3ABN Today

Water for Life

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

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Series Code: TDY

Program Code: TDY190026A


00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people
00:12 I want to spend my life
00:18 Removing pain
00:23 Lord, let my words
00:30 Heal a heart that hurts
00:34 I want to spend my life
00:40 Mending broken people
00:45 I want to spend my life
00:51 Mending broken people
01:10 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn
01:11 and we welcome you once again to 3ABN Today,
01:16 and who are you?
01:17 I'm JD Quinn.
01:18 I'm glad to be in this seat right here.
01:20 I'm glad to have you here.
01:22 You know, we want to just take a moment
01:23 to thank you so much for your prayers
01:25 and your financial support of this ministry.
01:28 This is the Mending Broken People Network
01:31 and you know you talk to them all day long, broken people?
01:35 Amen. Well.
01:37 A lot of people call in for prayers and we're just,
01:39 we're pleased that we are able to share words of encouragement
01:42 coming directly from the Bible.
01:44 Amen. Amen.
01:45 Before I introduce our guests,
01:46 let me read to you one of my favorite scriptures.
01:49 I remember when, when this one became very important to me.
01:53 I was having a little bit of a difficult time
01:56 thinking about some things from the past.
01:59 I grew up in a dysfunctional home
02:00 and there were some things that were bothering me.
02:03 And the Lord brought this scripture to my mind.
02:06 Isaiah 43, I'll begin with verse 18.
02:09 He says, "Do not remember the former things,
02:12 nor consider the things of old.
02:15 Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth."
02:20 God is the God of new beginnings.
02:22 And then he says, "Shall you not know it?
02:25 I will even make a road in the wilderness
02:28 and rivers in the desert.
02:29 The beast of the field will honor Me,
02:31 the jackals and the ostriches,
02:34 because I give waters in the wilderness
02:39 and rivers in the desert,
02:41 to give drink to My people, My chosen."
02:45 Amen.
02:46 You know, Jesus said He's the water of life,
02:49 the living water, the Holy Spirit,
02:51 how we need God's living water.
02:55 And today we're going to be talking about "Water."
02:59 Not just spiritual water, but physical water.
03:03 And we've got some wonderful guests with us.
03:06 Let me introduce them.
03:07 Tim, you are no stranger to 3ABN,
03:10 and I think I've interviewed you
03:11 three times maybe.
03:13 I think you have and we're happy to be here.
03:15 This is my wife Annette.
03:16 Well, Tim and Annette Rasmussen
03:19 and you are the President of Water for Life.
03:23 Annette, you're a volunteer,
03:26 you work side by side with your husband.
03:28 And we're going to hear this exciting ministry.
03:33 You all are so inspiring and making such a difference
03:37 in so many people's lives.
03:39 But first we know how much you love music.
03:42 We love it too.
03:43 So, honey, who's going to sing for us today?
03:46 We've got Scott Michael Bennett.
03:48 He's gonna be singing "How Deep the Father's Love."
03:51 Amen.
04:06 How deep the Father's love for us
04:12 How vast beyond all measure
04:18 That He should give His only Son
04:24 To make a wretch His treasure
04:30 How great the pain of searing loss
04:37 The Father turns His face away
04:43 As wounds which mar the Chosen One
04:49 Bring many sons to glory
04:58 Behold the Lamb upon the cross
05:03 My sin upon His shoulders
05:10 Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
05:16 Call out among the scoffers
05:21 It was my sin that held Him there
05:27 Until it was accomplished
05:33 His dying breath has brought me life
05:39 I know that it is finished
05:48 I will not boast in anything
05:54 No gifts, no power, no wisdom
05:59 But I will boast in Jesus Christ
06:05 His death and resurrection
06:11 Why should I gain from His reward?
06:17 I cannot give an answer
06:23 But this I know with all my heart
06:30 His wounds have paid my ransom
06:35 Why should I gain from His reward?
06:42 I cannot give an answer
06:47 But this I know with all my heart
06:54 His wounds have paid my ransom
07:00 But this I know with all my heart
07:07 His wounds have paid my ransom
07:29 Thank you, Scott Michael Bennett.
07:31 Yes. A beautiful song.
07:32 Very good. Very good.
07:34 He's a minister of music. Amen.
07:35 Well, if you're joining us just a moment late,
07:37 our special guests are Tim and Annette Rasmussen
07:41 and they are with Water for Life.
07:43 But before we talk about and explain
07:47 what Water for Life is,
07:49 let's kind of get to know the two of you a little bit.
07:52 I'm gonna begin with you, Tim, you are a district attorney,
07:55 where?
07:57 I'm the elected district attorney
07:58 for St evens County, Washington.
08:00 And you?
08:01 It's a county from Spokane that goes up to the Canadian border,
08:03 about 45,000 people,
08:05 one of the 39 counties in Washington.
08:07 Oh, it's always nice
08:08 to have a personal friend who's a DA.
08:10 Well, if you ever get a ticket, I can fix you out,
08:12 just a little, can't do much but I can fix a ticket.
08:15 I should look at it. Yes.
08:16 You know, tell us a little bit about your physical condition
08:20 because I know,
08:21 I think the last time you were here,
08:23 you were in a wheelchair.
08:25 You suffered polio as a child?
08:28 When I was three, I was living in Michigan,
08:31 and I had polio,
08:33 and that was in 1951.
08:35 And like many people, it was a terrible disease
08:38 and they didn't know how to treat it very much.
08:41 And I was left with a residual weakness
08:43 on the right side of my body,
08:44 particularly it affected my right leg.
08:46 And through the years I became more and more handicapped
08:50 until probably 35 years ago, I started using a cane,
08:54 and then two canes, and then crutches,
08:56 and then about four years in a wheelchair,
08:59 but about three years ago I went to,
09:01 I found a doctor in Seattle
09:03 and went over to a foot and ankle institute.
09:06 And this older fellow, he knew what to do.
09:09 He reshaped some of the bones in my foot,
09:11 put a bunch of metal in there and move some tendons around
09:15 and I'm walking better than I have for 30 years.
09:17 I know, I was just so amazed to see you today.
09:20 I can stand, I can walk,
09:21 I can move around, I don't have to...
09:23 For years I was in a wheelchair and people at work
09:26 when I'm walking, they say, I didn't know you were tall.
09:28 Yeah.
09:30 That's 'cause I've been in that wheelchair for years.
09:33 But, yes, technology and the Lord
09:36 has provided some very skilled physicians
09:38 and people to do work and they sure helped me.
09:42 That's interesting
09:44 because we had a house built on one level
09:46 because we were sure that he was gonna have to live
09:50 in a scooter.
09:51 Yeah.
09:53 And so we got this, everything spaced apart,
09:55 the kitchen, everything
09:56 so he can race around the house in his scooter, right?
10:00 He doesn't need a scooter.
10:01 Now we got a long walk around in the house.
10:03 Oh, well, that's good. Yeah.
10:04 That's good. Yeah.
10:06 So we're praising the Lord. Amen and amen.
10:07 So, Annette, I know,
10:09 it kind of give us a little of your history.
10:10 Did you grow up as a Seventh-day Ad,
10:13 in a Seventh-day Adventist Christian home or...?
10:15 Yes. Okay.
10:17 The history goes pretty far back
10:19 'cause my grandfather came from Sicily
10:21 when he was about 16 years old,
10:24 and very strong Catholic family.
10:27 And when he came to the United States,
10:29 he studied all the religions,
10:31 and he decided that the Seventh-day Adventist faith
10:33 had the most truth.
10:35 Amen.
10:36 And so he went to seminary. Praise God.
10:38 And the Northern California Conference hired him
10:40 to start the Italian churches.
10:43 How exciting!
10:44 Because there were so many immigrants
10:46 from Sicily and Italy
10:48 that didn't know English,
10:49 and they wanted to hear sermons in Italian,
10:54 and so there was about 50 churches total,
10:58 but he was one of the first ones
11:01 that helped to start that work.
11:02 Praise the Lord.
11:04 And then after that two or three generations went by,
11:07 they didn't need this,
11:08 you know, Italian speaking ministers anymore.
11:10 Yeah. Yeah.
11:11 So thanks to him,
11:13 I got raised as a Seventh-day Adventist.
11:15 And when did it become real for you?
11:18 I mean, you know,
11:21 God has no grandchildren, He only has children.
11:24 So just because your parents are Adventists
11:27 and you grew up in an Adventist home
11:29 doesn't necessarily mean you're a child of God,
11:31 you have to make that personal choice.
11:33 When did it become real for you?
11:36 I can tell you right off the bat,
11:38 I was living in Alaska,
11:40 and my children were small.
11:43 And it was not a conference yet,
11:45 it was a mission.
11:46 And we were living about 18 miles
11:48 out of Anchorage, Alaska,
11:51 and they wanted to start a church out there.
11:54 And so they did a Revelation seminar
11:57 and we invited our neighbors
11:59 and we ended up with about five families
12:02 in this group that were gonna be
12:04 part of the church.
12:06 And so the president of the mission
12:10 at that time came to us and said,
12:13 "You have to teach these people how to run a church."
12:18 And I said, "Well, I'm sorry,
12:19 but I've only just warmed the pew
12:22 for 30 some odd years.
12:24 And I don't, I've never done those jobs in the church."
12:28 And they said, "But you've seen them done.
12:31 And you can tell them what you've seen,
12:34 and you can do it yourself."
12:36 And I grew spiritually in that time period
12:39 when my little children were growing up
12:41 because we started the church in Alaska.
12:43 Amen.
12:45 And, you know, I always say,
12:46 you learn to teach, you teach to learn,
12:49 there's nothing like sharing.
12:52 I think that's why God wants us to share our faith.
12:54 Really?
12:55 Now I just have to say this,
12:57 these two have the most amazing story of how they met.
13:01 He picked her out of a catalog.
13:05 Give us the Reader's Digest version of that.
13:08 Reader's Digest version.
13:11 I was living in North Carolina, working.
13:14 I had a law practice there.
13:15 I was a solo practitioner in a small town.
13:18 I needed to find a good woman.
13:23 And I know the difference
13:24 between a good woman and a bad one.
13:27 And my mother and my sister,
13:29 what I've received from my mother was some pages
13:32 from the California conference directory.
13:34 And there were some pictures of some lady circled.
13:37 And let me explain that for some
13:39 who may not be Adventist who are watching.
13:42 The conferences, an organized,
13:44 it's kind of church headquarters
13:47 or administration over a certain area.
13:50 So you work for the California Conference.
13:52 Communications department. Okay.
13:55 Okay, so you get this conference directory
13:58 with some pictures circled.
14:00 Yeah, and I called my mom, she lived in Michigan.
14:02 I said, "What is this?"
14:03 And she said, "Well, your sister and I,
14:06 my sister lived in California at the time,
14:08 and that my sister has beliefs that these are nice gals.
14:12 And I want you to call these gals."
14:14 And I said, "I'm not gonna do that, Mom, that's not,
14:17 so I'm not gonna do that."
14:19 She said, "Okay." She didn't say much.
14:21 But a couple days later, she said,
14:22 "Well, you've been looking at those pictures."
14:24 And I said, "Well, sure."
14:26 She says, "Call up these gals.
14:27 These are all good gals.
14:29 And I want you to meet these gals."
14:31 I said, "No."
14:33 And this kind of went on several times,
14:35 I finally got irritated.
14:36 I said, "Mom, if you think that's such a good idea,
14:38 you do it."
14:41 Mom says, "Well, if I do and I like one of these gals,
14:44 will you call?"
14:46 And I said, "All right."
14:47 She said, "Do you promise?"
14:49 And I said, "Yes."
14:50 Few days later she called and said.
14:52 What did she say to you when she called?
14:55 Well, just the basics.
14:56 I have a very handsome son who's single.
15:02 She was very honest with me.
15:04 She told me about his disability.
15:06 And that he was an attorney in North Carolina.
15:09 Yeah.
15:10 So I said, "Mom, I'm not gonna do this."
15:14 She said, "You promised."
15:16 So I called California
15:17 to apologize to Annette for my mother
15:20 and her audaciousness to call to say what you think.
15:25 And we began talking on the phone.
15:27 And I fell in love with her talking on the phone.
15:30 And pretty soon I was courting her through the mail.
15:33 We wrote letters, we sent pictures.
15:35 I was living in North Carolina.
15:36 She was living in California.
15:38 We didn't have a chance to date.
15:40 And finally, that was in January,
15:43 and in about April, she said, "I think it's time we meet."
15:47 And so I flew to California.
15:49 And she and I,
15:51 I met her at the Sacramento Airport.
15:54 We ran... And sparks were flying.
15:57 We just, we knew each other. We knew each other.
15:59 We felt very comfortable
16:00 because we got to know each other from the inside out.
16:05 Yes, yes.
16:06 We've already spent a lot of time praying
16:08 with each other on the phone.
16:09 In North Carolina, I could call after 11 at night.
16:12 And it was 8 o'clock in California time, right?
16:14 So I can get the cheap calls.
16:16 And we end up talking late at night.
16:19 And then we have prayer before we went away.
16:20 You know, we just got,
16:22 we got acquainted without dating.
16:23 Amen. And so we were there.
16:27 We met her parents,
16:28 and then she went to my sister's house at Lodi.
16:31 And I had to go back in three days
16:33 to continue my practice.
16:34 And about three weeks later, I proposed to her on the phone.
16:38 And she had some conditions.
16:40 I had a checklist. She had a checklist.
16:43 Good for you.
16:45 And one of her condition was, she says, "I want to come
16:48 and see my parents anytime I want."
16:50 I said, "No problem."
16:52 She said, "And I want to, I want you to help my parents."
16:55 No problem on that and she said,
16:57 "And I want to be a beautician."
17:00 I said, "Well, there's a little community college
17:02 about seven miles away
17:03 and they have beautician's class.
17:05 I had checked everything out I knew.
17:06 Amen.
17:08 And then I made
17:09 the convincing argument was this.
17:11 There's no way we can date,
17:13 this is either work or it'll be a terrible mistake
17:15 and there's no way to find out.
17:18 And thank the good Lord, she said, yes.
17:20 And that was 22 years ago next month.
17:22 Praise God.
17:23 We believe God put us together. We do.
17:25 Absolutely. We do.
17:27 Absolutely.
17:28 Okay, so now let's talk about
17:31 the ministry that you're doing.
17:33 You know, for our viewers at home,
17:35 you may recall not too long ago in the news,
17:39 they were talking about a couple
17:41 who were hiking and got lost and had no supplies with
17:45 and they were out of water,
17:46 but they had some kind of little straw
17:48 that they were able to filter the water through.
17:51 And that's the only reason they survived.
17:53 You know, when you think about water,
17:56 you and I take for granted
17:58 that we can turn a tap and have clean water.
18:02 Well, we take it for granted around here most of the time.
18:05 We do have water,
18:06 boiled water alerts every now and then.
18:09 But can you imagine
18:11 if you lived in an area
18:14 where you had to go to a river,
18:19 a dirty river to get your water?
18:22 I mean, I've seen them and sometimes
18:24 I wouldn't even want to wash my clothes in them.
18:27 But can you imagine having to give your infant child water
18:31 that has parasites in it, water that can kill them?
18:35 Did you know that dirty water is one of the greatest killers
18:39 of children around the world?
18:40 It is.
18:41 Contaminated water kills more children
18:43 than any other single disease or process.
18:47 And in Guatemala, I've been in villages
18:49 where women are getting water for their homes
18:51 out of one side of a small pond
18:53 and cattle are standing in the water on the other side.
18:55 Oh, my goodness.
18:56 And you know, a baby.
18:58 If a baby gets some bad water in two or three days
19:02 of diarrhea and vomiting,
19:04 pretty soon that baby's dehydrated,
19:06 and that baby will die.
19:08 And that happens a lot.
19:11 And we've been in villages after we've drilled well over
19:14 and village elders will come and say,
19:15 "This is the first year
19:17 that no children have died in our village."
19:19 That's amazing. Praise the Lord for that.
19:20 Let's back up just a second. Hang on.
19:23 Let's back up just a second and talk about
19:26 'cause we just jumped right into it.
19:28 Water for Life, what is your mission?
19:32 Tell us what Water for Life is all about
19:34 and how it started?
19:36 Water for Life was started by Gary Bartholomew
19:38 and his son Rod in Spokane, Washington.
19:41 They were organized to try to do something
19:44 about a contaminated water problem
19:46 for an orphanage and school in Northeast Guatemala,
19:50 the Petén region in Guatemala.
19:52 Gary had adopted a child.
19:54 Gary and Angie had adopted a child there,
19:56 years before
19:57 and had stayed in touch with the orphanage,
20:00 and as the area developed
20:03 and upstream there was more development,
20:05 the water became more and more contaminated.
20:08 They were getting water out of a hole in the river.
20:11 And for many years it was good water
20:13 but after it became more contaminated,
20:15 especially in the dry season,
20:17 when the water level was low, the contaminant part is high.
20:22 And some children there got very sick.
20:24 One of the teachers almost died from amoeba in the water
20:28 and Gary determined to do something about it.
20:31 And what was Gary's profession?
20:32 Gary was in the well drilling business.
20:34 Albeit.
20:35 And had worked around well drillers all his life.
20:38 He had operated Bartholomew pumping
20:41 well service there in Spokane.
20:43 And he was really the start of it.
20:47 But I'll tell you, the Lord started as well.
20:48 Amen.
20:50 But can you imagine, he been a well driller,
20:54 and he was familiar with that area
20:57 and knowing that the children were getting very sick
20:59 and almost dying,
21:01 can you imagine the burden on his heart,
21:04 who want to do something about it.
21:06 Amen. Amen.
21:07 And what Gary did was, he put an ad
21:09 in the Washington Well Drillers Association magazine
21:13 for someone to donate a drilling rig.
21:16 And a Mennonite company in Silverton, Oregon,
21:19 Stadeli and Sons call him up and said, "What are you after?"
21:22 And he said, "Well, we need a drilling rig."
21:24 And they said, "Well, we have an old cable rig
21:27 that we will donate to you, if you're interested."
21:31 And Gary said, "Are we interested?
21:32 Yes, we are."
21:34 Well, these folks refurbished that rig
21:36 and that rig was donated.
21:39 Gary, at his own expense shipped it to Guatemala.
21:42 And I became aware of Water for Life
21:44 when I was preaching
21:46 at the countryside Adventist Church,
21:48 giving a sermon on religious liberty
21:50 because I'm a lawyer.
21:51 People want to hear that.
21:52 And at a break,
21:54 I heard Gary say,
21:56 "The well drill has been noticed
21:58 in the custom's yard in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala."
22:01 And I heard this,
22:02 praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
22:04 I'm wondering, "What is this all about?"
22:06 And afterwards, I got a moment to speak with Gary,
22:09 and ask him, and he told me that
22:10 they were trying to solve this problem
22:12 with the contaminated water at this orphanage.
22:15 And I became interested in it.
22:17 And that was visiting our grandchild over in Seattle.
22:21 And I told Gary, I said,
22:23 "Count me and I'll buy the first tank of fuel
22:24 for your rig."
22:26 And I called Annette and I said,
22:28 "You want to go to Guatemala?"
22:30 And I said, "Why, why?
22:33 I knew nothing about it." Yeah.
22:36 Yeah, that's a strange request, isn't it?
22:39 And so that afternoon, I kept looking at Expedia
22:42 and these sites for tickets,
22:44 and I kept calling Annette and talking to about it.
22:47 And finally I said, listen,
22:48 I really want to go and check this out.
22:50 She said, "Well, if you're going, I'm going."
22:52 So I click, I put,
22:54 I clicked the button
22:55 and I bought a couple of tickets,
22:57 and that was 15 years ago.
22:59 And we were there
23:01 when the first wells were drilled
23:02 with that old drilling rig that 1946...
23:06 1946, yeah.
23:08 It was a
23:10 and there's some miracles that have occurred
23:13 that I'd be happy to tell you about if we have the time.
23:16 Sure.
23:17 But the good news is,
23:19 is that with an old unit like that,
23:22 it could be repaired.
23:23 Yes, technology that's 40 years old technology
23:27 here in the States
23:28 and everything is rotary rigs here.
23:30 Drill your well in a day.
23:32 Down there, it's two weeks or so using these old rigs.
23:36 But we could repair it down there,
23:37 a welder and some cable, and you're back in business.
23:40 And with someone that had experienced
23:42 that the Lord had put on his heart
23:45 and prearranged things years and years,
23:47 centuries, eons ago,
23:49 that there would be a little girl there
23:51 that they want to be part of their family.
23:52 That's right.
23:54 I mean, if you can look at the big picture
23:55 and then how do you get trust
23:58 in the strangers that you've never met?
24:02 What's better than clean water?
24:04 Nothing better, you meet their needs.
24:06 Here in the US, we are so blessed.
24:07 We water our lawns with treatable water.
24:11 Yes.
24:12 And down there people die for clean water.
24:15 Isn't that amazing?
24:17 And that old drilling rig worked down there,
24:20 we've had a lot of wonderful miracles.
24:23 When that drilling rig got there,
24:25 our friend Bernie Leonardo is,
24:28 he was trying to get it through customs.
24:30 And he got a call from Gary and says,
24:32 "Gary, we can't find the VIN number on that rig."
24:36 And we had paperwork
24:38 and it had to match what was coming in.
24:40 Gary called the Stadeli down there and said,
24:43 "Where's the VIN number on that old truck?"
24:45 And they said, "We don't know.
24:46 We've hauled it around on a lowboy for 20 years
24:49 which not been licensed.
24:51 And the customs man said,
24:54 "No VIN number, no truck."
24:56 Very simple.
24:58 Bernie went to a little hotel in Puerto Barrios
25:00 and spent the night in prayer.
25:02 In the morning, he went back
25:04 and as he was waiting at a bus station.
25:06 He went in a little tee under there
25:08 and found one of those plastic label makers,
25:11 you know, you squeeze the little thing
25:12 and it prints them up, he had the paperwork.
25:15 He printed out a little label in blue.
25:18 And he went back to the customs yard
25:20 and said to the guy,
25:21 "Can I go out there and look one more time?"
25:24 The guy said, sure.
25:25 Bernie went out there
25:27 and he fastened that little label somewhere
25:29 in an obscure place on that truck.
25:30 And goes I found the number.
25:32 And the guy came out and he looked at paper,
25:35 he looked at number, which is fine, no problem.
25:37 Come on. Praise God.
25:39 And the Lord brought that drilling rig in.
25:42 And that was the first miracle.
25:44 Fifteen years ago
25:45 and now you've got 130 wells drilled.
25:49 Yes.
25:51 That is so amazing.
25:52 And when you all go in,
25:54 we're gonna talk about some miracles
25:55 with the equipment and things but here's the wonderful thing,
25:58 as you said, honey, when they go in,
26:01 they are meeting a serious,
26:05 crucial,
26:06 personal need for the people.
26:09 But that's just the introduction
26:11 because you then are able to minister to them
26:15 spiritually.
26:17 You've seen a bunch of people come to the Lord re-baptized.
26:20 Yes, we've had hundreds and hundreds of baptisms
26:23 have occurred in the Petén region.
26:25 When groups come down, volunteer groups
26:28 from Upper Columbia Conference build churches there.
26:30 We've been involved and aided in the construction
26:32 of 14 churches in our area,
26:35 and these churches are bulging.
26:37 You know, here in the States,
26:38 you can hardly tell people about Jesus.
26:42 They've heard about Him, they know it's nothing.
26:44 But down there people are hungry
26:45 for the gospel.
26:47 Light Bearers has given us
26:48 millions of pieces of literature.
26:50 And we have distributed that literature
26:52 across Guatemala.
26:54 We buy thousands of Bibles in Spanish
26:56 and we distribute those Bibles.
26:58 When we're drilling, if we have the volunteers,
27:01 a dental worker, we have dental equipment,
27:04 we'll send them into a village and pull teeth,
27:06 give out literature.
27:07 But you also send in medical supplies, don't you?
27:10 Yes, we do.
27:11 Thousands of pounds of donated medical equipment
27:13 we put in our container that we send every year.
27:16 We give that to the Ministry of Health.
27:18 They locate villages with particular needs,
27:21 and we go to those villages and drill wells.
27:24 And at first the people will wonder,
27:25 "Well, what do you want from us?
27:27 What do you want?"
27:28 And we said, "We don't want anything."
27:29 "But why are you doing this?"
27:31 "Because God loves you." Amen.
27:33 Here's the Bible that tells about God's love,
27:36 and people's hearts are opened
27:38 and we maintain these wells year round.
27:41 More than 30,000 people use our water every day,
27:45 our water, it's God's water.
27:47 We just help get it for them.
27:49 But 30,000 people today are drinking water
27:51 provided by Water for Life.
27:53 And it's not only the water that gives them health,
27:57 but we bring them the Bible
27:58 which is the Water of Life and it opens people's hearts.
28:02 In a little village called Kahin,
28:05 there was churches where...
28:07 Sunday keeping churches were not...
28:10 They weren't very active.
28:12 But a lady who was the elder in the church
28:14 became convinced of the Sabbath.
28:17 And she talked all her congregation members
28:20 into keeping the Sabbath.
28:22 And they all started coming back to church,
28:24 but now they're worshiping on Sabbath.
28:27 I don't think they're Adventist yet,
28:29 but they're worshiping the Lord on the Sabbath day
28:33 and as a result of that.
28:34 And they're more healthy than they were before.
28:36 Yes, they are.
28:37 We maintain these wells year around.
28:40 Now, Annette, do you travel with Tim every trip or...
28:45 There's a few times I haven't gone,
28:47 but in the last 14 years, I've gone almost every year.
28:50 And then what do you do while you're there?
28:53 Well, I started out with my job experience
28:56 as a school secretary
28:57 and I've been around children for many years,
29:00 and I used to teach crafts in the summertime
29:03 when they had day camp,
29:05 and also taught yearbook class,
29:08 and I have a certificate in desktop
29:11 publishing and do graphics.
29:13 That's what I was doing at the conference office.
29:16 And so my greatest interest,
29:20 strongest interest is in art.
29:22 Yes.
29:23 And then hair, I'm a beautician.
29:25 So I can do haircuts with the kids
29:28 and they love that.
29:29 But my fun was in
29:34 bringing supplies to do crafts with them.
29:37 Oh, here you got some pictures.
29:39 This was the most basic thing
29:42 that they loved the most and the easiest thing
29:45 because when I was in preparation
29:47 during the year I had to think of things
29:49 that I could show them without a lot of Spanish,
29:53 'cause I didn't know Spanish.
29:55 And I had to do a lot of thinking
29:57 about how they saw it,
30:00 and how they could learn it there in the most simple way.
30:04 So I took a little stretchy band
30:06 and some yarn, sparkly yarn.
30:10 And I showed them
30:11 how to make a little scrunchie for their ponytails.
30:13 And they all have this really thick, heavy long hair.
30:17 And they need scrunchies they need,
30:18 you know, stretchy band.
30:20 So they learned it very easily.
30:24 It was a very easy pattern and they were so beautiful.
30:26 And when you got done with this thing
30:29 that I taught them, it looked like a bird's nest
30:32 and they could put it in their hair.
30:35 And then they wanted to do all the colors.
30:37 And I had every colors of the rainbow
30:39 and they were very sparkly type of thing.
30:43 And so then the next Sabbath after I taught them
30:46 how to do this,
30:47 I was sitting in the back of the church,
30:49 and here I saw them with their scrunchies.
30:51 Oh, how sweet. Yeah.
30:54 All over the church.
30:55 It was so fun. Amen.
30:56 In villages, we go out to villages
30:59 and Annette will take some crayons
31:00 and make friends with the children.
31:02 Yes.
31:03 And Bernie and I may be looking at the well
31:05 and seeing what the condition of the pumps and things.
31:08 But Annette's making friends with these children,
31:10 and children love colors.
31:12 You pass out crayons, pretty soon it breaks the ice,
31:15 if you're there and they're a little nervous
31:18 and they don't see many white people,
31:20 and pretty soon we're looking at stuff
31:22 and we don't talk too good.
31:24 And then that's over there with the children
31:26 and they're passing out stuff
31:27 and pretty soon the ice is just broken in.
31:29 Praise God.
31:30 It takes a little while because
31:32 we're very tall compared to them.
31:33 Yes.
31:34 And they've never seen people so tall and so white.
31:37 Yeah.
31:38 Let me ask something for the guys out here.
31:40 Just a quick technical just so I can get this.
31:44 So we got the rig out there and the rig,
31:46 now we're waiting for the volunteers
31:47 to come down to run the rig, is that right?
31:49 Yes.
31:51 Okay, so let's just say hypothetically,
31:53 October the 15th, we're gonna all meet there.
31:56 The volunteers are gonna come in,
31:58 is this limestone that they're going through?
32:00 It's almost all limestone. Limestone.
32:02 And our wells are from about 150 to 250 feet.
32:07 Okay, and how long,
32:08 how long does it take to drill that?
32:10 Using one of the rotary rigs, about two weeks.
32:14 Two weeks.
32:15 And we have four drilling rigs there.
32:19 Three of the old cable rigs that we're talking about,
32:22 but this last year, we imported a rotary ring.
32:27 And it's the first step into the rotary system.
32:30 The rig was donated to us by a fellow named Seth Weilage
32:34 in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
32:36 He was one of our volunteers, used the cable rig.
32:39 Now is this picture of that that we just saw?
32:41 Yes. Okay.
32:43 And he said, you know, he's working there
32:46 with the cable rig and he said,
32:48 "Drilling with a cable rig is fun
32:49 for about the first day out."
32:52 And he said, "Why don't we try
32:54 to get a rotary rig down there?"
32:56 Well, he donated rig, we refurbished the thing,
32:59 shifted down there.
33:01 And in this year, in eight days,
33:04 he drilled six wells.
33:05 Wow!
33:07 And now this truck was also donated,
33:08 is that right?
33:09 This truck was donated by the Loomis Truck
33:11 & Tractor Company in Lind, Washington.
33:12 And they gave us this truck.
33:14 We modified it for our purposes.
33:17 That crane that was put on it was donated to us.
33:21 And then we sent it out of Tacoma, Washington.
33:24 And the shipping company that we contacted,
33:27 got interested in it.
33:28 A man there said had been to Guatemala.
33:31 He looked us up on the website to see what we work
33:34 and they shipped it to Guatemala
33:35 for free on that truck.
33:37 It's a roll on roll off rig.
33:39 Thousands of dollars' worth of donated time
33:42 and then they put us on their web page
33:46 as a ministry that they're helping.
33:48 Oh, glory.
33:49 And so the Lord works in all these ways.
33:51 A donated rig sent on a donated on a donation down there.
33:56 And that rig now is there in Guatemala
33:59 with that service truck with it.
34:01 And it's doing the work of the Lord.
34:02 So now it's sheltered. Yes.
34:04 Okay, we've gone down there.
34:05 We spent the month of October. Yeah.
34:07 Okay, now the volunteers come back home
34:10 and they just sit there,
34:11 but yet during that time,
34:13 if there's some issue with one of the systems,
34:16 the wells, there's somebody there
34:18 that's lonely that can repair that.
34:20 We have two employees in Guatemala.
34:24 Right now, we have four drilling rigs,
34:26 we've got a small fleet of other trucks,
34:28 plus we have two pump service trucks.
34:30 We have a large shop.
34:31 We have accommodations for our volunteer drillers.
34:34 And we drill from January through April
34:37 because this is the time of the year
34:39 in the United States where these guys,
34:41 they got their home businesses.
34:42 They're not working. Okay. It's winter.
34:44 And in the wintertime, it can't work
34:46 and they are willing to come to Guatemala.
34:47 So tell us how you find volunteers
34:49 because I know that
34:52 you go down there with people
34:53 who are not only ardent, I mean,
34:57 often they are not Seventh-day Adventist Christians,
34:59 they may be Christians,
35:01 but you also take people down that.
35:03 I mean, you just take in somebody
35:05 that's got a heart for humanity, right?
35:07 Amen. Yes.
35:09 And I...
35:11 We go to the National Well Drillers Association
35:15 has a yearly convention,
35:17 we go to the conventions.
35:20 I'll also write a monthly story
35:22 in the National Well Drillers journal,
35:24 and tell stories about things in Guatemala,
35:28 and invite people to come and join us
35:30 and they respond.
35:33 We have drillers from all across the United States
35:35 who donate a week or two of their time
35:38 and we don't pay them at all.
35:41 We don't pay their airfare. That's amazing.
35:43 We've got a place for them to stay,
35:44 we've got machine reform,
35:46 we've got a village with a need,
35:47 put that together.
35:49 And these guys come and they drill for nothing.
35:52 And these guys come home and they will say,
35:54 "You know, I've been on vacation...
35:57 Annette and I used to go on vacation to a nice place.
35:59 You eat too much, you lay around,
36:01 you don't do anything, come home feeling miserable.
36:04 These guys come home after working hard in the heat
36:07 and they are blessed by it.
36:09 Amen.
36:10 And I encourage people to come,
36:13 and we need volunteers.
36:15 So what kind of experience?
36:17 Obviously, if you know what you're doing
36:19 that's a "Thank you, Jesus,"
36:21 but then you got people that want to see
36:23 what this is like.
36:25 I'll tell you this.
36:27 We can use anybody who is willing.
36:29 Amen.
36:30 We really need people who are nurses,
36:33 dental hygienist,
36:34 people that can come down there
36:36 to meet the needs of the people.
36:37 When we have those volunteers,
36:39 we have a complete portable dental unit
36:42 that we can send out to a village.
36:44 We'll send a nurse out to a village
36:46 to do general healthcare
36:48 and look at things
36:50 that could really be dangerous.
36:53 Just a nurse cleaning a wound in infected ear,
36:57 and the insect bite,
36:58 and a few tablets of erythromycin
37:01 can change a person's life.
37:02 Yeah.
37:03 And the people down there have nothing.
37:05 And if we go and help them,
37:08 and sometimes,
37:10 I can't do much in many ways,
37:13 but I know the ways to these villages,
37:15 and so I'll drive a team out there
37:17 and spend the days sitting in the truck,
37:19 waiting while they're pulling teeth
37:20 or looking after people's needs.
37:22 Those volunteers,
37:24 those are people that can help people.
37:26 They really just have to be willing.
37:28 The wives too, if you've got volunteers going...
37:30 Annette, why should a wife go with her husband?
37:34 You know, first of all, have a lot of fun.
37:36 Yeah.
37:38 The men really need support.
37:42 There's all the domestic needs
37:44 that we all need every day of our lives.
37:46 We need clean clothes, we need good meals,
37:49 and those guys work so hard.
37:51 And they're dirty, they're tired.
37:54 And to have a wife there is very comforting.
37:57 Amen.
37:58 And beyond that,
38:00 I would say to the wives to definitely come,
38:03 no matter who you are.
38:04 You don't have to be a doctor, or a nurse, or a teacher.
38:07 Got old paint brush. Come on, we can help.
38:09 There's lots of painting that needs to be done, and...
38:13 And lots of kids that need to be loved on.
38:15 Our friend, Bernie, that lives there,
38:17 told us, he says,
38:19 "Anything that you've learned in your life,
38:21 your profession, even elementary things
38:25 that you know from day-to-day,
38:27 those people know a lot less than you do.
38:30 Amen. Yeah.
38:31 And you can teach them anything and everything,
38:33 and they will be blessed for it.
38:36 Amen.
38:37 And I've always tried...
38:38 I've always lived
38:40 in this caution zone my whole life.
38:42 Well, not always.
38:43 You married someone
38:44 you only spent a few days, so...
38:46 That's correct.
38:48 If it wasn't for him,
38:49 I wouldn't have gone to Guatemala.
38:51 Yeah.
38:52 And I would stay in my own peaceful zone
38:55 if I were left to myself.
38:57 But when you give your heart to the Lord,
38:59 and He's the Lord of your life,
39:02 he's going to pull you outside your comfort zone.
39:05 Yeah.
39:06 And it says...
39:07 In 1 John 3:18, it says,
39:12 "Let not your love be spoken only in words, but in action."
39:18 Fantastic.
39:19 And so I feel God pushing me out of my comfort zone,
39:23 especially after marrying Tim.
39:26 Amen.
39:27 Admire you're doing it.
39:29 Can you bring up the picture
39:30 of kind of show them the surrounding
39:32 what a typical town looks like?
39:33 Go ahead, Shelley. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
39:34 Well, we'll go through here.
39:36 Oh, that's beautiful. That's a typical village.
39:38 You can see a pump there in the foreground.
39:40 It's usually open areas in the village in the middle,
39:43 and we only drill wells on public land,
39:47 either churchyard, a schoolyard,
39:49 health department yard.
39:50 In one village, we couldn't find a suitable place,
39:53 and the village leader said, "Well,
39:56 what about right here in the road?"
39:58 And Gary said,
39:59 "What you mean right here in the road?"
40:00 He said, "Well, this is public, just drill here."
40:03 So our driller stepped off the center of the road
40:05 and drilled well right there,
40:07 and the next year we came back,
40:08 the road comes up, makes a detour around,
40:10 a little palapa they built to cover the pump.
40:13 And the village people come, and they get water from there.
40:16 Oh, you've a great picture.
40:18 I think you've got a story in it
40:19 that goes with a picture of this woman
40:22 at the well getting her water.
40:24 And tell us that story?
40:26 So our employee, Bernie, who maintains the pumps
40:30 during the year took us to this village
40:32 to check on this one pump
40:34 that was having a little bit of a problem.
40:36 And I was just observing
40:39 because I hadn't been to too many other villages,
40:42 I'd spend most of my time at the orphanage with the kids,
40:45 but I wanted to do this.
40:47 And I was watching this one lady pumping her water,
40:50 and it was quite a large containers
40:54 made out of hard plastic.
40:57 And when she got all done pumping,
40:58 she lifted it and she put it on top of her head.
41:02 That's amazing.
41:04 And these are short ladies with a short neck,
41:05 they're stocky individuals.
41:07 And she started walking.
41:10 And, you know, we don't know how far she walked,
41:12 she could live three or four miles away.
41:15 That's amazing.
41:16 And after a while, she put her hands down.
41:19 And then, I was really shocked.
41:21 And I said, "Boy, that does a lot of good
41:23 for your posture."
41:25 And, you know, in villages, after we drill a well,
41:28 it's like the spokes of a wheel.
41:30 There will be paths that lead out
41:32 and people walk for literally miles
41:34 to get to water.
41:36 In some villages, people stand in line
41:38 all day long to get water,
41:39 there are people lined up for water.
41:40 But now they are lining up to go to church.
41:42 You've got a picture of one of the 14 churches
41:45 that they have constructed
41:49 and you said the churches are just emerging.
41:52 Yes, they are. Yes, they are.
41:54 We put Bible workers there, but the gospel is getting out.
41:58 Amen.
41:59 In the US, it's hard to interest people.
42:01 But down there,
42:02 if you pass out Bibles,
42:05 they're just anxious to have it.
42:08 They treasure that.
42:10 And that's what Water for Life tries to do.
42:12 You know, we're about giving people life,
42:16 but the real life is not what they're drinking,
42:18 it's in that book.
42:19 Well, I pick up Water for Life, it's not stagnant itself.
42:23 It seems like, you know, you started off
42:25 by drilling one well.
42:26 Yes.
42:28 And, but now, look at how Water for Life
42:30 has expanded
42:31 in all these different directions.
42:32 Yes.
42:34 You know, just didn't set here and just corrode over.
42:37 I mean, from water, then it becomes trust,
42:41 even scrunchies or what are they called?
42:43 It's scrunchies. Scrunchies for ponytails.
42:47 I never had a ponytail, so...
42:49 I have.
42:50 I bet you look good.
42:52 It's a little thing that, you know,
42:53 it means a lot to them.
42:54 You bet, you bet.
42:56 Yeah, it means a lot.
42:57 And once those children,
42:59 once you work with the children,
43:00 and they began
43:02 asking you questions to the point
43:04 that somebody wanted you to do the class teaching,
43:06 right?
43:08 Yes, I did a class in hygiene,
43:10 which is very good for the girls growing up
43:12 and the boys growing up.
43:14 And I taught a couple of haircuts.
43:18 And it was so cute
43:19 because my translator was listening to me,
43:21 describe how to do this haircut.
43:24 And I was doing one where it would make your hair...
43:27 If you cut it in just a right way,
43:29 it would make your hair wispy naturally.
43:32 It would dry that way if we cut it right.
43:35 And he stopped talking,
43:36 and I said, "Is there a problem?"
43:39 And he says, "Well, there's no word in Spanish for wispy."
43:44 So we figured out something to tell him.
43:46 Sometimes the girls would come with pictures
43:48 that they get from magazines with these real hairdos
43:51 that are all wound up,
43:52 and they say, "I want my hair to look like this."
43:55 It can't happen, it can't happen.
43:57 Well, they have about four times
43:59 the amount of hair on their head than we do.
44:01 It's heavy. Yeah.
44:02 It's like a horse's tail.
44:04 It's really heavy.
44:05 Yeah. Wow.
44:06 But the children and the people in Guatemala
44:08 are just lovely people.
44:09 Oh, they're wonderful.
44:11 You know, we are rich in the United States
44:12 in material goods and poor in spirit.
44:14 Those people down there had nothing in material goods,
44:18 but they are rich in spirit.
44:20 The people are kind and loving people.
44:22 The thing that I've noticed
44:23 is this is mostly agricultural land.
44:25 Yes, it is. Yes, it is.
44:26 I mean, we're not talking about the cities and putting well,
44:28 these are all, so everyone's having to walk in.
44:30 Yes.
44:32 So actually say it'd be wonderful
44:33 to have a central church where they can all come to,
44:35 just close to the water or whatever.
44:37 And we'll drill a well in a churchyard,
44:39 a Catholic churchyard,
44:40 a Protestant churchyard,
44:42 there's lot of church of God places down there...
44:44 A school, and the Lord be praised,
44:47 there's always a place.
44:49 And we make a requirement
44:51 that the people will make the water freely available.
44:53 Amen.
44:55 And they won't fence the public off from the well.
44:56 That's the requirement we have.
44:58 Now, you have become very involved
45:01 with the orphans there in the orphanage.
45:04 You've actually adopted how many orphans?
45:07 We've sponsored ten children,
45:10 two boys and eight girls.
45:11 Wow. Yeah.
45:13 Let me ask you this question because...
45:17 I mean, you are a district attorney,
45:19 you are a graphic artist turned beautician,
45:24 which I need to talk to, if you can tell me, Annette.
45:27 How did it change you
45:31 becoming involved and specifically, Annette,
45:35 when you started going down,
45:36 how did it change you?
45:38 It changed me
45:40 because I grew up with watching Mission Spotlight
45:42 my whole life.
45:44 Yeah.
45:45 And I used to admire the people in that film every Sabbath,
45:48 doctors, nurses, teachers.
45:50 And I always told myself, "No, I can't do that
45:53 because I'm not educated the way they are."
45:56 And when I was willing to take that step and go,
46:01 I saw how much God could use me
46:06 in ways I never dreamed possible.
46:07 Amen. Wow.
46:09 And so if you're willing,
46:12 God will show you and it will grow your faith immensely.
46:16 Amen. See what He can do.
46:18 You know, I'd like to say that
46:20 God is so desperate to save people,
46:21 He will take anybody,
46:24 anybody who will be taken.
46:25 Amen.
46:27 Water for Life is like that. Amen.
46:29 We can use anybody, God can use people...
46:31 Most certainly.
46:32 And He provides the materials. Amen.
46:35 I also like to say that
46:38 God has given
46:39 a never-ending supply of just enough.
46:42 I love that.
46:43 And really that's the story of 3ABN too.
46:45 Yes, it is.
46:46 Never-ending supply of just enough.
46:48 It's not surplus, it's not excess,
46:51 but it is security
46:54 with the never-ending supply of just enough.
46:56 And that's what He's provided for Water for Life.
46:59 We've come across many difficult things,
47:02 and the Lord comes through each time, each time.
47:06 That first year, the second year down there,
47:09 Lynn Bartholomew was trying to get that
47:11 46 well driller running,
47:16 and it would not run, it would not run.
47:18 Finally determined that there was a magneto that was bad.
47:21 It was a 1956 cylinder Hercules engine in that thing.
47:26 And they called to United States
47:28 and called back to Bucyrus-Erie and said,
47:30 "Do you have a magneto for that?
47:31 I said, "What are you talking about?
47:33 We haven't provided parts of that for 30 years.
47:36 Yeah.
47:37 And Rob Bartholomew was in Seattle.
47:40 He made a call to someone in Rathdrum,
47:42 Idaho, a guy by the name Clint.
47:48 I'm blanking his name.
47:49 But he said,
47:50 "I know a fellow who has the shop called
47:53 Magnetos Only, Lee Davis.
47:55 Let me see if he's...
47:56 Maybe the guy is still alive,
47:58 maybe he's still in the business.
48:00 He got the model number, he went in to see Lee Davis,
48:03 Magnetos Only, and the guy was there.
48:05 And he said, "I need a magneto for this old rig."
48:09 And the guy said, "Just a second."
48:10 He walked back and he came back
48:11 with the very part that we needed.
48:13 Wow. Praise God.
48:15 And Brad McCarthy, that was the guy
48:17 he paid for it right on the spot,
48:19 took it to Spokane, and that night,
48:21 a driller was headed down South,
48:23 and that magneto was put on that rig
48:27 and was operating.
48:28 I thought there's a story here and so I went to see Lee Davis,
48:31 and I said, "I like to know about that magneto."
48:34 And I told him about what a blessing
48:35 it had been to us,
48:37 and he's a pretty rough guy, he said,
48:38 "I don't know about all that stuff," he said.
48:40 But the funny story about that magneto,
48:42 he said, "I was working in my shop
48:44 several years ago, and a guy came in
48:46 and said he had found this in his dad's shop,
48:49 his dad passed away and he said,
48:50 "I wondered if you wanted it."
48:52 He said, "I'm interested in old things,
48:54 I kind of do swapping out magnetos
48:56 for old bulldozers and things."
48:59 And he said, "I fixed it up
49:00 and I put it back there on the shelf,"
49:02 and he said,
49:03 "Had no call for it for three years."
49:06 And he said, "I knew when your guy walked in
49:08 with the model number that that was the part that I had."
49:11 And he said, "And by the way,
49:12 and all the years I've been working with magnetos,"
49:14 he says, "I've never seen one exactly like that.
49:16 If you bring that old one back from Guatemala,
49:19 I'll rebuild that once he gets the magneto."
49:20 Amen. Glory to God.
49:21 Well, you know, that is...
49:23 But there from the jungles of Guatemala,
49:25 a telephone call, and an hour later,
49:28 a rare part is put in our hands and was down there.
49:33 We've since moved off there.
49:35 Gasoline part, engines, all are rigs apart with diesel
49:38 'cause they don't have the storage problems,
49:40 but the Lord has been watching after us.
49:42 Yes, He does.
49:44 And He is the God who knows the end to the beginning,
49:47 so He had that on the shelf for you all along.
49:49 It's a blessing. He did.
49:50 Amazing. You know what?
49:52 It occurs to me that,
49:53 if you're watching,
49:55 you may be saying,
49:56 "Ooh, I need something to revive me,
50:01 revive my spiritual walk."
50:03 You know, we know that
50:04 we are saved by grace through faith.
50:06 Works don't save us,
50:07 but works are the fruit of salvation if you will.
50:12 And Jesus said, "Let your lamp so shine
50:15 that people will see your good works
50:17 and glorify God."
50:19 So these kinds of things are something that
50:21 bring glory to our Lord
50:22 and maybe you would like to participate, say,
50:26 "I can go down and be a volunteer,
50:28 I can hold the pain pressure,
50:29 cook the meal, or I'm a well driller,
50:33 or a dental assistant, or a dentist.
50:36 And you may think,
50:37 "Hey, I'd rather have an active vacation this year,
50:41 instead of just coming home having gained five pounds."
50:45 If you want to get in touch with Water for Life
50:47 or perhaps the Holy Spirit's moving upon your heart
50:51 that you want to see more villages
50:54 get these wells,
50:55 you can sponsor a child at the orphanage,
50:58 you can sponsor materials
51:00 or if you want to help drill a well,
51:04 here is how you can get in touch
51:07 with Water for Life.
51:11 You can make a difference
51:12 for the thousands of children and adults
51:14 who have struggled with polluted water
51:16 by helping Water of Life
51:18 bring pure water to the people of Guatemala.
51:21 Discover more about their well drilling projects.
51:24 Read inspiring stories
51:26 and see the results for yourself
51:27 through their photo gallery
51:29 by visiting their website h2oforlife.org.
51:33 That's h20forlife.org.
51:36 If you would like to call them,
51:38 their number is (509) 842-3952
51:42 or write them at Water for Life,
51:44 PO Box 2330,
51:47 Deer Park, Washington 99006.


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Revised 2019-05-13