The Lord has been doing great things through water for life for the people of Guatemala. Through the blessings of generous donations from many individuals — primarily Art and Jeanette Fry and their company, Fry Industries of Sprague River, Ore. — Water for Life was able to purchase, refurbish, ship and import a rotary drilling rig to assist the work in Guatemala. This machine can do in one day what it would take one of our old cable rigs two weeks to accomplish. Instead of coming in with a report of 30 feet of progress after a hard day of drilling, a driller can make 30 feet in only an hour.
The driller currently running the machine, Seth Weilage of Council Bluffs, Iowa, drilled six wells in the first eight days of operation with the machine. This is especially important because the demand for wells has expanded as word of Water for Life gets out in Guatemala. We have requests from across the country to come and help others. We cannot possibly fill all these requests, but this machine will help a great deal toward answering that need.
Water for Life was again the beneficiary of a radio appeal to the audience of Shine 104.9 FM in Spokane, Wash. This is a Christian music outreach of the Upper Columbia Conference from their studio in the conference headquarters in Spokane. Each year, Shine 104.9 donates one day to appeal to their listeners to support the work of Water for Life. The recent appeal was made on Jan 30, 2019. At the end of the day, more than $22,000 was donated by listeners.
I am happy to tell you of the donations surrounding a truck to be used in support of this rotary rig. We received a donation of a large truck from Loomis Truck and Tractor of Lind, Wash. The truck needed some modification to suit our needs, and the owner, Wes Loomis, made the modifications at his cost. A crane donated by one of our volunteers, Jon Hansen of Tacoma, Wash., was mounted on the truck. The Lord put us in contact with a shipping company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, of Oslo, Norway, to ship the truck out of Tacoma. Brian Odell, one of their managers who has an interest in Guatemala, took it upon himself to investigate Water for Life and passed a good report on the organization up the chain of authority in this huge shipping company. He was able to secure free shipment of the truck on one of their ships, the Oberon. He even intervened and got the Port of Tacoma to waive the preparation and loading fees of the truck. The Lord wants this truck in Guatemala.
Further, Wallenius Wilhelmsen hired a writer to tell the story of Water for Life’s work in Guatemala. The article was featured on the opening page of www.2wglobal.com, the company website. Now the Lord is working not only as our shipping agent, but our publicity agent as well. Praise His name.
A truck readied for shipping on the WWOcean vessel.
The rotary rig is essential to Water for Life's efforts to get clean water to the people of Guatemala.
The rotary rig is essential to Water for Life's efforts to get clean water to the people of Guatemala.
Seth Weilage arrived in Guatemala from Iowa to help get clean water to the people there.
