What has happened since the last newsletter.
To download a printable A4 PDF version of the newsletter, click here. This will have less in it than is here on the web site as space is limited!
It is nearly five months since we sent the last newsletter so there is a lot of news to catch up with. Here are some of the items of news in this newsletter. Each point is a link to jump directly to that section …
- The well count has risen to 312. News of some of the more recent wells.
- Concert to celebrate the 300 wells mark.
- How to confuse a Myra’s Wells trustee.
- 17 new requests for wells received (on top of the 200 or so we already have).
- Wells celebrating a life or another event.
- A new volunteer helper to introduce to you.
- Security.
- Thank you for your support.
- Prayer points.
Recent wells
Zimidin Ypala
This is a photo of children at Zimidin Ypala from our visit in January 2024. Did they get their new well?
Yes, they did … It was 18th April when the drill arrived and later in the day left the village leaving a 60 metre borehole. After the water passed the usual test for purity, the hand pump was fitted and the ladies and children now have access to water just where they live. Notice it is the ladies and children who do the hard work. Except for photo opportunities, the men very rarely help with this task!
There is more about this village in the diary of our visit. If you have not received one yet, please ask and we will be pleased to send you a copy.
Saabtenga – What went wrong?
Christine and Michel are very diligient. They had been to a place in Boussé one weekend. Then we received the following message from Christine:
“Yesterday, on my way coming from Boussé I stopped to look at one of our wells at Saabtenga which was hand pump. It is no longer used because it is hand pump and as it is deep it keeps breaking.”
She also sent pictures of people waiting at water tower about 1 km away and asked if we would let her change our well from a hand pump to a water tower.
We agreed to do this and it is now back in working order. There would be no point in leaving the borehole to just fall into disrepair.
Bendatoega – Where has our pump controller gone?
In January 2022, Myra’s Wells provided a well next to a school in a suburb of Ouagadougou called Bendatoega. There are often requests for wells at schools – in fact, the way that Myra’s Wells started was with a well at the school at Zongo. Sometimes, we feel it is difficult to justify putting wells at schools because they might only be used a couple of times a day by the children. However, if the local community is also able to use it, we do sometimes provide wells there. This was the case at Bendatoega.
Recently, we heard from a friend in Germany, Bernhard, who has connections with the school. It turned out that the well had been out of action since last November! He had only just found out. Part of the electrical system that controls the pump had been stolen. Theft of equipment, especially solar panels, can be a problem.
We always ask the well committee at the each well to help towards this cost as well. The well committee collects small fees from the people who use the well regulary so that they are able to make repairs. Bernhard wanted to contribute to the cost of this repair.
Happily, the repair has been completed and the children – and local community – are once again able to have access to a reliable source of clean water.
How to confuse a Myra’s Wells trustee!
Just mention “Songdin”! There are many places in the UK with the same place name as others in the UK. Whitchurch is one example – there are 10 of these. According to one web site, the winners seem to be Sutton and Weston, both claiming 16 places. The same is true in Burkina Faso. However, it is not the case in the UK that they all need wells!
There are at least four places in Burkina Faso called Songdin – and four of them have requested wells. Not only that, but two of them are ones where we felt we should drill. It was very confusing. Christine must have been fed up with our questions about “which Songdin is the one that is being drilled at the moment?”
However, the net result is that the wells list now contains two varieties of Songdin – Songdin (Number 297) and Songdin (number 307).
Songdin (Well number 297)
This Songdin is a little way north east of Ouagadougou. Christine drew our attention to this place and we agreed that they needed a well. In this area, populations have been swelled by the arrival of internal refugees moving south to find a safer place to live.
This photo was taken just before the sun was setting. A little help from photo editing has made it just about light enough to see. The well is a very good one. There is enough water to sustainably supply 8000 litres (nearly 1800 gallons) of water every hour.
Songdin (Well number 307)
This Songdin is within the “greater” Ouagadougou area with a large number of people (maybe as many as 3000) having a round trip of over an hour and half to the nearest water tower for their water. Eddie visited this place in January and this is what he said in the diary:
“The day started with a visit from Pastor Moise Sawadogo, and a pastor and a deacon from Songdin, a place that had requested a well previously but had not been successful. The pastor was Paul and the deacon was Jean. There were 2000 people in the area, including 1000 children, with about 100 in the church. There was a big open well nearby which was unreliable. Other than that, there were no other wells around – the next nearest being a round trip of 12 km.
They gave “all the right answers” to our questions. They understood the difference a well would make in terms of health, food supply and for the spread of the Gospel. The Moslems and the Christians get on well together so this would be a further opportunity to evangelise.
This was one of the few places that we were able to say “YES” without reservation, and the well was drilled before we came away.”
These pictures (taken as frames out of video clips) show the finished well being used.
But that is not the full story ..
The first borehole here was only just about good enough to use. The supply of water was quite poor, not really enough to sign it off as a sustainable well. It was only on the second borehole that the “flow rate” became acceptable. It is from this second borehole that the water tower is replenished.
However, good as water towers are, they are limited by the hours of sunlight. This is not a problem in the daytime – even on cloudy days the solar panels generate enough power to keep the water flowing. In the tropics (as Burkina Faso is), allowing for time for the sun to rise properly, the pump will operate for around nine hours a day. People are very happy with a water tower – they provide sufficient water for the locals to fill enough containers (bidons) for the night.
Here, though, there is a spare borehole which has cost in the region of £1,200. It is not good enough for continual use, but if we had a spare pump, it could be very useful overnight. And Christine did have a spare pump – one that had been at Zongo school, but which became spare when we replaced it at Zongo with a water tower. So this pump was placed on the weak borehole and is now available as a backup during the nights. Recycling happens in Burkina Faso as well as in the UK.
Celebration of 300 Myra’s Wells
However hard and unpredictable this year has been for you, God’s love and His faithfulness is encapsulated in these 4 words – “Faithful One, so unchanging”.
Earlier this year we completed our 300th water project in Burkina Faso. Most of these wells are equipped with hand pumps, but more recently, a good number of wells have been completed with solar pumps, a water tower, and taps. Just like home? Well not quite. There will only be 2 or 3 taps for a whole village.
We wanted to celebrate this milestone with something more than just words. So, when the church at St. Mary’s, Longfleet, Poole (known as SML) offered us the use of their beautiful church building, we were delighted. We were even more delighted when we were able to have the Christian singer, Philippa Hanna, and her band, come to perform for us. In case you do not know Philippa, here is a link which will redirect you to her singing one of her songs https://tinyurl.com/MWPH300. Philippa also shared her testimony, how that, when far from God, and depressed, she walked into a church, attracted by the sound of enthusiastic praise. And became a Christian.
To add to the occasion, Christine and her husband Michel were with us from Burkina Faso having been in Enniskillen for an International Bible Educational Services conference. Here they are with Philippa in Poole.
All the costs of this event were specifically donated for the purpose, so all money received from tickets, together with gifts on the night and subsequently, will go to our next projects. We have had 3 wells donated since the concert, one of which was from someone who said that when Christine spoke briefly, she felt the Spirit prompting her to pay for a well, and she did.
And there will be more to come. That is the way it happens. I often think that it cannot go on like this with no appeals, no advertising. But The Lord proves me wrong. God is indeed Jehovah Jireh (The Lord who provides)!
Myra’s Wells trustees are planning to organise another concert early in 2025 to help increase peoples’ awareness of what God has done through this ministry since 2006. It is expected to be in Market Harborough so easily accessible from most of the Midlands. Let us know at info@myraswells.org if you want to be updated.
More new requests received.
We will very soon be deciding upon the places where we plan to restart drilling in mid to late October. In addition to the 200 or so requests that we still have, 17 more have recently been added to the list. We still have to check the accuracy of the information we have been forgiven – sometimes it is less accurate than we would expect! However, this is what we have been told about three of these places:
Watigué-Louré
80 families, comprising over 400 people as using water from this open well.
Manessa
Large population with many having to rely on this open well
Nandoli
About 40 families which often means up to 300 people (or more). They are not always allowed to use a hand pump which is about 20 minutes walk with a queue to use it. So they may have to use whatever other water is available.
Meet Natalie
Some, though not all, of the trustees are getting older! We are always looking for a younger generation to help us out (including in the visits to Burkina Faso). So we are very pleased to be able to welcome Natalie as a volunteer. She has been helping out with some of the admin for a couple of years, but has now started to help specifically with the acknowledgement of gifts and donations. Natalie is a member of the the church at Bere Regis. She is married with two young girls, a baby boy and a (nearly) full-time job. We would like to acknowledge the time she is prepared to give to help with this work.
Wells celebrating a life or another event
Here is how a goo d number of our wells have been funded
Security
The security situation continues to be a concern. Despite the efforts being made by the current military régime, there are estimates that about 50% of the country is not under complete government control.
This was highlighted recently in a very tragic incident. The intelligence agency heard talk of an attack being planned on Barsalogho – a town about 90 miles north-east of Ouagadougou. They started to make preparations to defend the town and enlisted (or maybe forced) help from civilians from the town to dig trenches a few kilometres to the north. However, as they were doing this, the jihadists arrived on motorbikes and killed over 200 of the civilians, injuring many more.
Please pray that these tragic acts will be brought to an end.
Thank you for your support
Thank you to all who continue to support the work of Myra’s Wells, whether on a regular basis or with one-off gifts. We regard all funds “as from the Lord” and ask for prayer as we make decisions about where and how we spend the money.
Overseas donations
For donations from overseas, we have an account which can accept USD and EUR donations. Please ask for details if you are considering donating in these currencies.
Legacies
For any considering legacies, we would also be pleased to give help if that is needed.
Prayer Points
- Praise for the wells that have been drilled recently and all who have become Christians as a result of wells being drilled.
- Pray for wisdom as we decide on the places where we will drill with the funds available this autumn.
- Pray for the local pastors as they seek to use the wells as a means of sharing the gospel.
- Pray for the safety for the drilling teams in areas where security is not guaranteed, and pray that the security situation will very soon improve.
- Pray that the well committees will take their responsibilities seriously.
- Pray for the safety of Christine and her helpers based in Ouagadougou.
- Pray for wisdom in making decisions about which places are the most in need of water.