Mother's Day part 1...

I've done it!  I've really done it!  I can now make tortillas like a pro!  My friend Marissa would be so proud of me.  This has nothing to do with Mother's day, I am just really excited about these puppies.  

Our first night in Kampala and we wore this guy out!  VICTORY!!!

When I found out that my friend Rachel was also a horse rider, I enlisted her to be my riding buddy for Mother's Day.  

We took the option of going out on the "trail" for an hour. 

After the minor adjustments we were off!

After a year and a half of not not riding I was thrilled to be back in the saddle 

I was even allowed to do a few laps around the arena just for fun!

I'm a bit out of practice and this was a very stubborn schooling horse that refused to lower her head...

...but alas, around and around we went.

And I was overjoyed just to be on her back.

And we finished with a laugh!

Dan goes drilling for water

We have been stuck in Kampala for the last week or so as we attended to some health issues.  In the meantime Dan, Emma, and crew began drilling a new hole near where they live and attend church.  Colin was not able to be there to help transport the materials to the new well site, pick the location, ensure everything was present and accounted for, etc., so the responsibility rested on Dan.  For all previous wells Colin has been able to organize the crew and materials, select the site, work alongside everyone else, and smooth everything out, and solve problems as they arise.   However Colin was not able to be there for the start of this new well and Dan got his chance to step up.  If you know Dan you know he is a quiet man who leads by action.  Dan heads up the drilling efforts in Obulle and is well respected in the area.  Dan is a leader in his community and people look to him for guidance and counsel and help, but he can come across as somewhat timid at times.  Often in social settings Dan remains quiet and reserved. He is one of those folks who is always at work behind the scenes humbly serving others.  Many times Dan takes the quiet almost timid approach  but it is in well drilling that we get to see a different side of him.  Dan truly feels like God has given him the water well drilling as his personal ministry.  He happily says that God gifted some for preaching, some with musical ability, others for this particular work, some for this thing or that thing, but God has given him drilling as his way of preaching.  Dan uses the well drilling work as his platform to allow him to share Christ with others.  Dan loves drilling and is quite good at it - he has a gift for drilling.  It is through the water well drilling ministry that Dan is able to fully shine and share with others how wonderful his God is.

He called Colin after the first day of drilling to inform him they had gotten down to four meters the first day.  That is quite a feat considering they are drilling through hard marrum rock by hand.  Some days they can pound away on the marrum and only get a meter or two, so four was pretty impressive We feel very blessed that God led us to Dan and that Dan feels drilling is his calling.  We are so excited to be a part of what God is doing here and to be a part of what God is going to do in the community of Obulle through men like Dan.

Dan and family

Dan during a day of drilling

End of April Pictures

Colin's new "pet"...Silas isn't so sure.

We borrowed a cat carrier so we could take Bro to the vet Silas thought he could get in.  Well he got in and couldn't get out.  

He was NOT happy about being stuck!

I really don't know how much he ate, but he made a fantastic mess!

"MOM!!! Please!"

Colin and Emma getting ready to spray for a new garden plot.

We have been doing Farming God's Way and now we are still using those teachings, but trying some new techniques to go along with those teachings.  This is how Terry farmed while in Bolivia and we are going to try to mix it with FGW. 

Jumping rope.  Silas really wants to join in!fs

Too much fun for one day.. 

Walking with Silas

Silas and I have been spending more and more time in the village in the mornings.  Its my most favorite time of the day here in Uganda.  Its cooler now that the rains have started and makes for an all around good time.  Last week Colin was working on a new garden plot (the last one before we start drilling!) and Silas and I got to take a walk. 

Just past the big tree on the right is where Dan and Rose live.  That could also be our future driveway someday!  

One of my favorite trees along the road to the shop.

Not everything is bigger in Texas...Ant hills here are on the larger scale.

My little man!  I just love him and these wonderful mornings we get to spend together.  

Way off in the distance you can see a small fence, it is one of a few wells in the Obulle area.  Soon we will start drilling in Obulle and this well will be one of many!

Silas will point at all the flowers and say "See!!  See!!!"

THORNS!! 

G-Nuts...Ground nuts...or peanuts that are just coming up.

Walking with Silas is fun...He usually tries to eat something gross, throws some sand or dirt on his head and falls into the only hole along the way.  We don't go very fast or very far, but we have fun along the way! 

recent Water for All International newsletter

Dear Friends

Did you ever have something just make your day?  Mine was just made.  With all the tragic  stuff happening in America I needed this.

Rob sent a brief video from Ethiopia of something we have been working on a long time.   Out here in Paint Rock we have been building and testing a very low cost pressure pump for our fam­ily wells and family windmills so that gardens can be easily irrigated, and now we are testing it in the field in Ethiopia.   Our WFA dream is to not only help families have enough water to drink, but to have abundant water for gardens and irrigation through the long Ethiopia dry season.   It just doesn’t seem right for families to basically be out of business doing nothing through the long dry season, living on meager short rainy season pro­duction.  And you can only pump so much water by hand.  Hand pumping doesn’t go far when irri­gating.  It takes basically a five gallon bucket of water for each square yard to put down

One of our test windmills placed a couple of  years ago in Ethiopia click  here to see it working today with our new higher  pres­sure irrigation pump

an inch of water.  So to do much of a garden you need a lot of water.  It takes a lot of work to lift water from deep in the ground, and then you have to haul the water out to the field. 

 So we are slowly figuring out how to help.  We have designed and made a family garden/ family livestock irrigation system that can push water where ever it is needed, under pressure.  This will allow for pressure drip systems, overhead, or even spraying irrigation.  We will see how large a market garden could be irrigated with the windmill and pump and maybe, just maybe the production can pay for a well and windmill.  The total raw materials cost for this well and windmill and pump is under $500!   Tomatoes in Ethiopia are pretty expensive so maybe we can one day help many families.   One day we want to see windmills and families pros­pering in Ethio­pia, Uganda,  Kenya (where James and Sarah will be headed in Janu­ary).  The fish farms in Bolivia are going great and many many families pros­pering from their wells.  Pray for us as we keep on working all this out and figure how to help families get a full system to come out of poverty and insure against drought.

I also realized I haven’t emailed you since I returned from Africa. Below are pictures from Ethiopia and Uganda where Rob and Almaz are just knocking a home run.  Six new wells last month  Almaz has started a school in Gora for first graders.  It was too far for the little ones to walk to school several miles away. Rob and Almaz have started true blue water clubs where families do their own drilling, right around the town where they live. Six wells done last month.   Yosi is great, and now helping the family that lost a dad in the accident.  Rob’s Oromo language skills are amazing and he is now teaching some in Gora and is just amaz­ing.

 In Uganda praise God Colin got his work per­mit and has learned to drill in the tough Ma­rum Rock. Here is another video link to see one of his wells that is helping a recent HIV widow named Helen.  Click here.  He and Ronnie are working with Dan and Jimmy and Emma to help them teach families to drill.  They are also teaching sustainable agriculture and testing different zero till planting schemes.    Silas the little boy they are fostering is a delight.  With the work permit Colin and Ronnie can now start the long road to full adoption.  Silas was found abandoned in a field and found by little boys playing soccer.  Praise God for Colin and Ronnie who are there to provide loving parents and a home for Silas as they make their life in Uganda.

In Bolivia we are setting up a well drilling and demonstration training camp from an old IMB place we are renting cheap and taking care of un kept kids in our church program called “Dulce Refugio” “Sweet Refuge.  Here in Paint Rock Jarrod and Lauren and  I are drill­ing, making gardens, doing culture, language, and bible study and making a windmill as part of the training and getting ready for drilling classes.   Jarrod has become quite the welder!  

Thanks so much for praying for WFA.  We need your continued prayers!!  The highlight of my trip in March was worshipping God with Ugandans.   God is still on his throne and the Yeast of the Kingdom is still out there affecting all the loaf, penetrating every part.   Pray for WFA that we continue doing our part.  Steve and Jerry and Silas all recently sent in reports of wells from Niger, Kenya, and Cameroon.  These the result of the classes we hold in Paint Rock.  Next class in in May.  Pray for us!  Below lot of photos of new wells from all over.

Water for All International

New family wells in Ethiopia right at the house. 

Another well in Uganda.  This grandmother  with a child on her back was pumping when we pulled up.  The wells are owned  by families but used also by many hun­dreds of neighbors.  This lady still has to haul the water home.   We pray that Colin and Ronnie can start a well drilling movement in Uganda and family water clubs so that each family that  wants one can have a well right at the house and  this lady not have to haul water.   Pray the Christians in Uganda too and that this area might that used to be so war torn would have peace and minister to each other.  There are so many orphans in Uganda.  Pray Colin and Ronnie can teach families to farm better and farm more and farm more of their land so that they can care for each other and all of the orphans.

This is Helen’s well.  Click to see it working in Uganda.  Helen is an HIV widow who has five kids.  Her wells serves the family plus many many neighbors.  Pray one day that our program progresses to windmills so families can farm year round.

Colin checking out a nursery of trees and vegetables grown with water from one of the wells.  Family wells provide not only water but income!

This is the very hard Marum rock at the surface that we must drill through on each well.  Sometimes it is 30 feet deep.

Another family well in Uganda.   People told us it can’t be done.  The material cost for every­thing is less than $150.  1.25 inch pump and 2 inch casing and a bag of cement.  The work is the hard part but  Dan and Jimmy and Colin and Ronnie are teaching families to do it!

This is an older well done by Rick and Sherry when they were there  2 years ago.  It is still seving over 600 people.  That is too many.  Pray  Colin an Ronnie and Dan and Jimmy get some well clubs started in the area so many more families can have a well at their homestead.

This is Paul of Global Care who are our host in Uganda.  Paul saw some of our work in Ethiopia and it is because of him we are working in Uganda now.

Global Care is a wonderful  old Christian Ministry  working in Uganda for more than 30 years.  They care for war orphans  and victims and do wonderful work around the world.   Thanks Paul for inviting us to collaborate in Uganda!

One of Colin’s zero tillage gardens he uses to teach sustainable agriculture.  This plot planted using “farming God’s way “ as a teaching technique.   Zero till allows fragile tropical soils to stop deteriorating and allows farmers to put more of their land in production with only a fraction of the work normal ox tilling requires.  Currently farmers must practice “shifting” agriculture only farming a small portion of their small acreage in a vain attempt to maintain fertility.   They know without thinking about it fields won’t produce  well if plowed year after year. (Three ton of carbon per hectare are lost each year to plowing in the humid tropics) The simple practice of zero tillage stops soil decay immediately and begins building fertility by making in-situ  compost as the ground is never left bare.  Compost is created all over the field by microbes  naturally as litter and roots decay.   We found sites to do experimental  zero till trials and demos.  A simple back pack sprayer and hand seeder will replace a whole teams of oxen and  plows and allow farmers to put more of their land in productions immediately.    We have been teaching zero till for small farmers in Bolivia for years.    It has been standard practice  all over South America for large farmers for years.  We  may one day introduce our zero till seeder from Bolivia to Uganda if needed.  It drove me crazy seeing all the idle land while people so poor.  To come out of poverty sustainable production must increase. Zero till will allow farmers to immediately increase their production for very little extra work and cheaper than plowing.   “Farming God’s Way” is an excellent way to teach  the basics of how zero till works for small plots.  I can’t wait to one day see much of the idle fallow land  around Soroti put into continual production using safe sustain­able zero tillage methods and families multiplying their meager incomes.  There is always so much to do.  Pray for WFA and Colin and Ronnie as they seek to start a well drilling movement plus maybe change the way folks farm in Uganda.  

Pray for Dan and Jimmy, Colin’s main helpers who are drilling and teaching families to drill.

Pray for Rob and Almaz too the home run hitters in Ethiopia!. 

Finally a few wells sent in from around the world from others we have trained. 

Jerry Ohs who trained with us has been working in Cameroon with Michal Toolan an neat Irish Baptists Church that is drilling.  They are also retro fitting our pump design on old out of service pumps and finding they work great and much easier to maintain.

Guys drilling either with Dave Rierson in the Gamia or Jerry in Cameroon.  I can’t tell which.  Both trained with us. Or it might be Silas drilling in Kenya.

Gary Mitchell, WFA’s great friend who trained with us several years ago went to help Steve in Niger this year.  Steve also who also trained with us has a group of guys working well in Niger and are to well number 6, I believe  (below.)

This well recently drilled by  Jerry  Oh’s and Michaels “Water For Cameroon” group from Ireland.  Ivo the young man we trained years ago in Bolivia also helped them get started drilling.  Nice work Ivo!.  Notice the fancy pump jack.  Groups we trained have discovered our pumps work fine for community wells to if one wants to beef up the pump jack.