On Christmas morning, after all the presents had been opened, Allison’s dad reached for one final gift—his favorite one yet.
“He brought out a box, and I could already see the tears welling in his eyes,” Allison Long said. “Our kids were like, ‘What is this?’”
Her father explained that he had funded the installation of a well for a community in need, in honor of their family. He detailed the way clean water would impact children on the other side of the world with both safe drinking water and the gospel.
“He was beaming with joy,” Allison said. “He said, ‘This is what Christmas is about, that there are now families who have heard about the baby born in a manger, who lived a life of perfection and died on a cross.’ He got to share that with my kids, and I’ll never forget it.”
The couple had already been supporting neverthirst, and their enthusiasm for the mission drew others in. Friends and extended family soon joined them in giving, multiplying the impact.
“I will never forget the first time we received our impact report,” Allison said. “It showed exactly where our giving went. It made it very real to us and gave us a desire to do more—so much that I called my dad and said, ‘I’ve got to tell you about what I just received.’ He said, ‘I’ve got to be a part of that.’”
His involvement, and that of the rest of their extended family, only deepened the Longs’ passion for expanding water access and growing God’s Kingdom, and for sharing that mission with others.
“It’s pretty easy to get people on board when you’re genuinely excited about something,” Ben Long said. “The impact is really one of many concentric circles.”
Long before that Christmas morning, the Longs had been deeply moved by their first encounter with the global water crisis.
“We realized we couldn’t not do something,” Allison said. “I saw moms and kids walking with buckets, and I kept imagining my kids—imagining myself—walking five or six miles a day to get filthy water—something I take for granted, and my kids take for granted.”
“Hearing the parallel crises of lack of clean water and lack of the gospel really stirred us,” Ben said. “This is a problem no one should experience. And if I can help relieve that, that’s not a hard sell.”
Today, the Longs hope that story will continue shaping their family’s legacy for the next generation.
“I pray that Ben and I will continue to talk about it all the time in our home,” Allison said. “We will continue to remind our kids of the need for the gospel and remind them that when they get their drinking water, there are people all over the world who do not have this access.”
