Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Beth. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Christopher Beth was born in 1967 on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois to Penny and Edward Beth. Though he might argue that nothing of much significance occurred during his adolescence to early twenties, Christopher will be the first to cite one discrepancy in that: meeting, falling in love, and marrying his high school sweetheart, Sheri. Thirty years into their marriage, Christopher and Sheri are just as devoted to each other as the evening they exchanged vows.
They have two children, Savannah and Griffin, and have been blessed with three grandchildren, Eli (4), Hazel (20 months), and Sloane (3 months). Today, Christopher lives in a small town outside Dallas, Texas with his wife and mother–while remaining in driving distance to his daughter (and her family) and son.
Christopher worked for the majority of his life in the pet industry as a business consultant. Though never exactly passionate about this line of work, he nonetheless diligently applied himself to it for almost two decades. However, when his daughter returned from school one day with an opportunity to accompany her on a mission trip to the Brazilian Amazon, he would soon find a cause he was passionate about. Witnessing the abject lack of access to clean, safe drinking water in Brazil, Christopher felt God breathe life into a ministry he was yet to understand the logistics or reality of. He returned home from the mission trip with a conviction to somehow merge the two great scarcities of God and water into one ministry. Thus, The Bucket Ministry was born.
While The Bucket Ministry started out in the Brazilian Amazon, it is now actively evangelizing and providing water filters to over twenty countries. The mission of the Bucket Ministry is to share God’s love through the gift of safe, clean drinking water; and Christopher has every intention to realize that mission in every place lacking its spiritual and physical blessings.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Nothing about this has been “smooth”. When a business consultant leaves a 30+ year career to a calling he knows nothing about, you would expect bumps in the road. The good news is all those bumps create endurance for the longer journey. That endurance is followed by an unwavering persistence.
In the early days of the ministry there was no staff, just one ordinary, untrained, uneducated guy doing everything. Accounting, fundraising, logistics, recruiting, missions, office cleaning, IT was all me (and much of it I was not good at).
As great needs came up – I always, and do now, started praying for God to send help – and every time he sent someone skilled and proficient in what we needed at that exact time, in perfect time. He started to surround this organization with amazing volunteers then the first employee, then second, and so on.
As for the other bumps along the journey, they have been plentiful. In 2021, I was working in Kenya and had a past “field partner” break into my hotel room and steal my laptop and emergency trip cash as a way to “teach me a lesson.” And while I thought that trip could not get any worse, I was far from wrong. The next day, I woke up ill and proceeded to test positive for covid (in Africa). Four weeks later, five more positive covid tests, multiple hospital visits later (being denied admittance for “not being sick enough”), nearly being called home – I was finally allowed to return to the US after receiving my first negative covid test in 30+ days. On this trip, I prayed to be healed, and while God provided, they healing He did it not in the way I had hoped – He sent my wife, a 30+ year skilled nurse to get me well enough to return home.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At my core – I am a storyteller. This organization was built on telling stories of how God is moving and providing hope to His people around the world through clean, safe drinking water. Those stories show ordinary people (like me) how they can be involved with something way bigger than themselves – something with eternal implications.
The Bucket Ministry meets a physical need of providing long-term clean, safe drinking water to some of the 785,000,000* people globally that lack access to safe drinking water. We use this as an opportunity to share our faith in Jesus Christ.
The tool that we use is a small, portable, economical hollow fiber membrane water filter (that attached to any 5-gallon plastic bucket) made by Sawyer Products in Tampa, Florida. The filter lasts 20+ years and will remove 99.99999% of pathogens that are making people sick from drinking unclean surface water.
The part of the work that sets us apart from others is 100% of this work that happens in 20+ countries is completed by indigenous missionaries and pastors. Basically, our process involves neighbors helping neighbors. We believe there is no better way to minister to someone than having a local friend be the one to deliver HOPE.
Some of my proudest moments come from the feedback and stories that we witness from the field over the past 11 years. We hear stories like one day, a child had skin rashes all over his body and one week later, as he was able to bathe in clean water – the rashes went away or a mother telling us her children can go to school now because the don’t have diarrhea anymore.
What matters most to you? Why?
That the people we serve are delivered hope. Hope from a friend that will never leave them – hope from having generational access to clean water.
Lastly, that I’m not on this journey alone. My family serves with me. My friends serve with me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thebucketministry.org
