Monday-A Day of Miracles

We started off the day with a great devotion on the power of prayer, which we soon saw proved in our lives. The truck wouldn't start, and after three hours of trying different things, there seemed to be no progress. Finally, the problem seemed to be fixed, and we all gathered around the truck for one final prayer. The truck started with no problem. As Kevin said, "It must have been that last prayer." We finally arrived at the drilling site around 1:00. When the drilling rig was set up, and it began running, the drill was turning backwards. A quick phone call back to the States, and then we began to rewire things. 

Once that problem was fixed, things went fairly smoothly. The drill went down to eighty-five feet. Near the end of the day, the drill bit began to clog. We had to pull out most of the pipes before it began to work again, but everything is ready for tomorrow. Praise God for his faithfulness!

The kids club went even better than the drilling. About seventy kids showed up. After a good game of fútball (soccer), we went inside, where we taught them a couple songs and had a quick Bible lesson. The kids didn't want to leave!

Team 2- Sunday night

Today was our traveling day.  We traveled 9 hours from Guatemala City to San Marcos.  Along the way we stopped in Xela to pick up the drill and all of our supplies for the week.  On our long ride I was listening to the book of John and thinking about how our work this week will benefit the village we're serving.  Three basic things came to mind. Their eternal salvation, freedom from sin and the joy in knowing and serving Christ.  The part that jumped out to me was the freedom from their sins.  Growing up as a Christian it's easy to forget how destructive sin is and how great it is to be set free from it!  I considered what my life would be like without Christ and what sins I may had fallen into.  It makes me so grateful for what Christ has done for me and it gives me extra joy when serving Him this week!  The work we're doing here will change lives forever and free people from their sins.  What a great call God has given us!

Dave

Thursday and Friday

Thursday and Friday were both late nights and long days. We ran into some unforeseen complications as one thing after another either broke, or stopped working. Yesterday (Thursday) we started off the morning with our drill in the hole, at 195ft, and cleaned out the hole by circulating out the cuttings that had settled. Next, we removed the drill and attempted to put pvc casing in the whole. But somehow, our well had collapsed at 75ft. So we tried to push the casing down, but it wouldn't budge. So we pulled it out, and re-drilled the well. After pulling out the drill a second time, we put casing back into the hole. But again, it got stuck at 80ft. We did our best to push in the casing as far as we could, but I wouldn't go any farther. Thursday, we also had a great Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Adolpho's wife made us a Thanksgiving feast. A full turkey with mashed potatoes, meatloaf, pumpkin desert, and sweet tea. All of which were home made. It was a long day. Today we did not think would be a long day, expecting to finish our work in half a day, and have a bit of time to relax, but that was not the case. We finished our tower, complete with solar panels. We used the 80ft of casing we were able to put in (even though the plan was to drill to 200ft). We put on the pump, and watched it pump over 1400 gallons. A problem came up that when we dropped the pump to 60ft, it didn't pump anything. So we had to pull it out, manage it on the surface until it worked again, and put it back in the ground at 40ft. Working til late this evening, we had to work with a generator in getting the pump to work, because solar panels would not work after dark. We finally got everything working. Praise The Lord. Tomorrow we will be returning home, and Mr. Douglas will be going to Guatemala to help out with the next week. 

Our thanksgiving meal.

This is Mr. Douglas melting heat shrink around the wires at the hands of Mr. Adolpho holding a home made torch.

Putting metal galvanized pipe in our well. This pipe has a pump attached to the end, and is pretty heavy. So three strong men have to hold it from falling down into the well.

Our finished tower with solar panels on it. 

Putting the tank up before finishing the tower. 

Our team.

Thursday

We had a busy Thursday, with a 14 hour work day. But we made it, and are all alive. A few of us are getting sick, but The Lord is providing us with the strength we need to get through the long days. We will be putting up a more lengthy blog this evening, but for now, we have to go out to the sight to work. 

This is our work site last night, working in the dark for a few hours so that we could finish up some work. We worked last nigh until 10

Wednesday

Today was our longest and most complicated day. Mike woke up early and went down to San Pedro with Aldolfo and Stephanie to pick up special wire for the solar panels. This is a two hour drive one way. Back at the pig farm we had troubles with both the drilling and the tower building. For drilling, we we working on making the hole wider to get ready for casing, but our mud pump kept loosing suction which means we can't drill. After multiple attempts to fix it ourselves we had no choice but to stop working. Building the tower also ran into difficulties. We are using a new set of tower plans for the first time. While the plans had a few issues we made it worse by drilling holes in 4" metal plates that were too close together. This was exasperated further by a lack of accuracy in the drilling of a local blacksmith we hired. I was about to have 32 new plates cut and drilled with four holes each. 

Mike arrived back from San Pedro around 1 pm with the operation in total shutdown. After looking further at the pump with Aldolfo, we decided it needed to be taken to a local machine shop for repairs. Mike then looked at the tower and came up with a brilliant, out of the box idea; got rid of the 4" plates! We will have to drill 32 new holes to make this work, but it is much better than 32 cuts and 128 holes. It was good to have our leader back. 

The machine shop was able to fix the pump in a few hours and we were back at it just as the sun was setting. We brought over a generator and lights to keep working into the night. We were able to widen the hole about 175' deep and stopped working around 8pm. 

Tomorrow we will decide how much deeper we want to drill before casing the hole. The tower should be able to be finished tomorrow, Lord willing. While every day has been critical, tomorrow will be key for our success. Please pray for the Lord's wisdom an mercy. He has been faithful to keep us safe and provide excellent weather. 

-Krister

Me drilling holes in the metal for our tower:

Continuing to work after the sun has set:

A wolf spider. We have these in Colorado, but they seem to have a lot more here! They are nocturnal and hunt their prey instead of spinning webs. They live in holes and are harmless to humans. 

Six little piggies taking a nap. Can you count all of them?

Monday and Tuesday

We always need to finish off a day with a good meal, sometimes aided by some good icecream from the stand across the street from our hotel. The stand has one partly speaking English lady who is learning English from university classes. Along with Mr. Douglas's Spanish knowledge, which is close to none, we were able to order ice cream. Although pointing at the sign and saying "this" is maybe how we were able to get icecream as well... We have visited this stand twice, once Sunday night, and once Monday night.

We went to dinner Monday night at the famous "House of Meats" with Mr. Adolpho and his family. From left to right, Mr. Adolpho, Zach (Mr. Adolpho's grandson), Mrs. Mayra (Mr. Adolpho's wife), Stephanie (our translator and Mr. Adolpho's daughter), dad Foreman, Mr. Buckstein in the back, Peter, Tanner, Christer, and Mr Douglas. Mrs. Mayra knows English from weekend classes that she is taking at a university in San Pedro Sula, 2 hours away. Zach is in a school where he is only allowed to speak in English, but he speaks better Spanish. He is a U.S. citizen, and the son of Stephanie's sister. The house of meats serves one big plate that has all kinds of meat, and everyone takes what they want from the community plate.

Today we our pump stopped working at one point, and we had to cut part of out tube off, because it had a crack in the end. We pulled the metal end connector out of the end, and put it back into the newly cut tube. However, we could not fit the connector back into the tube. So we put glue on the end and set it on fire. We did this to get it warm and soft, so that we could force the metal connector in with a hammer. This is Juan, the hardest working Honduran I have ever met. And that is saying a lot. Hondurans are very hard working people, always very willing to help and do whatever they can for us. Juan is more though. He is constantly working, constantly busy, constantly picking up the slack if we let it down. He is very smart as well. Even though there is a language gap between us, he still can tell what needs to be done, and he does it. Praise The Lord for blessing us with such a man as Juan.

This is Mr. Buckstein and Tanner after working with the drill. There is a reason they call it "the mud pit". The drill spits quite a bit of mud at this point in the process. What they are doing is pulling the pipe out so that they can put a different bit on the end. Pulling the pipe apart when they still have some pressure in them is needed in the process of removing the links of pipe. These two ended getting even dirtier than this before the day was over. 

Sunday night

We had a great day began with a devotion from the book: Thoughts for Yong men.  Good discussion and then off to work.  Yes, I know it was the Sabbath but we dedicated our work to Him and got right to it.

There is no doubt that this work and Central America is for those who are patient and willing to be frustrated.

But with the said we are further along on Sunday evening then I ever remember being before.  After spending most of the day setting up and adjusting things we were able to drill just 20'.  It was almost solid rock for about 15 feet and then we lost all of our circulation.  We had prepared to drill into the evening but decided with our minor set back we would call it a day and go shower and have fresh bodies and attitudes in the morning.

The pig farm is encouraging no I think will be a blessing to those that are in the CHE program. After less then a year they have approximately 25 pigs from little guys up to 220 pounders.  The well will allow them to expand the program and start selling some of them to help support the CHE program in Honduras.  

Blessings to you all th,and you for your prayers and especially thank you to the wives and children that let their boys go play in the mud.  Mike D

Saturday Evening

We arrived in San Pedro Sula on time, but our local partner, Aldolfo and his daughter Stephanie somehow believed we weren't arriving for another week! After waiting a couple hours at the airport for them to arrive, we were on our way. It was a potholed two hour drive to La Entrada where our hotel is. The roads here are dangerous as witnessed by the result of a bus vs car accident we were stuck in traffic behind. After arriving at the hotel we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant. After a long day of travel on only a few hours of sleep we had a quiet dinner and were early to bed. Well, it was mostly quiet until Marty found a staple in his chicken! The things we take for granted in the US...

Tomorrow, Lord willing, we plan to get the drilling rig set up at the pig farm about a half hour from our hotel. Prayers that this will go smoothly are appreciated. Below is a picture of us waiting at the airport for Aldolfo. There is little here that can be considered under our control. While we "hurry up and wait" we learn to go with the flow and trust God's timing. A good reminder for the reality of God's soverence back at home as well. 

-Krister

Saturday 21st

We arrived in Houston safely last night at around 12:30 and made it to the hotel by 2 am for a few hours of sleep. Our flight leaves at 9:00 this morning. 

Thank the Lord for a safe journey so far and pray for safety for the team the rest of the trip.

Be praying that the Lord would bless this trip as we know we cannot do anything out of His grace.

-Honduras team.