November 2002 Adventures

We were blessed this month by being able to actually begin our ministry!  What a pleasure it has been to be doing the work the Lord had initially instilled in us! 

We began the month by drilling a well for the New Horizon School in Lambaré.  This school wasn’t initially on our list for needing a well this soon, but starting our drilling near Asunción was a blessing.  What could have gone wrong or broken did!  But, whatever the situation, the Lord was there to provide guidance.  We’ve met several drillers in Paraguay who have offered free use of equipment, ideas, suggestions, and just general encouragement.  Starting near the capital was definitely a “God thing”!  The School has access to public water, but the water supply is very unreliable, with frequent down times.  The School will eventually have 700 students, so reliable water supply was important.  This well was drilled to 250’, much deeper than we had anticipated.

As you can see, we now have an official “Drill Team”.  Esteban is Pastor Pablo’s brother and adds to the team expertise in general building as well as plumping.  He is also an evangelistic pastor.  He and Ed preach where ever we go.  Esteban is the typical Methodist revival preacher and always ends his sermons with an alter call.  Dilio is a 24 year old Paraguayan.  He adds strength, determination, and good spirit to the team.  Ed is the lead driller while Linda takes care of equipment, sampling, and note taking.

 For our next project in November we headed out to Yrubucua, about a 5-6 hour drive from Asuncion.  Our first well was at the guest house.  This house is used by work teams in the Yrubucua area and is mainly sponsored by a Korean Methodist Church in New Jersey.  They had a hand dug well which did not provide sufficient water.  We only had to drill 150’, which after the well in Lambaré, was much easier!  Since we did not have a local water supply (our rig has a water mud pump), we headed to the creek daily for water to use in the drilling.  It takes 50 barrels of water to drill 1 well!  The children were a great asset in helping with our water needs.

We have plans for more wells in the Yrybucua region.  Check out the section "Well Projects" to see how our different wells develop.

On another subject, Linda came back to Atlanta on December 1st.  Our younger daughter, Kara, had emergency surgery on Thanksgiving Day.  She had a ruptured appendix, and was in the hospital for 9 days.  This included celebrating her 22nd birthday in the hospital.  Recovery is going well, but it will be 6 weeks before she is back to a normal schedule.  We thank everyone for allowing us the flexibility in our schedule for Linda to be with Kara during this time.

 Ed continues with our original schedule of returning to Atlanta on December 16th.  We look forward to seeing everyone during our time in the United States.