eastern Russia, and people were on there like clowning Africa and saying how you wouldn't get out of the first two countries alive. And I thought, well, I've, I've been there several times. I've worked there. I've lived there. Actually, it's when you leave the continent that the, you know, the wars start and the major risk add up. But I said, "I could do that. I could walk Africa." And then along the way it became, well, I can walk Africa to raise awareness and funding for water access. And then as we've walked it, we've learned and realized that we can... well, that we're meeting local people along the way, and we're training them up as local water team leaders. And we're adding more and more skills to train them on. But the point I'm making is- The walk is a survey, and the walk is getting there. It's presence. We're there with them. And then when we meet the locals, you know, it's not me to go fix their problem. It's not me to go hand them something that is caretaking. It's on me to say, "Hey, you've got this small gap in technology and maybe knowledge and maybe equipment. Let me help you shore that up once and show you a system that you can sustain for your people and your descendants." And fix it once, and now you've got a system. And that is working. So far along the way, we've helped 55,000 people gain access to water permanently for them and their descendants. And we've been able to do that for about $1 per person, which is staggering, that value, at least to me, that this problem can be fixed for near a dollar a person. Even sometimes, like, if not as many people come to the solution and it's $10 per person, well, that's still a great value. You know, $1 to $10 and somebody's got their water problem fixed permanently and for their descendants too For sure. So you've been walking across Africa. Where are you at with that journey? The walk itself is currently in Eastern Zambia. We started on the southwest coast of Africa in Walvis Bay, Namibia, and we walked across four and a half countries so far. We've got another eight to go. Seven or eight to go. We want to walk more continents after this, but one continent at a time. And some might think this a little strange that I'm having this Zoom call with you from East Texas at a friend's house while I'm claiming to walk Africa. And the calculus on that is that you know, I'm walking the continent with a team, with a support vehicle. I'm not the first person to do it. I'm not doing it the longest or the hardest or the best. I interviewed a guy named Mario Rigby on my podcast right before I, I did this journey and he walked it south to north and a longer route that we're taking, a more dangerous route. No team, no support, no vehicle. And that gave me the freedom to be like, "Okay, well, this is not gonna be primarily about the walk or how awesome I am that I can walk a continent. Look at me." Right. The walk's gonna be a container for the story, the backbone of the story, for who we meet along the way, and that's who's really important in this. One, who we meet along the way, and then two, how we help them make the world aware of their challenge. A very fixable challenge, by the way. And two, how we help them specifically solve that problem permanently. So as we walk, our favorite thing to do is just find a place on the side of the road where we can get the tent out of the car and camp on the side of the road each night. But that requires there to be enough room that we're free to use for the car and the tent, and for us to be far enough from the road to be safe. And we find that about half the time, but we don't always find it, or maybe there's elephants, so it's not safe to sleep there. So, so, what we do... And there's not elephants in most places, but that is something to evaluate sometimes. Sometimes we have to go get a hotel or a hostel or a campground, or we'll get an invitation to camp in somebody's yard or sleep in their house. And whether we leave the walk for a night or for a few months for me to come back and fundraise in the States and talk with wonderful folks like you we always take pictures and videos of the point where we stop walking and a grid coordinate and so that way we can go back to that exact same spot and pick the walk back up. I completely agree that the way you're doing it, you know, really removes the pride from it. 'Cause like you said, it's not about the walk, it's about the sustainable water systems and the purpose. So I think that's great. That's right. And to see it expand beyond that to other continents in the future is definitely super important. So I wanna just go over, you're talking about fundraising, so I wanna talk a little bit about your website. You know, you got a newsletter, a podcast. So I wanna talk a little bit about that, you know, this is not, obviously you're doing it out of the goodness of your heart, but it does need to be funded to be able to do the training, to get the equipment, to do this journey. So tell us a little bit about that. Certainly. So yeah, there's a piece of me that I think because of some past trauma and maybe even personality where like- I'll think everything's my, not just responsibility, but fault. And I've worked through that trauma. But some friends of mine have said, "Paul, like, you should invite us more into what you're doing, and don't let it be that you're having to do everything." And I've appreciated that feedback. So yeah, I invite you and you, dear listener, to be a part in whatever way feels good for you. The best way to get started is simply to donate $1. And the reason I call people to $1 is because it's not really a dollar, it's a life, and it's a life permanently empowered with water freedom, with water autonomy. So it sounds small, $1, but if you're listening to me, whether you're Mr. Whiskey or you're the person behind the screen or hearing my words, well, this is our first time talking. This is probably your first time hearing my voice. And so you don't fully know me, and that's okay, and I don't fully know you, but I appreciate that I can be here with you in this time and this moment. And so I would say don't do nothing, but also don't think that you have to commit to some huge thing right now. Just go to water.work and give a dollar. If something moves you to give more, great. If something moves you to give monthly, great, give a dollar a month. But when you do that, that allows our team to send you specifics of where that dollar lands. The project team leader and the lifetime filter custodian, those two people have real names, and they're getting it... They themselves are giving that water to another 30 to 298 names, depending. And and I can show you the, the village and their grid coordinate where those lives live and are being impacted. So, but start with a dollar. It's small. There's not really risk in that. And then we can build a relationship from there. But yeah, that's the very specific call to action. That's the very specific ask. That is built upon my absolute belief and conviction that this water problem of one out of eight of us, one... A billion people might die or get sick today because they don't have clean water. I have an absolute conviction that that is a fixable problem, that it's a problem that we can fix in this generation, in the next 10 years, that we will do it and that the world will be better when we all have access to clean water. And even us in the developed nations where that's not even a thought- Whether you're thinking about people that didn't have water now having clean water, or you're directly impacted by it because there's less war and there's less turmoil and there's less global suffering, like all of our lives are gonna be better by it. But at the same time, I don't wanna burden anyone and be like, "Well, this is my life purpose, so it should become your life purpose, too." No, that's really between you and God. But without altering your life and without inconveniencing yourself too much, we can all still help with a small amount of money knowing that, wow, this is gonna have a big payoff and a big impact. So yeah, that's the call to the person. We recently got our first grant from Sawyer Foundation. That's the same foundation associated with the company that makes the filters that we help people get clean water with. We ourselves help other organizations like One Million Wells, who trained us on how to teach people to drill their own water wells. So we help them do that work either through volunteering or contributing. We do both. And then I also I've got a lifetime commitment to never take a salary from this work, and it wouldn't be illegal or unethical for me to take a salary from the nonprofit that I've set up and that I'm giving my life to, but I don't need to. God's blessed me with you know, some success in real estate, and I'm now selling all that real estate so I can focus on this water work. But He's also blessed me with the VA taking care of me from a disability sustained while I was in the Army. And so God's already provided for my life through those means, so it puts me in a position where I can commit to never take a salary from this work. And at least in the beginning, we've been able to pay the marketing and admin costs of this nonprofit so that when people give, 100% of those donations go to the program cost, goes to the water work so that people aren't worried about like, "Am I giving to a bloated, huge nonprofit? Am I giving to Paul Brown's life so that he can fly around?" Nope. Paul Brown takes care of those costs himself, and your money goes straight to the water work And I wanna speak also just talk about the impact and significance of $1 in its output, but the input, which is you giving a dollar, how much does it change your life? Most of us have a dollar to spare. We also have a few seconds to a few minutes to share the podcast episodes, to share your website, to make a social media promotion, or to bring it up in conversation. So I highly encourage everyone, you know. It's not just money, but also time, and it's not a significant amount of time for you to give up a few seconds to share a link or to share an episode or to share a post. But it can reach someone during that time that donates a lot of money or donates their time or, you know, leads to a big impact. So, even just investing a few seconds and minutes can have ripple effects beyond our understanding. And I like to say, you know, every podcast episode, every social media post, everything that we share, God is taking to the people that need to see it. So never doubt saying, "Well, if I just shared his website on my website or online or whatever, where is it gonna go?" You know, God is capable of taking it to where it needs to be. So I ask you not to just donate money, but to just do that simple task of a few seconds or a few minutes to share this episode or the website link or whatever you're called to do. And I think that's something really simple that we can all do that is really easy to do but can have a huge impact as well. And then I wanna mention also, you talked about the newsletter and the podcast. How are they directly related, and what kind of information is coming out of those? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Whiskey. So I send cinematic updates from the field about once a week. It's a brief newsletter and We do our best to write it in an entertaining manner, in an unpolished manner, and I look for what's the biggest emotional vulnerable arc of the week. And oftentimes I ask myself the question, what's the one thing that a nonprofit would not wanna tell their donors? And that's the story we want to tell. So recently I've sent out newsletters about one of our team members lost their debit card. Well, that was the subject of the newsletter, and the redemption that came from that. Most nonprofits aren't gonna tell you that, "Oh, yeah, we lost our debit card that you're donating to." Well, it, it happened. So we told them. Well, I want the donors and the readers to know, "Hey, whatever happens, Paul's gonna tell me the truth. This team's gonna tell me the truth." A week after that, I sent out a newsletter about me. It started with me yelling and cussing at my best friend and employee, Evans, for doing something he shouldn't have been doing, and telling himself to look in the mirror and fire himself. And then it, I continued it. You know, he did. I walked, and this time not for water, but for distance. And, you know, I'm not the hero right now, I'm the problem. And we explained how that all, like, went down, and how I went back to him and talked it out and he asked forgiveness for what he had done, and I asked forgiveness for what I had done. And again, that's not something that a company or a nonprofit is generally gonna tell you, but it happened. So I want to bring you along for the journey as though you're here with us. So yeah, those newsletters come and there's a podcast as well. We're on episode 31. We haven't published new episodes in a while, but I do wanna bring that back. But whether it's the newsletter or the podcast or like I'm Paul B. Walking on most social media platforms. All those things, if you donate a dollar, and I'm not saying this to try to get you to give me money, I'm saying there's a trigger that happens. So if you go on water.work and you donate a dollar then it collects your email address. It discloses that I'm gonna email you, so now you're on the email list where we update you every week. And of course you can cancel at any time. And there's also, in the newsletter and on the website there's links to all those things, the podcast or the social or whatnot. And to be absolutely accurate and clear, that site, water.work, is a redirect to our zephy.com site, and Zephy is an organization that- Collects funds and does tax receipts for nonprofits like ours. So that way everything's automated and I don't have anybody's financial information, don't want it. So when you go and you donate there, like, we're not getting your credit card. Zephy handles all that stuff for us, and they've got secure tech for that. And so I don't have to get involved in that. If you want to first look at our actual main website, it's at waterwalk.co. So that's waterwalk.co, not .com. That'll take you somewhere else. Waterwalk.co. Both of those will redirect to the website, but it's just easier to remember either water.work to donate or waterwalk.co to go check us out And what about servantleadercharities.org? Yeah, that's what waterwalk.co directs you to. Okay. Perfect. So it's harder to say that and for people to remember those three long words or to spell it right, so waterwalk.co will, will redirect you there. Okay. Yeah. So all walks lead to water. So yeah, no, that's- That's right ... that's awesome. And I wanna thank you for what you're doing as well as, you know, your time today to help share this out. I think a lot of people take for granted advantage water. You know, as we were having our conversation, I thought about how many times today did I go and drink a clean glass of water, and it was a lot. I'll be hon- I drink a lot of water, to be honest. And it, it really- That's good ... put into perspective for me though. I was like, "Wow, you know, I've had more glasses today than some people have had in the past month or week." And to think about that- Mm ... it really did have me just kind of like really... It was really humbling, you know, to think about how many people don't have water. Not just a lack of water, but the desperation to drink water that has diseases, bacteria, or pollution in it, as you mentioned earlier, which many people don't realize. It's not just about not having water, it's about having to resort to water that's dangerous, and I think we often forget that part. So I really appreciate you bringing that up for everyone to reflect on. Like you said, a dollar a month or a day or whatever it is can have such a huge impact. And I think we should all reevaluate, what we're doing. And I love you know, not to bring up the comparison game, but looking at, like, if you donate a dollar a month, that's maybe one fast food meal less for the whole year. You know, like, looking at how expensive things are and how much money we spend on luxury items and hobbies, I think it's really an eye-opening perspective sometimes to look back and look at how much what we have can do for what we won't really honestly miss or lose. So I think it's important, so I encourage everyone to check out. We're gonna have all those website links you mentioned in the description below for people to check out your website the newsletter, the podcast, and the ability to donate. And then of course, they can keep up with you on that and your social medias to see how the walk is progressing. One thing I want to clarify before we close out here, is there an active invitation for people to join your team and be a part of the walk? Is there special training required? How does that work for anyone listening who wants to be boots on the ground? There, there is. At this point, that is open. And so, So I told you I'm Paul B. Walking on most socials, so you can DM me there. I don't see it as often just 'cause I don't want to, be distracted with social media and the dopamine hijacking- Yeah, yeah ... that goes on there. Yeah. But we do post regularly and probably a faster way to get ahold of me is when I send you a newsletter which again, if you donate, you get added to it, but when I send you a newsletter, if you hit reply, I read every single reply, and I respond to every person that replies. And so yeah, if something moves you and you want to come join us, you want to drop in for a few days or a few weeks, or you want to figure out some kind of way to, to join the team, hit reply and tell me that, and we will figure that out. There were times where we talked about doing that as, almost like selling that like an experience, and we may come to that. And when I say selling, I'm talking about, like, a donation package. But because you asked that and we haven't formally set that up, then that gives you dear listener, maybe Mr. Whiskey, it gives your audience if they're moved in that and they want to explore that, then they are welcome to do that, and might want to do so before we monetize it. Mr. Whiskey, let me ask you, and thank you for asking me that, what what can I or Walk for Water do for you and your audience? I think you're already doing a service because my mission is to serve God and others, and you guesting today is spreading that wealth of information on how people can make impact around the globe through their lives. So you've already done what I would want you to do, which is, serve God and serve others. So I think you've done a lot. I might, drop in to Africa with you one day to do some social media coverage and live podcasting. We'll see. You know, Yeah ... I, I never thought I would be there, but like you mentioned, God really calls us to stuff we never imagined. I never thought I would be podcasting or speaking on a stage or talking about global connection and God has taken me to some places and researched some countries that I never imagined. So I just encourage everyone, myself included, you know, to not just hear this conversation, but to pray and reflect on it, to lean in and hear if maybe there's a greater calling. Maybe it's not walking across Africa to help, you know, train, create these sustainable water systems, but God might have a adjacent mission for you somewhere in the States or Europe or wherever- Sure it may be. And I encourage everyone to try to hear that. In the recent episode on Global Connection, Japan and Jamaica, Steve Wright and I talked about people are having a hard time hearing God because we are so distracted. You mentioned it yourself. The dopamine high of social media and the doom scrolling, I will say, crisis going on where people are addicted to their phones, on the toilet, eating breakfast, wherever they go, walking around the city. I went out to eat last night by myself here in Japan, and so many people were sitting together in groups on their phone. No one was looking at each other. Sure. You know, it's it's crazy. People bump into me at the train station 'cause they're on their phone. And how are we supposed to hear God if we always have AirPods in or have our Bluetooth in, whatever it is, right? We need to unplug and have moments of silence, silence from social media, from music, even from podcasts, right, to be discerning and to hear God's calling. It's not just when we're praying. Sure. God speaks to us throughout the day, not just when we're praying, but sometimes he's trying to nudge us in a direction because of something we heard or saw or because of the silence. And so I encourage everyone to not just hear this conversation, but to reflect upon it and pray on it. So thank you for your time today, for guesting, and for what you're doing. I hopes you reconnect with you on the podcast as your journey progresses. Like you said, you still got quite the walk to do, and more importantly, quite the amount of people who don't have water. And like you said, this is a fixable solution. There's so much water. There's so many people with money, with water. It's about sharing. You know, it all comes back down to it, you know? Not just with water, but with so many financial issues facing people across America and the world, we've got so many people with so much money, and we are called to distribute and give. So I encourage everyone to do that. And again, thank you for your time today. Thank you. Thank you.</p>
