Our water is not potable, that is, it's not drinking water, but it's fine for washing clothes, doing dishes, taking a shower and watering plants. This is because the water is piped directly from a river into the community tank that serves the town. They pipe the water from a long way off, like 4 miles, so that it's coming from a cleaner part of the river. To do that they run 4 miles of four inch white PVC pipe over ground to the tank. That's a lot of pipe!
About six days ago someone, or some people, not living in our pueblo decided to take a machete to the pipe and destroyed several sections. It was a lot of work to fix because they had to walk the pipeline to find the broken sections. They fixed the first section not knowing there was another area cut until they tried to refill the tank.
In all we had five days without water. One advantage to such a crisis that the people here have over how we live in the states is that they all have a pila (pronounced 'pee-la') which is a large concrete tank to hold water that is part of their kitchen. They use this water for cleaning clothes and doing dishes. So, they have a ready reserve of water at their house that can normally carry them through a short water crisis. How long will that water last? It's apparently about four days.
On the fourth day without water the containers of water we keep on hand for just such a time had run out and so we started what turned into many trips down to the river to bring up water for ourselves and several of our neighbors, especially the elderly.
We only took a couple photos and videos of our water delivery. The people were sooo grateful to get dirty river water that they gave us big hugs and even kisses on our cheeks, and we told each one we were happy to be able to give them water in the name of Jesus Christ.
After fetching and delivering water we were rather beat and when you consider the weight of water, it's actually pretty understandable. Each gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs. We were moving about 32 gallons of water with each trip which is about 267 lbs and we did many trips! Our muscles are sore, we're sunburned, our knuckles are scraped up from the plastic containers, and we feel great to have loved on our community! Thanks so much to all of you who make it possible for us to be here!
"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:38-39
"He (Jesus) said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.” Rev 21:6
I'm so touched by the ministry you performed, using the "inconvenience" of interrupted basic necessities to shine the true Light of Jesus Christ to those you have been called to serve. I have been blessed by this story and the professional presentation. Keep it up, guys!
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