Jena Lee, 23, is doing something to level the playing field. Lee is the Executive Director of Blood: Water Mission (BWM), a humanitarian organization founded by Grammy award winning Christian rock band Jars of Clay. Pretty impressive credentials for someone in their 20’s. Originally a nursing major at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, Lee’s goal was to help others overseas. But nursing is not a good career choice for a girl with a delicate constitution. "Every time I got into a hospital and was trying to give shots or anything like that I physically couldn’t handle it… If anybody told me they had appendicitis all of a sudden my side would start to hurt!" she muses.

After switching to the field of political studies, Lee focused on examining the role of Christians in politics. Not long afterwards she was introduced to the lead singer of Jars of Clay at a concert on campus. They soon discovered they shared a passion for the African HIV/AIDS crisis. While still a college senior, Lee opted to forego a more lucrative corporate career, and alongside Jars of Clay she established BWM with no experience, no staff, and only $1,000 in the checking account. Just a few short years later, the organization has provided assistance to more than 100,000 Africans. During a recent trip to Kenya, Lee visited two communities where countless village women and their children walked 10 miles a day just to get clean water for their families. They pleaded with Lee to help them secure the funds to build their own wells. Later, from the stage at a Six Flags amusement park in New Jersey, Haseltine shared the plight of these women and boldly asked the 600 people in the audience to each donate $1. The band hoped and prayed that somehow concert goers would come through with the $1,500 needed to finance the wells.

 

 

 

The thing that was so amazing was that as we stood at the exits holding those buckets there was just not one person who walked by without putting money in.

 

 

On the tour bus as they counted the cash they found the audience had donated $1,539. They were thrilled to send an email the next day to their friends in Kenya and tell them that God had taken their story, their pleas, and their prayers and blessed them. While many women her age are busy going to clubs, building wardrobes and climbing the corporate ladder, Jena Lee is making a huge difference in the lives of people half a world away. Her ultimate goal is to be the hands and feet of Christ.