From Blue Community Ambassador Yvonne Brändle-Amolo:
A Musical Evening Service for World Water Day.
The musical evening service at the Reformed Church was a truly special event, held to mark World Water Day and to celebrate the church’s proud membership in the Blue Communities network.
The evening began with beautiful local and international music by the Urdorf-based band Crossover — including “Wade in the Waters,” “Ins Wasser fällt ein Stein,” “My Lighthouse” and so on — setting a thoughtful and uplifting tone for what was to follow.
Pastor Christian Morf then led the congregation in a meditation on water, drawing on two powerful passages of Scripture. The first, from Genesis 26:12–22, tells the story of Isaac, whose servants rediscovered and dug new wells after the Philistines had stopped them up — only to face conflict over access to water. It is a timeless reminder that water has always been a source of both life and contention, and that the call to share this precious resource is as old as Scripture itself.
The second reading, from Revelation 21:5–6 and 22:1–2, offers a vision of renewed creation: God promising to give the thirsty water from the spring of life freely, and a river of life — clear as crystal — flowing for the healing of all nations. Together, these passages framed the evening’s message beautifully: water is sacred, water is shared, and water brings healing.
Anchoring his message in local history, Pastor Morf recalled a time when Schlieren itself faced water scarcity, encouraging the congregation to reflect on how easily we take clean running water for granted. He called on residents to be mindful and responsible in their consumption, while acknowledging how extraordinarily privileged they are to have reliable access to clean water — something billions of people around the world still lack.
Pastor Morf then introduced the international project the church has chosen to support as part of its Blue Communities commitment: Project Amani, located in Kibera, Kenya — the largest urban slum in Africa. He explained that Amani Kibera is a community-led initiative by the people of Kibera themselves, united in their commitment to fighting poverty together and enabling access to education, vocational training, and meaningful work. Through the water project, tanks are built and maintained to collect and store rainwater during the rainy seasons, ensuring a reliable water supply through the dry months ahead — a simple but transformative solution for one of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Pastor Morf was also pleased to introduce Yvonne Brändle-Amolo, the church’s contact person for the Amani Project, and a Blue Community initiative Ambassodor, who was present at the service and available to answer questions and share more detailed information about the project with anyone wishing to learn more during the apero session that followed after the service.
The evening concluded with a wholehearted appeal from Pastor Morf, announcing that the collection from the service would go directly to benefit the Amani Kibera water project. He warmly thanked the congregation for their generosity and encouraged everyone to contribute, expressing his full personal endorsement of the project and the hope it brings to the people of Kibera.
