Uganda - A Trip "Well" Worth It (part 2 of 3)

Friday, 8 May 2009, our next possible well location is around 45 minutes northeast of Gulu. This is the home village of Pastor Alfred. Alfred interpreted for me the day I spoke at the youth conference. He is a kind-hearted, engaging man who has a heart to serve God.

Two young men from Gulu Baptist Church, Kimara (photo above) and Martin, join us again for the day. Hal and I are teaching these guys how to do this on their own, for we will leave the equipment with the church. They are both quick learners, hard workers with strong backs (very helpful when auguring by hand) and posses a common faith in a great God.

Martin, at the age of fourteen, was kidnapped by the Lord's Resistant Army (LRA). The LRA is a rebel guerilla-type-army based out of Southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Uganda. They are responsible for inflicting great evil in the last two decades.


I did not ask Martin many details, but for five years he was forced to fight and at the age of nineteen, risking his life, he escaped on his own. The grace of God reached into the the soul of Martin, a choice of belief was made and Martin became a Christian.

I travel to the other side of the world, meet up with two guys who have backgrounds as different as our skin color, and I find I have more in common with them than many of the people I work with daily - the reason: we know and serve the living God.

A photo of Martin below at typical drinking water source.


A couple other Africans join us from a local village and we hike out to investigate the likelihood of placing a well.

A short twenty minute hike and we are ready to drill once more. Through my work back home, I have overseen the drilling of over 100 wells and not once did I ever think about praying beforehand. In Uganda we pray before we drill – I like it.

We auger down throughout the morning and the formation shows moisture, but not enough to yield substantial water.

We move to a topographically lower area and start the slow process of hand auguring again. Not much better, but a couple hours into it Hal heads of with a local who is going to show him a water source. We finish off the day with the same results as the day before: hard work to produce a four-inch diameter hole extending down into the ground that does not give enough water for a well. Hal brings encouragement that evening with the report of the site he observed.


Saturday, 8 May, we make the trek back out to our next location - not far from the previous day's location.
Two feet below ground surface, we hit water - not that big of a deal if the formation does not transmit the groundwater to sustain a continual pumping. As the auger makes its way down, and we inspect the material we are pulling up, enough sand is mixed in with the clay to indicate this could be a "producer". We drill over 30 feet below ground surface.

The sun goes down, as does our physical work, for the day. The church has asked me to give the message at their Sunday morning service; when the body of Christ asks me to do something I must have a good reason to say no. I have reasons, but none are good. One lesson I am learning over the years, or truthfully decades: my action is not to be driven by my desire; my action is to be driven by God's desire.

Usually it takes me at least ten hours to prepare a 40-minute lecture for BSF. My weekly effort for BSF includes a computer, commentaries, a bible with cross references, a wealth of wisdom from the men I study with, my wife and electricity. I have none of these as I sit down at the white plastic table in the hotel lobby with a flashlight, pen, paper and Bible at 8:10 P.M.

The next four hours in the dark are memorable as I pray and work through God's word. God is faithful and helps me get down on paper what I will speak in the morning. The sermon comes together from Numbers 21:4-9 - Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. The text sounds like witchcraft and, hopefully, will engage the listener. Most Ugandans in this area have spiritually come out of witchcraft and currently live among it in their villages. The symbol of evil, a snake, is fashioned by Moses lifted up on a pole and any Israelite who looks at it will be saved from the plague that is killing them. The symbolism does not make much sense until around a thousand years later when a homeless Jew, who is getting everyones attention through his incredible teaching and healing, is asked privately by a Jewish ruler named Nicodemus, "Who are you?" Jesus tells the Jewish ruler, "I am the snake Moses lifted up."

Sunday, 9 May.

Jesus becomes the snake, he takes on evil, my evil, your evil, he becomes a curse, he is lifted up on a pole and all of us who are dying need to look at this for life. Jesus explains this in John 3:14,15 and then he states perhaps the most well known verse in the Bible, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

The pastor interpreting for me continues on with an invitation after I finish and step down. A few people come forward to pray with some pastors - for what I do not know, perhaps God called them, they responded and they tasted the living water God offers: life through Jesus. One does not need a hand auger to get to that water.