Ten years ago, I prayed for a special village to serve the Lord with my wife Trish. I asked Him for inhabitants of Mayan decent, a cool climate, and of course, electricity. I figured WATER was a given. We planned to teach the people how to live clean, but they taught us to live with little water. The women and children of Panimaquin suffer from lack of water (one barrel every three days). When water is especially scarce, they must walk down a dangerous ravine to the spring to wash their clothes and gather pitchers of water. On Saturday, they put a tub of heated water in the kitchen. It's family bath time!

Each year, we asked for $25,000 for a mechanical well. After a long pause----------- a question.  Have any other needs????   Pastor Teddie called last year while we were in the U.S. "Are you sitting down?" he asked, "Aunt Jenny, a Christian from Michigan, has donated the funds for your well!"

After four months, the drilling rig finally arrived. Things moved quickly---the ground was soft and we didn't hit rock. The well was dug in one week! It has been tested and should pump 20gal/min. We plan to install the pump April 19th. We thank everyone for the prayers that made this well possible.
 

Thanks Aunt Jenny, "I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink!"

The three men who worked the rig have drilled wells for over twelve years

Every  ten feet they take samples and determine in what soil they find water.

The steel arrives

Our well was drilled 350ft. Fifteen of the eight inch steel pipes were sliced on the sides to allow the water to filter through

Each pipe was welded together and lowered down

The drilled hole was 12 inches in diameter, leaving four inches of space for fill. Four cubic meters of washed gravel was dropped down the outside of the pipe to act as a filter to keep the mud out.

Compressed air was forced down the well. The result was, the muddy water left from the drilling gushed out. This is one of the tests they use to determine how much water the well will deliver.

It doesn't look like much, but we welded a cap on the well until the pump is ready to be installed