The Shumaker Family's Blog

Thanks so much for your prayers for our well drilling team.

 

Wednesday, January 28^th, Stephen Knickerbocker and I arrived at Pissila around 5:30 pm. We waited until 7 pm when the well drilling team arrived. We had a 20 km (12 miles) trip to complete in the dark. It took us over 3 hours to get to Ying-Toako due to the fact that there are no roads, and we had some big trucks to maneuver. We arrived, got some things set up, and went to bed for the night.

 

The next morning we were up eating breakfast at 7 am and then set up to start drilling. I have seen well drilling trucks before, but never have I seen them in action. What an amazing experience especially since I was able to help a ton with the drilling. After getting all the trucks and machinery lined up, we began drilling. The villagers came to watch, and, at times, we must have had over 100 watching us drill. For about 120 feet it was much the same thing. Dust was flying everywhere, and it was amazing to see the different colors of the ground as the drill bit went deeper and deeper. Then, all if the sudden, the dust began to die down and rock began to come out with a little moisture in it. Then it happened; water began shooting up out of the pipe. The thrill that hit my heart was indescribable. The onlookers began to get excited. I watched as some jumped for joy. We continued to drill deeper to make sure that there would always be sufficient water. After getting the piping in, they attached a submersible pump to a generator so the people could have water that night. They found everything and anything they could use to fill up with water. Every bucket, barrel, bowl, etc. was filled.

 

After finishing drilling for the first pump, Mark Coiller and Tim Wilson (the two in charge) came to see me. They said that since the people go so far for water, we should try to put in a second one. I was shocked considering the fact that they had already drilled 9 times in the past two weeks. Their record before for two weeks was 7. We drilled until 1 am. We hit water but it wasn’t enough for another pump. We woke up in the morning and attempted to drill further with similar results, water but not enough. We finally had to quit as we had already drilled around 240 feet.

 

After everything was done, one of the village elders told me that he thought it was impossible to have water at their village. I didn’t really understand what he was talking about until Pastor Simon came back from preaching there over the weekend. Simon told me that the women who came to church explained to him that they have attempted to hand dig many wells and also drilling rigs have come multiple times without finding water. They said that they have sacrificed many animals over the spot before digging and still had no success. The people were amazed that we knelt and simply asked Jesus to give us water, and a few hours later, water was flowing. They said that our testimony has spread many miles and from village to village. I just love it when God does the impossible. Please be in much prayer as I will be out there in a few weeks to preach and dedicate the well. In the villages it is rare that men, especially older men, will ever make a decision to accept Christ. I know that our hard work and the victory by hitting water has touched their hearts. I just love it when God does the impossible.

Praying before we start to drill.

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.