I had no idea what a huge blessing easily accessible clean water was until I started traveling. Before coming on the race I had never experienced what it was like to be in the middle of washing your clothes and then suddenly not have water to rinse out the soap.
Water is a necessity of life.
Our translator this month was a man named Israel. He came with us to every service, every church, and every village. I didn’t realize that in meeting Israel, we would get to see the end of his family’s sixty-year hunt for clean water. Our stories intersected on the night of the 16th of November.
The 16th was the tenth wedding anniversary for Israel and his wife, but instead of celebrating with her, he came to a church service with us to translate. It was a great service. Our friend Brant gave an amazing message, I gave a testimony, and my teammate Jonathan led us in worship. After the service was over, my team started to pray over the people in attendance. Israel told us that he had to leave early because he had just gotten a call that they were starting to drill the well on his property. He asked for prayer that they would find sufficient water where they were drilling. In my American ignorance, I had no idea how significant drilling a well was to this man, his family, and his village.
Israel and his family before him had been trying to drill a borewell for generations. I learned that there are two main types of wells in India. There are shallow wells and borewells. A shallow well is not connected to an aquifer, and it is mainly used to collect ground water. Most homes in India get their water from shallow wells. Because these wells are not filled from an aquifer they run out of water frequently. A borewell, on the other hand, is a deep well. It is drilled two hundred feet down into an aquifer. Because these wells go so deep it is harder to accurately place them.
For sixty years this family had tried to hit an aquifer, and every time they had failed.
About a month ago the Lord gave Israel’s wife a dream. He told her that if they drilled for the well next to the Neem tree, they would find sufficient water. So that is exactly what they did.
At 10:30 pm, on the night of the 16th, they started drilling.
Forty-five minutes later they hit an aquifer and water started shooting out of the ground. It reminds me of the Israelites when the Lord made water come out of the rock. I don’t think it was a little drizzle, but thousands of gallons of water shooting out of the ground like a geyser. In two hours they had completely finished the borewell. Their sixty-year hunt for clean water had come to a miraculous end, but here’s the cool thing about the Lord. He blesses you more abundantly than you could ever imagine.
The next morning a man showed up from the electricity company. For the last year and a half Israel had been trying to set up electricity on his land. He had been on a waiting list for months and months, and out of nowhere they showed up to put in the electricity poles. The man said they had to do it right then or they would leave and who knows when they would be back.
Of course, Israel’s answer was yes.
In less than twenty-four hours two of this family’s biggest needs had been met. They now had a well that would never run dry and reliable electricity. Y’all, Jesus is really cool.
A week later Israel invited us to a Thanksgiving service to celebrate all the Lord had done. We worshipped and fellowshipped and prayed over the miracle well. I got to see the water coming out of this well with the force and power of God behind it. My team and I got to here a testimony of thanksgiving from Israel’s wife about the long journey this family had been on with the Lord.
Most of all I got to see how the Lord operates outside of time. I got to see that our prayers make a difference even after we leave this world for the next. In the sixty years this family had been praying it would have been so easy to get discouraged. It would have been easy to think that the Lord had stopped caring. In reality, the Lord had already answered their prayers with a resounding yes. It would just take sixty years for his yes to reach them.
I am so thankful that for just a few days, my story was intertwined with Israel’s. I am so thankful that I serve a God who IS living water and who GIVES living water out of the abundance of his love for us.
