Dear Friends
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First, another word from Eddie
“Thank you again for your support. I’ll be a spectator at an unusual football match in January. The away team may well be in AFC Bournemouth kit, but there will be no terracing, no stands, no tunnel, and probably no grass. It will be a contest between the team from a large church in Ouagadougou, and a team from local villages near a new well. It will all be part of the ‘thank you’ from the villagers for one of our newest wells, and the whole village will be present. But we have much more significant Water to share with them, as a local evangelist will share the good news of the Gospel. We pray their joy will not just be the ‘now’ of fresh water, but the ‘eternity’ of living water in the Lord Jesus. Pray with us!”
Once again, thank you for your continued support. We give God the glory for what has been achieved this autumn. It was an exciting journey for us.
Drilling update – 15 more wells!
Learning patience!
It was a bit frustrating at first! In previous years, it has been possible to start drilling by the middle of October. But this year, the ground was slow to dry out. Perhaps we were being taught patience.
The first three wells
Finally, Christine contacted us to say that some areas were dry enough. There were three places on our list towards the south. The drillers could go there. In quick succession, we heard that water had been found at each of these places. Here are two children who will benefit from the third of these wells. They will now be able to have clean water. Previously, they had to use dirty water from an open well. And for this privilege, they had to get up at about 6 am to fetch the water before going to school.
Water in a dry land
However, the more remote locations in the south west and west were still inaccessible. More patience being learnt. While we waited, we asked Christine to try a place just north of Ouagadougou. This is a dry place! It took three boreholes, but this picture shows the moment that the drill struck water. There was much rejoicing about this. There is a fuller account of this well, with a video clip of the water spouting out, on this link.
More blessings
And finally, the other locations began to dry out. The drills could be taken to the more remote places. It was still not easy. At one place, it took all day for the drillers to arrive. The people from the village helped out by cutting down trees and clearing a path for the lorries. At this village, they were also rewarded with water. One by one, the wells were being successfully drilled.
Over the space of about a fortnight, it seemed we had news almost every day. Boreholes were being drilled. Some in the west, some in the south west. We had only just finished recording the details of one and we heard from Christine that another one had been drilled.
The last but one well took two attempts. But the Lord blessed with water at 50 metres.
Just one left to drill
Then there was just one left to do. If you had asked us to put the 15 sites in order of need, this one would have come out at the top. These two photos show why we thought it so needy.
Finally, the drill arrived. Then there was disappointment. Two negatives! The need there was desperate. So, we asked another surveyor to go and take a look. We also asked you for prayer! Thank you for those prayers. We have a wonderful God.
The village chief wanted to make a sacrifice to the spirits. The pastor stopped this happening and the drilling commenced. It took all afternoon and then continued the next morning. The drillers went far deeper than we normally would – and at 134 metres, and they found water. We hope we will soon have photos of the new well to replace the two photos above!
We planned 15 wells. The Lord has provided 15 wells.
Please join us to praise and thank our wonderful God. And pray that there will be spiritual blessings following the provision of water.
The full list of 164 wells can be viewed using this link.
A village and church transformed
We recently received an email from Christine containing a testimony from the pastor at a village where a well was drilled a few years ago. Because of the security issues, we don’t want to mention either the village or the pastor’s name.
Here is the background
The drilling was unsuccessful and the drillers wanted to pack up and go home. Surveys did not show other places which looked any more promising. But Christine was very determined! She and the pastor persuaded the drillers to wait until the morning and to drill just another 5 metres. Then the whole village set about praying through the night. Morning came and the drillers started again and they hit water! The Lord had provided water for the village.
So, we were interested to hear how the Lord had blessed since then. Here is a translation of what the pastor said:
The pastor’s testimony
We received the well 8 years ago and it came at its time. Indeed, we received the well at a moment when I was exhausted. The difficulties of the ministry (this included the lack of water for us humans and the animals that we raised) had so weakened me that I had decided to abandon Pastor’s ministry in this region to simply return to another one. My family lived in misery because we could not find clean water for drinking or cooking. Sometimes we used the water from the backwaters but during the dry season, the water dried up and we had to move further and further to find water sources.
Moreover, my ministry was not progressing because it had been four years since I moved to the area but the number of Christians did not increase, there was no conversion. By the grace of Jesus, the well arrived as an answer to a prayer of many years. It gave us hope and galvanized us in our ministry.
All the inhabitants of the neighborhood come to draw water, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants. The church has become a gathering place of all religions thanks to the source of water. Several people come here to water their animals. Our entire community is coming back to life thanks to this well.
In our church before the arrival of the well we were around 20 people and now we are around 160 people. Our church was able to open 8 annexes. In these 8 annexes 4 already have pastors and 4 are waiting for pastor. We have even been able to send 5 trainee pastors to the Bible schools and of them, 3 have already finished their training and started to work and 2 are still in the Bible schools. What is extraordinary is that of the five pastors we sent to Bible school, there is only one who is a former Christian, the other four are men who converted through the wells ministry and who have received the call of God to go to Bible school. We are grateful to the Lord for the work that is growing in our community.
Of these 8 annex churches, there is one that has received a well and this well is a powerful tool in evangelism. This well being open for the whole community shows the love of Christ for all. We also received 12 sewing machines and we use these machines to teach sewing, we received masonry tools that are very well used and lots of other things.
Our prayer is that God bless you beyond your expectations.
God is, indeed, blessing beyond our expectations!
How to get to a village
These men are arriving to start preparing for the pump fitting. It is not so easy when there is more pothole than “road”. (“Road” is just compacted dried mud!) The truck with the equipment would not have made it. So, they had to settle for a car and one of the very versatile Apsonic trikes – a small cart attached to a motorbike.
This video shows a small section of the journey. The car had to take the side track because the “main road” had too many potholes.
Future plans
We have recently had three requests for wells in a place that has seen an influx of refugees who have been forced to leave their homes because of the security problems. Without saying where these villages are, we can just show a little of the problems. Here are two of these “displaced persons”. A lady and a young boy. This is 6 am and they have already been to the nearest open well for water. The young boy has school as the next destination. The fact is, there is not enough water in this well and it will be dirty. If they arrive later, there may not be any left. We are planning to help these places with a proper borehole and pump.
Finally…
Some of the trustees are planning to visit Burkina Faso in January. Please pray for safety in travel as they try to visit some of the wells. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
Myra’s Wells trustees