A cup of clean water in Jesus' name

I just got back from my trip with Living Water to Guatemala. What an incredible experience it was! Thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts. In this post, I am going to detail the trip specifics and what actually happened. But in truth, much more is happening in the hearts of our team, the hearts of the people of Los Angeles, Champerico, Guatemala, the hearts of Living Water and my own heart. I am going to write some more later on what God is doing in me, but for now here’s the trip.

Our team was made up of 4 men and 2 college age girls; 6 total. We met each other in the airport Saturday morning, but the group dynamics were great. We worked well with each other all week and really enjoyed being around each other. The school in the village that we drilled in had a hand-dug well that was to a depth of about 30 feet. The problems with this well were that their latrines were only about 50 feet away and were dug to the same depth, which means that their water was contaminated and unfit for drinking. Also, that depth is made up of thick clay, which has plenty of water in it, but is very dirty and filled with fine particles. This means that the children get sick far too often, miss too much school, drink too many processed drinks (sodas, etc.) and limit their chances at a full life. This water well was much needed and will also be used for the rest of community as well, since they have similar situations with hand-dug wells.

Early Monday morning, we arrived at the school in the village, which is about 5 miles from the pacific coast of Guatemala, and began preparations to begin drilling. Within 15 minutes, all of us were completely soaked with sweat and mud. We stayed that way the whole 3 ½ days we were in the village, but it was never a burden, because we saw how needed clean water was to these people.

On Monday we completed about 80% of the drilling, which was a total depth of 180 feet. On Tuesday we came back, finished the drilling, and installed the PVC casing to a total depth of 119’, since the best aquifers were only that deep. We placed slotted screens over about 40 feet of total aquifer and gravel packed the well the rest of that day. The end of that day was spent developing the well, which meant injecting compressed air over the aquifer intervals to clean up the mud that we had put in the rock while drilling. All the water that came out of the well was injected into the courtyard area of the school, which eventually became a mud pit for the Gringos and children to play in. The well was estimated to be able to provide 150 gallons/minute! Praise God!

On Wednesday we finished developing the well and did the concrete work around the wellhead. Thursday morning we came back to install the tubing and hand pump and then had a dedication service. The local pastor and other people in the community spoke and we all praised God for what He had provided. After that we said our goodbyes and headed back to Antigua, then back to the states.

The plaque that was placed on the well shows that the well was sponsored by my grandparents Ray and Sandra Smith. They have been my example my whole life of what it means to give generously and sacrificially, so this well was in honor of them.

It was truly an honor to get to be a part of drilling the well that myself, my friends and my family sponsored. I can’t explain to you the emotions that rose up in me as Jorge (a man in the community) and I pumped that first water out of the well. It was overwhelming and can’t be put into words.

If you want to check out pictures from the trip click HERE.