Drilling wells in Haiti - our cold water challenge

 As we wait on The Lord for our future direction we have been taken in by our friends at Global Outreach.  They have given us a place to live, tons of support, and truly shown us God's love daily.  I was recently given the oppurtunity to take part in drilling wells with Global and an organization called Healing Hands.  We drove about 10 miles up and over the mountain to a community called Zoranger.  Zoranger is typical of what Haitian life is like, they walk anywhere from 1/2 a mile to 2 miles to get clean water.  They carry as many buckets as they can, they usually make this trip 2 to 4 times a day.  I am going to share with you this experience through pictures.  I will explain things along the way...just

remember we drill a hole in the rocks, God provides the water and sometimes there is not any.

We always start with a prayer asking for God's divine blessing for the people of the area and to give us water.

Here is Healing Hand's drill rig getting prepared in our first spot.

This is the support rig, carries extra drill pipe, water for drilling, and the compressor.

The drill is up and ready to go.

Now we are drilling.

As the drill goes down they blow air and some water down the hole to clear it out.

As we go the crowd of excited on-lookers continues to grow.

After about 4 hours of drilling and praise The Lord we have water!  The next steps are to ensure we get down into the water far enough to set a pump.  The challenge with that is if you go too far and punch out into a cavern you may lose your water.  After pulling the drill out of the hole we push 4 inch PVC back in as a casing, then we lay the pump base...

 

We drop a clean out pump down into the well to get all the sediment out from drilling, we also use this water to mix the cement for the base and to share with the local Haitians.

Level out the base, drop in some big rocks, mix up some cement (by hand of course), shovel in the cement..

Trowel out the cement, and let it set for a day or two.

Now ifs the fun part, pump installation...

After the well is set up but before we turn it over to the community our Haitians share the Gospel.  They read a passage from the bible, we ensure they know that God provides the water, not us.  We also pass out tracs and witness with those who gathered.

So this is truly a cold water challenge.  God provides clean drinking water for the community and he gives us the pleasure of building the well to pull it out of the ground. 

Matthew 10:42 And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.  NLT

These wells are able to be drilled because so many people have said 'yes' to giving; Healing Hands had to come up with $250K to purchase the drilling machine (some of whose parts are $100k to replace) and someone in America had to fund the $6K to drill each individual well. This is something the Haitian people can not do on their own but God's community can. 

Thank you for following our blog, please continue to pray for guidance for our family.  God Bless!

Pictures

I have started and stopped this blog about 5 times. I am just not sure what to write. We feel God has us at a crossroads between two different organizations; both would be a blessing to work with and we can see where we would fit in both situations. Yet we are still waiting for God's direction. His direction is not a voice in the wind or in our minds (although sometimes it is), but is instead a deep sense of 'this is right'. Not because of logic (although of course that plays into it) but because in the waiting, we can sense and hear the Holy Spirit's assurance. We are waiting on that assurance. 

The interesting thing that I am learning as I wait is that I believe this is where God always wants me to be. Not focused on the end results of my marriage, family, friendships, mission or job, but completely focused on relating to my God. I am reading "My Utmost for His Highest" and August 5th states, 

"A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God."

Simplicity, calm, relaxed pace...not dependant on circumstances, but only on my focus. 

Prayer requests:

-Pray for direction for our family. We want to hear clearly from God where he wants us to serve next

-Pray for protection; emotional, physical, and spiritual

-Pray for your missionaries. They need your prayers. 

The place we are staying has an elderly program. The kids and I have been able to be part of handing out food every Monday. It is a fun time of singing together, praying together, and connecting. 

Our fellow missionary friend is a big guy too (how many big, white, and bald guys are in Haiti?!?!). This is a VERY little van. :)

We found the UN restaurant on the UN base. Its cheap, has a tv, and has ice cream. This is the kiddos choosing their ice cream. (Its the small things)

Huge parking lot in Haiti, and the only three cars in it are around the tree. Made me smile. 

The kids and I had the opportunity to serve along side a short term mission team doing a VBS. There were about 130 children that were ministered to through song, sports, play, dance, crafts, and lessons. 

Sierra absolutely loves the little ones.  

This little one wouldn't smile the first day so I snuck her some oreos. As you can see, I won her over. What a beautiful peanut. 

This particular short term mission team really loved on my kids. I am grateful that they were so willing to befriend my missionary kids and encoraged them in their spiritual life. 

Touch is universal. 

Fun outside activities at the VBS.

My cute hubby mowing the lawn.