Ending Water Poverty with Scott Linebrink

In today's episode, Ronald Blue Trust CEO Nick Stonestreet talks to retired Major League Baseball Pitcher, Scott Linebrink about how biblical financial planning has impacted his life and how it helped him discover his personal mission to end water poverty through the Water Mission organization.

Scott Linebrink serves as the regional director of stewardship, Southwest for Water Mission. He attended Texas State University before getting drafted. After pitching in the MLB for over a decade, Scott joined the team at Water Mission. Water Mission is a Charleston-based Christian non-profit engineering ministry that provides safe water and sanitation to people in developing countries and disasters. Their goal is to save lives through safe water, combined with the living water of Jesus Christ.

Nick Stonestreet is the CEO and chief investment officer of Ronald Blue Trust. Nick has more than 30 years of financial services experience and has managed a broad spectrum of wealth management businesses. Prior to becoming CEO, Nick co-founded and was CEO of Vident Financial, an investment management firm. He also served as Regional Head of Private Wealth Management for Regions Financial, worked at Merrill Lynch in several capacities, was chief executive officer at BCR, and started his career at Sun Trust Bank. Nick earned a BS in biology from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina and received his master’s degree in international business studies from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.

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The information in these podcasts is provided for general educational purposes only.  It is not intended as specific individual advice. The clients’ experience may not be representative of the experience of other clients and they are also not indicative of future performance or success. Opinions expressed may not be those of Ronald Blue Trust.

Trust and investment management accounts and services offered by Ronald Blue Trust, Inc. are not insured by the FDIC or any other federal government agency, are not deposits or other obligations of, nor guaranteed by any bank or bank affiliate, and are subject to investment risk, including possible loss of the principal amount invested.

Transcript

- [Announcer] Welcome to the Wisdom for Wealth. For Life Podcast. Let's bridge the gap between your faith and your finances. At Ronald Blue Trust we apply biblical wisdom and technical expertise to help you make wise financial decisions. Our goal is to help you leave a lasting legacy. In this podcast you will hear inspiring stories, practical tips, and encouragement from the Ronald Blue Trust family, with special guests along the way. Welcome to the Wisdom for Wealth. For Life Podcast. The information in these podcasts is provided for general educational purposes only. It is not intended as specific individual advice. The client's experience may not be representative of the experience of other clients, and they're also not indicative of future performance or success. Opinions expressed may not be those of Ronald Blue Trust. In today's episode, Ronald Blue Trust CEO, Nick Stonestreet, talks to retired Major League Baseball player Scott Linebrink, Scott is also the regional director of stewardship for Water Mission. In this episode they discuss how Scott discovered his personal mission to bring clean water to 1 billion people, with the Water Mission Organization.

- Scott, so great to have you in.

- Thank you, good to be here.

- Yeah, man. It's been a crazy journey for you from professional baseball to Water Mission, and just wanted to take a little time and walk through some of that journey.

- Absolutely.

- So we're coming up, it's gonna be draft time soon. What was your draft day like? What was your experience with baseball and getting drafted?

- Yeah, it was a crazy whirlwind for me, Nick, because I was not one of those guys that was tabbed to be a professional baseball player early on, even into my first couple of years of college. So from about my sophomore year of college until draft day and during my junior year, there was like, you know, a hint of a possibility of maybe getting to play and then going all the way up to, hey, it could be a first round situation, ended up being second round, but you know, not really knowing where we were gonna land. And of course, all of that that comes with it, with trying to find an agent and the financial situation with, you know, coming into some money and wondering-

- Right.

- How are we gonna handle that? And I remember, after getting drafted and the scout coming over and offering the first contract, and he almost presented it apologetically, like, "hey, this is just a place to get started, you know, we know we're not gonna probably get anything done tonight." And after he left, my dad looked at me and said, "can you believe that we just turned down a contract for that kind of money?" And so, yeah, it really started us on a path of "where is this going to lead?" And, you know, "we know that we need to get some good management and some good advice," and fortunately God provided that in a lot of different arenas, but in the financial services part, we're very grateful to be Ronald Blue partners.

- Well, yeah, we're so glad to have you on. And in that story though, you know, earlier in your life, like, what part of your spiritual formation, what kind of prepared you for a life in the major leagues?

- Well, there was definitely a good foundation. My parents, very faithful, took us to church. I was baptized and confirmed at an early age, grew up in the Lutheran church-

- Yeah, me too.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Even went to a Lutheran college, so.

- Yeah, I got kicked out over an ugly- yeah, it was an ugly bowling incident.

- Oh no.

- So Pastor Schmidt was right. My brother and I needed to go.

- It was a growth opportunity, though. Sounds like.

- It was.

- Well, for me, I think that really provided a place to come back to because there was a period of wandering for me, and it was really through the college years and the first couple of years in pro ball and really getting to a place where I knew that I was not living the life that I had professed that I wanted to live. And so I wanted to get back to that, and I think it was that foundation, you know, and what I trust for my kids too, the Proverbs verse that says, you know, "teach and train a child in the way that they should go and they will not depart from it," so-

- "When they're old."

- That's right.

- That's a scary thing, is-

- That is.

- You know?

- Yeah.

- Sometimes they wander and you're just like, "am I gonna have to wait till they're old?"

- Well, and I think about that too. Like, my wandering was definitely instrumental in bringing me back, but for my kids, I would hope that the wandering wouldn't go too far, you know-

- Right.

- You want them to stretch and to learn, but we don't ever want them to fall too hard.

- Right.

- But I was grateful for, you know, those years and mentors speaking into my life, Don Christensen was one of them during that time, and a lot of chaplains and fellow players, and so to come back to that faith, I think was something that was really going to happen, whether it was through the baseball career or some other experience, but really my professional baseball career paralleled my faith journey, and so, okay.

- Talk about that. Tell me about that.

- Well, so, you know, walking in into that world is really something that I didn't know what to expect, and so there was years of just, you know, really curiosity, like trying to figure out what's this all about? And so, you know, of course-

- Were you married when you got drafted?

- I was not.

- Okay.

- Yeah, and I actually wasn't married for the first few years. Things might've been different if I had had the strong wife that I have now, that I had early on.

- Right.

- But, you know, I know God worked that in perfect timing too, so. But yeah, it was, really, it came down to, I remember, one Bible study in particular and it was a teammate of mine that asked the question, "if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" And I've heard that since then, and that-

- Great question.

- It is. And that to me, just really set me on a path of self-discovery and, you know, wondering, "am I really the man that I say that I am?" And at the time I was not, and so there was some shame in there, there was some, you know, just a real desire to get back to being someone that my parents would be proud of, and not really this being an idea of an inherited faith or I'm guilty by association because I grew up in the church. "But I really wanna know what is it that I say I believe," and so I really liked the intellectual approach, I started reading a lot.

- What were some of the things that helped you, that you read?

- Well, one book in particular was a book, "Four Pillars of Man's Heart."

- Okay.

- Stu Weber. And really it talked about the four aspects, which are king, warrior, mentor and friend.

- That's great.

- Yeah, and I had those roles playing out from different people in my life during that time, and so it was really neat to see how God used that book and used those people to bring me back. But yeah, and just being around some great folks that really challenged me and eventually, you know, it was coming to a place of submission and saying, you know, "this career, my path is not my own. God, I want this to be something that honors you and you take it where that needs to go and I'll just do the best that I can to use the talents you've given me to honor you and not really worry about the results."

- Yeah, it seems, Scott, you kind of seem to put a premium on authenticity that if you're gonna say you're something you need to be that.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Where did that kind of come from for you?

- Well, I mean, I think that's something that my dad always instilled in me, you know, maybe a little bit of the Texas background too, you know, Texans are genuine people, I think, and-

- It's a great country-

- It is.

- I love Texas.

- I'm glad you call it a country. Yeah. But yeah, it really just, you know, I wanted to be somebody that I could be proud of, that others would look up to. You know, being in that position of being a pro athlete and having people look up to you and wanting to be someone that, hey, if they were to peel back the layers, they would, you know, uncover somebody that they really would wanna look up to. And so I knew as a kid looking up to pro ball players, I wanted to be somebody that would be worthy of being looked up to. And so, you know, maybe that was part of it, but really, it just came back to a sense of peace too, of wanting to be at peace with myself and not, you know, ascribing to something, and living another way or, you know, what was happening in the light was different in the dark. I wanted it to be consistent.

- Yeah, you can sleep well at night.

- Exactly.

- You know?

- Yeah.

- Don't have to, don't have to pretend.

- Mm-hmm.

- So. But as you went through that journey, when you thinking about going from city to city, what was it like the first time you got traded?

- Wow, well, so the first time we got traded, I actually went to the Houston Astros from the Giants, and so that was a really cool experience. Something that I was excited about.

- Yeah, you got to go back towards home.

- Exactly, and walking into a clubhouse, you know, seeing players that I had looked up to growing up and now I get to wear the same uniform as them. That was-

- Who were some of those players?

- Well, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio.

- Oh, wow.

- Actually had a picture of me and Craig Biggio when I was a little kid and he was a rookie, and we were on the field together during one of the photo days, so, you know, just to be able to, again, call these guys my teammates was really something special and getting to play in front of hometown crowds too. You know, we would have people come down and watch the game, which, you know, was a lot of fun, at the same time it was a little bit burdensome too,

- And just when you wanting-

- Getting those tickets.

- Getting tickets, yeah.

- Rounding up those tickets.

- But expectations too, you know?

- Yeah, right? Just wanting to put on a good show for everybody. Again, make them proud. And I think, you know, talking about the way that the baseball career paralleled my faith journey, you know, a lot of that also played out in just, hey, making sure that you're playing for the audience of one. You're not trying to live up to the expectation of fellow man. There's more to it than that, and God wants more than that too.

- Yeah, and what kept you, kind in the locker room environment, were you able to find other believers? Were you able to have Bible studies? Were you able to find support?

- Yeah, so that was certainly a big part of it, is that fellowship of other believers, chaplains too, you know, leaders that really encouraged me and challenged me as well. So that's certainly a big part, you know, just accountability with men, and that's something I'm finding even today is important too.

- Yeah, now, a career in professional sports is finite, right?

- Yeah.

- And so one of the things that I think about is people are so quick to criticize professional athletes and, "oh, they lose their money," and all these kinds of things, and honestly I think, you know, if I signed a multi-million dollar contract when I was 21 years old, you know, there would have been some amazing parties in The Bahamas and I don't know- how much money would have been left, honestly. It's just, you know, you think of sprinkling a bunch of money on to a 21-year-old brain, and it doesn't always have the best results. I think people are overly critical of athletes in that, is, you know, almost like if you applied it to anybody that age, you're gonna get some outlier events that aren't positive. But for you, when you started to make money, what were some of the beliefs you had about money and what were some of the thoughts you had as it started to roll in for you?

- Yeah, so I grew up in a pretty conservative household. My dad, both my parents were very generous, but my dad actually worked in development for mostly higher ed, but also for world missions. So I had a good foundation for charitable giving and the importance of giving back and I was-

- So now you're following in his footsteps a bit, when you get to that-

- Yeah, exactly. But I was grateful for that foundation, but I think, you know, probably at the end of the day, I would say that I was wanting to be wise with my money, and I knew that there was a short earning potential for this and so I wanted to maximize that, but also be smart enough to know that, like, you know, "hey, let's plan for the future."

- Right.

- And there's a family on the way, and you know, education and houses and things like that, that I wanna make sure that I'm saving for. So really, you know, if I had to say what the goal was, it was just, you know, try to try to make more than you spend and be smart with that, but also remember to give back.

- Yeah, you've been a great example of that. So, you know, you think of, you talked a little bit about stewarding money, but then there's also stewarding your influence and you know, your character as a person you've stewarded that carefully in the decisions that you made. But I know when we met in Orlando, I didn't know you were a Ronald Blue client at the time, we just started talking and then you told me your story a little bit about Don Christensen and how you guys met and how you came in contact with Ron Blue, do you mind taking us through that a little bit?

- Sure, yeah. It was actually, I think it was at the 30th birthday party for Lance Berkman.

- Okay.

- And I was actually talking with Don, telling him, you know, "hey, I've heard you speak at the PAO Conference, I think that was where I actually was first introduced to Don. And I said, "I've been telling a lot of people about you, Don, you know, I think you've got a lot of good things." And so after several minutes of talking and Don was just listening very intently and he finally asked, "well, if you're recommending me to so many people, why aren't you with me yourself?" That's a good question.

- It is. And I said, I think I said that same thing. At the time my wife and I were with another financial advisor, who was recommended by my dad, and so we had been with him for a couple of years. One of the things that really came out loud and clear in those initial meetings with him was that, and my wife pointed this out, she said, "I feel like he's only talking to you, he's not talking to me."

- We hear that a lot.

- And I'm just there as part of the meeting, but not really involved. And so, you know, they say that the Hebrew word for wife means Revealer of the Enemy. And that was a situation where she picked up on some things that, and not that he was our enemy, but she definitely picked up on some things that were a little bit off that I did not come to find out later on. There were some things that were not being attended to properly, in the end, we did end up leaving that advisor and going to Don, and just the change that happened immediately, just from a peace of mind standpoint, of knowing that things were taken care of and being able to trust that it wasn't just Don's advice or Ron Blue's advice, but these were biblical principles that were coming directly from the Bible, and so it was really easy to trust that, hey, what's being said and the way that we're planning is something much bigger than just one person's agenda or even a company's agenda. But this is something that God is allowing so that we can manage our finances well.

- Right. Well, it's funny you mentioned the woman's role in this, and I actually got a meeting tomorrow and it's with a coach from a top college football program and it's coach that makes a lot of money and they're gonna be leaving their financial advisor because his wife just always feels like he talks down to her or ignores her. And so I thought this was really funny that you bring that up. And so one of the things we did last summer is we did a study over the last five years of the couples that we advised, where the husband had passed away and were the widows still our clients? And so we had some interns last summer and they went in to answer this question. So they went through and they found 196 cases where the husband had passed away over the last five years, and 187 of those widows are still our clients.

- That's a pretty good track record.

- It's like over 95%.

- Yeah.

- And that's part of the ethos here was to always involve, because you can't have peace unless you're both on the same page, and probably that might've been some of what you felt, but the industry average is much less than 50%.

- Wow.

- And we're at 95%, but it's all because of respecting women in the process. You think that's some of the peace that you, did you and your wife get together on the same page in that?

- Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the quotes, to quote my spiritual mentor, also my financial advisor, Don Christensen, he says, "happy wife, happy life."

- That's a good saying.

- Yeah.

- That's a trustworthy saying.

- Yes. And I definitely sense that, you know, she has a peace, she's happy that she's involved as part of the process. Don was just in Texas a couple of weeks ago, visiting us, and we sit down and go through the financial plan and just, you know, knowing at the end of the day, that there's always that feeling after that meeting that we're right on mind, we're right on track, you know, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing now, not to say that there haven't been some setbacks in certain areas or some, you know, slide down periods in the market, but hey, we trust the process, we trust the plan, we know that we're working towards this end goal and we're still very much in line with that. So coming away from those meetings, really, it is just peace, peace in knowing that Ron Blue, that Don has our best interest at heart, and that we're not just being told, "this is the plan," but we're an active part of the process, and we can probably not speak to it as well as Don can, because he said, you know, "I go to bed with this stuff, I think about it all the time." In one way, I sometimes tell him, you know, "maybe this is a bad thing that I'm so at peace that I just trust you with everything- and I don't feel like I need to look at those monthly statements." But certainly, you know, he allows us to be as involved as we wanna be.

- THat's great. Now, he gets even more involved than just with the financial side. So have you ever been on a mission trip with Don? He's kind of famous for taking folks on.

- Absolutely, yeah. I think the very first trip we went on was, it was either Haiti or Honduras, I can't remember which one happened first, but Don has been all over the mission field and actually, before I was able to go when I was still playing and there wasn't as much time, he would come back from somewhere and all excited about, you know, a work that they were doing with the Bible translation or, you know, basic needs for a refugee camp or a medical endeavor for kids or an orphanage. And just knowing that Don had been there and put eyes on it, had dove into the finances of this company to make sure that everything was above board and that there was efficient use of funds, all of that research from somebody that we trusted made it very easy for us then to invest in the work and know that it was being used in a way that honored God.

- And then going and seeing the work.

- That's right, yeah.

- That's kind of amazing, when you actually see it happening.

- Well, and Don says this all the time and I would agree, you know, it really, and I don't wanna say it's easy to do any part of the investment, but probably the easiest part of the total engagement package, when you're talking about getting involved with a ministry, is writing a check.

- Right.

- For those that God has blessed with wealth and resources that we can give above and beyond, to write that check it's a very necessary part of the work that goes forward, but as far as the sacrifice involved, you know, sometimes it's almost, we write the check and we don't give it another thought until we read something, an email or an impact report. But going into the field, now you're talking about sacrificing time, you're talking about sacrificing comfort, and to go and see the faces and meet the people of the work that you're a part of, just takes it to another level. And so now the next time we give now, writing that check, I think of the faces that that's impacting and the names that go along with it, and just-

- It makes such a difference.

- It does.

- We were, is my wife's birthday this weekend, and so all four of our kids were in town and we were sitting around laughing and talking, and one of the things we talked about was we had sponsored children in Ethiopia and one of my daughter's super skeptical, and so the minute, you know, we gave her her kid and said, "we're gonna be sponsoring children, she goes, "dad, this is a scam," and I'm like, "what?" She's probably like nine years old. "Scam?" She goes, "yeah, it's a scam, they all have the same birthday." 'Cause she looked at all the packages, I said, "that's 'cause they bundle them together, baby, they don't really know the birthday." And so then to help her a couple of years later after we'd been sponsoring the kids, we actually took them to Ethiopia, took my two daughters there to meet the kids, and we sponsored an orphanage there as well. And when we were together this weekend, she said, "yeah, I felt so bad because I met my kid that I'd been sponsoring," and she said, you know, "why haven't you been writing to me?" And my daughter was like, "it's like the most shame I've ever felt was that I wasn't writing to that little girl, 'cause I still wasn't convinced," but then she's there, and the little girl's mother was dying with AIDS, and so then it was like, it all came home for her that, "wow, this is real, there's real needs out there." I think it was life-changing for her.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, and I've had several of those experiences too, you know, just the other day I was sitting at my desk and I was actually preparing a review for a family that supports us and is doing a lot of work in Malawi. And it's great for me because I get to dive in and look at their projects and say, "this is where we're at, this is where we're going. We're gonna report back in a few months, and we're gonna tell you the great victories that have been done because of the generosity of your family." But in putting that review together I came across this one picture that I just had to stop and look at it, and I just stared and was thinking about it, and it was this, you know, very primitive village with these mud and thatched huts in the background, but at the center of the picture was this, I mean, it looked nothing more than a hole in the ground and you wouldn't know what it was until you read the report, and that was one of several shallow wells where they're getting their water and it was 4,000 people in this community and there's a small pale sitting next to that hole and it's half full of dirty water. And I just, I looked at that and I stared at it and I thought, you know, "this is why we do what we do, this is why we serve people, and to provide a basic need, whether it's water, whether it's medical, you know, education, orphan care, all of these things are not only gonna serve them in the immediate, but they're gonna give us an opportunity to share the gospel with them too."

- Yeah. It's really an incredible part of your journey, and so you went through the professional baseball, I guess you played for about 12 years, and then you've started when we met, you'd already started at Water Mission, so talk a little bit about that transition and what that was all about, how you found your way to Water Mission.

- Yeah, well, again it was Don. Don, I think, was actually at a partner meeting here in Atlanta, and George and Molly green, the founders, were speaking at that and sharing their testimony, and Don heard them tell their story and he was walking out the door, he said, and he just stopped for some reason and listened for a few minutes, but he came back and he said, "I want you to check this group out because they looked like they're pretty legit, and they're doing what they say they're doing, they're an organization of integrity, and I've spoken with the founders," and so we did, and we got involved with them. But again, you know, starting with writing checks, it graduated to going on a trip, and that trip was really what did it for us.

- Where was that, where did you go?

- It was Haiti.

- Okay.

- So my wife and I went to Haiti and this was the year after we had retired from baseball, and our kids were young, and we even, you know, gave second thought about whether or not we should be going, or whether both of us should go at the same time. But coming back from that, I'll never forget, we were working on our house remodel project at the time, and when we left, there was decisions to be made about our master bathroom, and one of them was the shower, and I just remember that because when we came home we had a completely different perspective in a lot of ways, we were, what most people would say, we were wrecked because God had really grabbed a hold of our hearts and showed us something that we had never seen before and showed us a level of poverty that we'd never experienced and really learned what it means to help people, help them without hurting, and empowering them, not enabling them. And so all of these things were swimming in my mind and we came home and went back and just looked at that shower that we had spent so much time talking about, and Kelly looked at me and said, you know, "here we are talking about how many places out of the wall we can get water to come out of and how, you know, what level it's gonna, you know, is it a mist or is it," and she said, "you know, I feel so, I guess ashamed," but it was just, you know, why would we spend so much time talking about this when the time that we just spent talking about the water needs over here are so much more important than what this is here? So, you know, really that's, I think, what the experience for a lot of people, whenever they have that, you know, they just realize that there's something much more important. It's like the parable of the treasure in the field. When you see that treasure, when you know how much more valuable that is, you're willing to sell everything to buy that field because you know something much more valuable exists there, than where we ascribe value from a worldly standpoint.

- Yeah, that's so true. And what a great example with the Greens, you know, when Molly passed away a couple years ago, talk about being wrecked. It was just so tough. I remember we all just gathered in the chapel.

- Yeah.

- It was a tough day.

- Yeah, it was.

- But her legacy is so amazing, I mean, anybody that was around her just saw her energy and drive and love for bringing water to people. What was it about Molly that kind of struck you?

- She loved people. You know, every time I would call her, every time we came up, she would just, "oh my goodness!" And you know- just everything-

- She had that-

- In the world.

- Charleston charm.

- She did. Everything stopped so that she could come over and talk to you.

- Right.

- And I've heard so many people say that, "she made me feel so important, she made me feel like I was the only person in the room," and to see her do that at a place like our annual event, where we have a hundred or more people in a room and she could go around and do that for everybody, it really was a gift. And this last year, earlier this year, we were able to celebrate her life in a very cool way. And one of the neat things was that they found a card that she had written, her five values, the most important values to her and in her mission statement, and when you look at her values and how, you know, she talked about how God had given her an ability to develop relationships and help people to understand how they could honor God, and serve, and thinking of others always. Just everything that she wrote was exactly the way that she lived her life. And it was a real inspiration to know that that's possible, that God allows us to look at, "here's what I've given you, now, how are you gonna take what I've given you." First recognize what you have and then take that and put it into an actionable plan to serve him. And seeing somebody that had done that, you know, really, it was inspirational and made me wanna do the same thing, and I'm so grateful for the time I got to spend with Molly and all that she taught me, in how to manage partners and how to build relationships, and make people feel special, and how to take them into the field and show them what they're doing, and just completely engage them at a heart level.

- Yeah, she's so fearless, you know, it's great. What's a big deal about water?

- So water, you know, when you look at the most basic needs, you know, I tell people all the time, "besides air that we breathe, water is our most basic need." And when you look at water and sanitation, you know, really those two components are the building blocks for healthy communities. And there's a lot of things that communities need. I mean, they need shelter, they need food, they need education, they need job opportunities, they need medical care. So all of these things are important, but that's, I think, really why Kelly and I were drawn to this ministry, is starting with the foundation, and starting here first and building a foundation of water and sanitation where now everything else can be built on top of that. That makes me feel like I'm part of a process, not just in the water project, but in everything that's gonna come after that. You know, you think about a hospital, we go into some places and we serve, and they have medical care facilities that don't have safe water. You think, "how can a hospital?" You know, I go to a hospital and I think everything is sanitized, there's places where you would go to the hospital and if you drank the water, you would get sick. You would have more problems than when you came to the hospital. So it's just totally antithetical to think that, you know, these places that are supposed to be helping don't even have the tools, they're not equipped with the proper tools to help people. So by giving them that we can do so much more.

- Well, it's so hard for us to relate to in some ways, right? Because, you know, we want water, we turn on the tap, well, we won't even drink that water, right? 'Cause you know, maybe it has some, you know, a little kiss of chlorine in it and it doesn't taste exactly right, so we end up getting bottled water or the filtered water out of the fridge, right? So the way that we relate to water has nothing to do with, "oh, this water might be unsafe," you know, "this water might kill me." And yet, you know, there's such a big portion of people in the world that, you know, don't have the luxury in any way that we have. Where are your projects right now? where's the next place for you?

- Yeah. So most of the work that we do is in Latin America and the Caribbean.

- Right.

- Southeast Africa and Indonesia. But then we are also addressing natural disasters that are all over the world, so we have done work in 57 countries, but the majority of our program work takes place in nine countries.

- What's the latest disaster you all responded to?

- So right now we're in St. Vincent, which is an island in the Caribbean, a volcano erupted and completely destroyed the water sources for about a hundred thousand people.

- Oh my goodness.

- And this is not something that you would see a lot in the news.

- Right, no.

- Something you may have seen more of in the news was the recent hurricanes in Honduras, and we're still-

- Yeah, I remember that.

- We're actively involved down there. There was also a mudslide over in Indonesia, and so, you know, this is one of the things that I appreciate about Water Mission is I learn about world events more from the work that we do than I do from watching the world news.

- Well, talk about the volcano, how do you respond to that?

- Yeah, so I don't know how much I can speak to the work that we're doing there, but I do know that there was a situation created by the ash, you know? This particular island had seen several eruptions, but this was by far the biggest in decades, and so the ash that spews into the air falls on vegetation, falls into water sources, and so it contaminated the water source. But basically what we do when we come into a disaster scenario is take whatever's available and we can hook it up to our filtration equipment and we can make that water safe to drink. So if it's ash, if it's mud, in the case of The Bahamas, it was saltwater intrusion, and so that was a completely different type of filtration that we did.

- Wow.

- But we were able to take all of those contaminants or unwanted particles out of the water and make it safe to drink. Our founder George Green says, "there's not a contaminant known to man that can not be filtered out of water and make it safe to drink." And so we have that technology, we have the ability to do that. Really it is about awareness. It's about, you know, getting enough people involved in this so that we can scale up our efforts, we can resource the work and we can make this happen for 2 billion people that don't have access to safe water.

- 2 Billion.

- 30% Of the world.

- Amazing Now, when George and Molly set up Water Mission, I think they had, didn't they have a lab. Weren't they-

- That's right, yeah. They had a for-profit lab, environmental lab company, and they had built that into a very successful business. And that's what's really unique about Water Mission is it is a nonprofit, but coming out of those 30 years of for-profit business experience. George and Molly developed Water Mission and ran it very much like a for-profit company, but it is a nonprofit. and it's through the relationships that we've built with individuals and corporations, churches, other non-governmental organizations and higher institutions that are allowing the work to go forward.

- Now, do you get to go and kind of dig into the technology, are you with, like, the people who put the filters together and think of the different methods to clean the water.

- I'm kind of a hybrid, you know, I can appreciate the engineering and the technical side of what we do. I'd say for the average person, I have a tendency to get a little too technical, and when I start to see people glaze over- then I notice to back up and tell them the story about the little girl, you know-

- Right. I love the storytelling part of it.

- Okay. So, but yeah, hanging around these engineers and seeing the complexity of what we do and just the contingencies that are built out, it really, again, you know, now that I've had a chance to kind of peel back the curtain and look behind and see what's underneath, you know, there is some real expertise and excellence to what we do, and it's neat to see that, and why these water systems last, not for months or just a few years, but for generations.

- Right. Well, it's funny 'cause my undergraduate is in biology and I actually worked, I left Wall Street for a couple of years and helped set up a water treatment company. So I always like to geek out a little bit on the science, but tell me the story of the little girl.

- Well, so the little girl story, it actually is one of the first stories that I was told, and it was a community in Honduras and this little girl there that was talked about, it was actually all of the children, there was such a high infant mortality rate that parents were waiting to name their kids until they were a year old. And so, like this little girl, you know, she may not have a name for the first year of her life because her parents were worried that they might lose her to a waterborne illness. And so after Water Mission was able to come in and establish the system, now parents were starting to name their kids when they were born, because they had the peace in knowing that the security of safe water would allow their kids to not just survive, but thrive. And as a parent, of course, you know, it's unimaginable to think that I would hold off on naming my child, you know, wait and see if they're gonna make it.

- Wow, yeah, I'm glad I asked about story of the little girl, that's amazing, man. So as your kind of next step in your journey, you're here, Water Mission set up a facility here, I guess it's the Water Mobile, I don't know what you guys call it.

- Yeah, so it's the Mobile Discovery Center.

- There we go.

- Yeah. You have a much better, much more elegant mind- than I do.

- Well, it's really a cool experience. And what this is, this actually is another endeavor of Water Mission, Water Mission is still implementing and putting into place these water systems around the world. The purpose of the Mobile Discovery Center is to increase awareness and just like what we just talked about, and developing a movement of people. There's a lot of people, and just like you alluded to, you know, we have water security and so we don't think about turning on a tap and worrying about what's inside that tap, but that is not the reality for a third of the world's population, and so really this is about growing awareness so that people see that there are a lot of places on the world, around the world that they can't depend on that. So what are those problems? What do the solutions look like? And some of those solutions are ones that Water Mission implements, but there's some also some great water companies besides Water Mission.

- Right.

- And that is really the ethos of what we are, is that we're about partnerships, and so just like the folks that partner with Water Mission help us get the work done, the other water organizations we want to partner with us so that we can impact the globe. There's no way that Water Mission can serve 2 billion people with water, but there are some other great organizations out there that we wanna invite to be part of this movement. We wanna invite people to engage with this big strategy, big idea of serving that many people in a short amount of time, and we believe that we can do it, and so the Mobile Discovery Center is the tool to promote that.

- And raise awareness about it.

- That's right.

- That's great. Well, I'm looking forward to getting over to see the Mobile Discovery Center. I know my friend Chris Holdorf is busy with that as well.

- Yeah.

- So.

- And you'll appreciate some of the technical aspects too, but we say it's for people of all ages, we've seen toddlers walk through it and just be fascinated by some of the moving exhibits. It'll be a lot of fun.

- Now with your kids, what do they think their dad does for a living?

- Oh, I get asked that question a lot, "dad, what'd you do today? Did you just send emails all day?" But they know, you know, that when I come on a trip like this, I mean, I tell them, you know, "I'm out talking to people, I'm out building relationships and I'm inviting people into the field," and you know, part of the purpose of me being here is to invite some guys to come with me to Peru in November, and we're gonna be down-

- Really?

- on the Amazon, and we're gonna see some of these villages that are remote and cut off from any major infrastructure, and the work that we're doing to provide water for them. And so that's a big part of what I do is getting guys into the field, and gals, but also, you know, just talking about our work, explaining it to them, it really just comes down, again, to the most basic of relational levels, you know, the trust aspect, just like a financial advisor, the client trust, you know, that that needs to be there. I consider myself a kingdom broker.

- There you go.

- So you gotta have somebody that you trust to point you to good stewardship opportunities and that's what I like to do.

- That's so great, Scott, is such a, you know, Russ Crosson has a book, "Your Life...Well Spent," and it seems like you're spending your life in a really amazing way. Helping with an issue for 2 billion people, that's a challenge.

- Well, it's a joy, ad I've had a lot of great men to lead me and show me that, yeah, living a life of excellence is about more than yourself, it's about being a part of kingdom work.

- That's so great, that's so great, and it's great just getting this time with you and just catch up and hear your stories, and just grateful for you. We'll make sure that we do plenty of shout outs for Water Mission, and keep that in front of our clients, I know as we have our board out here, it's got the book of client stories, and George and Molly stories. One of the stories in our book "Faces of Generosity," and we wanna keep that in front of people so there's more opportunities for them to support the work you're given. So, man, thank you so much for coming and hanging out.

- Thank you, Nick.

- Yeah.

- It's a pleasure.

- Thanks, Scott.

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