The Story of The Widow's Well

I had posted on facebook yesterday that prayers were needed.  Thank you to everyone that petitioned on the behalf of Colin and the crew drilling yesterday.  I can't even being to express how thankful we are to have such wonderful support, and I was again reminded of that yesterday after I hit the "post" button.  So I thought I would sit down and try and explain why this well has been a bit more stressful than the ones before it. 

This well was a "sponsored" well.  Some people wanted to donate money to go towards a well and we let the church pick where it went.  This would also be Emma's first well as boss and the first well that the drilling crew would be getting paid for.  Emma is a very easygoing, quiet man, and sometimes those are traits that can prove difficult for someone that is in charge of a group of men.  There were a few days where some of the guys just flat out did not work near as much as they should have.  That in itself was strange because this group of guys has been so hard working up to this point and doing it for no money, so now when they are getting paid they show up and are not really working like they should.  I think Emma let it slide for a good part of a day, and at the end of the day he sat down and called them on it.  The days following have been much better and I was proud of Emma for the way he ended up handling the situation.  

Since this is a paying gig, Emma needed to figure up how many days he thought this well would take so they could budget the cost of everything.  He figured 6 days would be enough.  So food was bought for six days and he figured out what it was going to cost to pay all his guys for 6 days as well.  Well yesterday was day 8.  They hit hard marrum (rock) and were on that for three days before breaking through to clay and sand.  At the end of day three (15.5 meters deep) one of the plastic drill pipes broke and Dan and Emma had to fish it out on Saturday.  When day four started they put the pipe in the ground and the hole was unobstructed to a depth of 6 meters, so that meant that the hole had collapsed over the weekend.  Day five they started and the hole was clear  to 11 meters.  So both days they had to re-drill what they had previoisly drilled.  Day six they showed up and the hole was clear all the way to 15 meters - so no re-drilling had to be done!  They hit a hard rock (quartz) at 15.5 meters.  On day seven they were able to start right where they had left off the day before, but the hard rock did not allow them to advance much more than a couple of inches.  However they had trouble again on day seven.  The hole collapsed again and this time it fell in around the metal drill pipe at the bottom of the hole.  In trying to hoist it out with a chain block, the chain broke along with the 1" blue pvc pipe about 2 1/2 feet below the surface.  Needless to say, by the time I arrived out at the site (Colin had gone on the dirt bike before me) morale was low...  They had had many struggles with this project and were spending a great deal of time fishing out broken parts and when they were fishing out parts they were breaking them on the hard rock.  

I went to our garden to weed and just kept praying.  I have no idea how they ever got the pipe unstuck, but within an hour Colin sent me a text message that said they were drilling again!!  

Now onto day 8...and we are still on the hard hard rock.  They are just over 16 meters down and have been drilling through a quartz type rock.  Colin has advised Emma to only go for two more days.  After two days we will either be through the rock or not, but either way we will case it and pray that it makes a good well.  

When I talked to Colin yesterday on the phone, he just sounded tired.  He told me that he thought that everyone was just ready for a day off and he was also ready for some rest.  Given how the other wells have gone, this one seemed like it would be pretty easy.  But as you have read, that has not been the case.   

This is the location of the widow's well.  You can see one of her homes in the background.  She has one other that is just a bit bigger than the one pictured.  These two homes house many children and adults all at the kindness of the old woman.

When we celebrated the birth of Emma's baby, named Colin, and the success of his well, the old widow came to the party!  She was not about to miss out on free food and fun!  Charles introduced her and asked her to lead us in a song, so here she is dancing and praising God with a song and a wicked sweet dance!  

I have no doubt that the old lady is a believer in Christ and that we will meet one day in heaven.  Colin has told me that there have been other struggles with this well besides the well itself.  This old lady has many children that live with her, along with her granddaughter and the granddaughter's ex-mother-in-law, and maybe a one other younger woman.  There is a feeling of "everyone fend for themselves" around the home and that means that this old lady does not have anyone cooking or taking care of her.  There seems to be a lot of bickering and quarrelling among the younger ladies and much of it directed towards the old widow.  From what I have seen while I've been at the site, the old lady keeps to herself and usually has a  little one on her lap or near by.  She stays out of the mess that the other ladies are in and loves on the kids.  This woman also is a wonderful picture of grace because while her children and grandchildren are awful towards one another and her, she continues to allow them to live with her and she no doubt loves them.  They extended family is no very loveable, yet she gives them love and kindness.  I am so thankful for this old woman and will continue to pray for the success of this well.  I will again ask that you continue to keep this situation in your prayers too.  This is a great opportunity for us to show Christ like love to these ladies and their children, so I pray we don't miss it!