Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220068A
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00:01 ♪ ♪
00:05 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:15 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:26 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:36 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:57 ♪ ♪ 01:08 Greetings to my 3ABN family. Welcome to another Today program 01:12 My name is Ricky, Ricky Carter 01:14 And I'm Jasmine Carter 01:17 And I'm very happy to have my wife here on the program today. 01:21 Thanks for joining us. 01:22 I'm delighted to be here. 01:24 Amen, amen. Well we're going to be your hosts today for today's 01:28 program and we have another hour filled program that I'm sure 01:33 you're going be blessed with But before we begin 01:36 that I want to share 01:37 with you, I want to take a moment to say thank you for 01:40 your prayers and your financial support of 3ABN. We greatly 01:45 appreciate it. And before we introduce our guests I want to 01:51 have my wife read two verses from the Bible: Revelation 01:56 chapter 22 verses 1 and 2. 02:01 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 02:05 crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 02:09 In the middle of its street and on either side of the river 02:13 was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits each tree yielding 02:18 it's fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the 02:23 healing of the nations. 02:26 Amen. I can't wait to drink from that water of life that flows 02:31 from God's throne. How about you? 02:33 Same here, Ricky. But I'm looking forward to a whole lot 02:36 more than just water. 02:38 (Chuckles) Amen, amen. Well I'm excited to share with you who 02:44 we're going to have on our program today because we're 02:46 going to get an update from Water of Life International. 02:52 And I want to introduce our guests today. We have the 02:55 co-founder and vice-president Gary Bartholomew. Welcome 02:59 Brother Gary. (Thank you) Glad to have you here on our program. 03:03 It's a blessing. Appreciate it. 03:05 Amen, amen. And then next to him the co-founder 03:10 Rod Bartholomew. Glad to have you on the program, Rod. 03:14 Thank you. Praise God to be here 03:16 Amen, amen. Now in just a few we're going to talk more about 03:22 Water for Life but before we do that, you know, I know that you 03:26 all love music and so do we and we want to have a special music 03:31 we want to start off the program with. So, Honey, can you share 03:34 with us who's going to be our special music for today. 03:36 Sure. Scott Michael Bennett will be performing 03:39 Go Light Your World 03:41 ♪ ♪ 03:49 ♪ There is a candle in every soul ♪ 03:55 ♪ Some brightly burning Some dark and cold ♪ 04:02 ♪ There is a Spirit who brings the fire ♪ 04:13 ♪ Ignites a candle and makes His home ♪ 04:20 ♪ Carry your candle, Run to the darkness ♪ 04:26 ♪ Seek out the hopeless confused and torn ♪ 04:34 ♪ Hold out your candle for all to see it ♪ 04:42 ♪ Take your candle Go light your world ♪ 04:58 ♪ ♪ 05:04 ♪ Frustrated brother, so how he's tried to ♪ 05:10 ♪ Light his own candle some other way ♪ 05:18 ♪ See now your sister, she's been robbed and lied to ♪ 05:27 ♪ She still holds her candle without a flame ♪ 05:34 ♪ So carry your candle run to the darkness ♪ 05:41 ♪ Seek out the lonely the tired and worn ♪ 05:50 ♪ Hold out your candle for all to see it ♪ 05:56 ♪ Take your candle Go light your world ♪ 06:12 ♪ ♪ 06:18 ♪ We are a family whose hearts are blazing ♪ 06:23 ♪ Let's raise our candles light up the sky ♪ 06:32 ♪ Pray to our Father in the name of Jesus ♪ 06:39 ♪ Make us a beacon in the darkest night ♪ 06:48 ♪ Carry your candle run to the darkness ♪ 06:54 ♪ Seek out the helpless deceived and poor ♪ 07:04 ♪ Hold out your candle for all to see it ♪ 07:13 ♪ Oh take your candle Go light your world ♪ 07:18 ♪ Take your candle, Go light your world ♪ 07:29 ♪ Take you candle, Go light your world ♪ 07:39 ♪ Go light your world, Go light your world ♪ 07:58 Amen, amen, What a blessing that we can all participate in 08:04 sharing the gospel. Would you agree? 08:06 Absolutely and there's such a good message in that song. 08:10 Amen, amen. Thank you, Brother Scott for sharing your talents 08:12 with the Lord. Well, if you joined us a little bit late 08:17 I want to share with you who our special guests are. Our special 08:21 guests are father and son, father and son, Gary and Rod 08:27 Bartholomew and they're with Water for Life International. 08:30 And before we learn a little bit more about your ministry I want 08:35 the viewers at home to get to know a little bit more about you 08:38 So Brother Gary can you tell us a little bit about yourself and 08:42 where you're from? 08:43 I'm Gery Bartholomew from Spokane, Washington. I was born 08:47 and raised there and it's still home. 08:51 Amen, amen. All right well glad that you could be here with us 08:54 to share more about your ministry. (Thank you) Yes. 08:57 And Brother Rod. How about yourself. Can you tell us a 08:59 little bit about yourself. 09:01 Absolutely. I was born and raised in Spokane, Washington 09:04 as well and grew up in the family business drilling wells 09:09 doing pump systems and water treatment and I currently am the 09:16 water treatment product manager for three companies in the 09:20 northwest. I cover from Washington to Texas doing water 09:25 treatment in that area. 09:27 Great, great. 09:29 Thank you. What if you share with us a little about the 09:31 ministry, Water for Life International and what you do 09:34 for the ministry. 09:35 Water for Life International started 18 years ago coming up 09:41 here very soon. And we had a challenge that we had heard 09:48 about at an orphanage and school We had been down there doing 09:52 some small projects, electrical projects and things and realized 09:57 they were drinking out of the river. And there were getting to 10:02 be some really serious parasite problems and sickness. And we 10:07 thought you know our background we ought to get water for these 10:12 people and that's how it started We were able to accomplish that 10:19 and then of course the Lord says well look at all these villages 10:22 around here in the same condition. They don't have safe 10:28 water. They have only surface water and there's no septic 10:31 system so all the groundwater, surface water is contaminated 10:38 and so our privilege is to go supply safe drinking water for 10:42 these people. The government health ministry tells us where 10:46 we drill mortality drops. (Mmm, man) 10:51 Thank you for being so willing to serve. 10:55 Yeah, it's as much of a blessing to us as it is to those people. 11:00 I'm sure. So what's the process like in preparing a well, 11:04 drilling for the well? What do you have to go through? 11:08 So first of all, like Dad mentioned, we work with the 11:15 Ministry of Health there locally to find the most needs. So these 11:19 villages are usually destitute villages that can't afford to 11:25 have a well drilled for them. If they just one village again 11:31 can't afford to have the well drilled or to maintain it and so 11:36 we work with them to find a village that needs this more 11:42 than the others so to speak. Because it would be nice if we 11:44 could do it for all but we find the most need. And then we go 11:50 ahead and get our equipment on site. Sometimes that takes a 11:57 little bit of clearing and everything to get it so that we 12:01 can get our heavy equipment on site and then drill the well, 12:05 put a pump in it and go from there. 12:10 Okay, okay great. So when you have the well drilled, when it's 12:17 prepped, you have everything set up, can you share about is 12:24 there anything special that you do before they actually use the 12:29 well? 12:31 Absolutely. We actually have a couple of photos of this where 12:38 we actually have a well dedication that we dedicate this 12:46 well, tell them that actually the Lord has provided this water 12:51 for them. And then we go ahead and we cut the ribbon and have a 12:58 big celebration. The mayor will talk usually at that time. A lot 13:03 of different things go into that but it is a very wonderful 13:08 and special celebration to where we have that first water come 13:14 out and what a joy that is. 13:18 Amen, amen. 13:19 That's a time when our Bible workers are present and they 13:22 give a little talk about water from the scripture; maybe the 13:26 river of life or things like that and make a spiritual 13:30 application. And then we hand out Spanish Bibles to those that 13:34 can read Spanish. 13:36 We have a picture of that don't we? 13:37 We do, we do have a picture of them handing our Bibles. I was 13:42 there at one village. We broke open those cases of Bibles and 13:47 people started reaching in over my shoulders and I told Huberto, 13:51 the pump man operator there that ran the truck, I told him, I 13:57 said I might need my hard hat, Huberto. And it's very 14:02 gratifying to see those people on our way out the village, 14:05 they're sitting along there house reading or they're under 14:09 this tree reading. They're grateful for that Bible. They 14:12 have never had a Bible. (Wow) 14:15 So those Bible workers, are they living in Guatemala or are 14:19 volunteers from here. 14:21 No, we have 11 Bible workers that are living in Guatemala and so 14:27 once those Bibles are handed out those Bibles come with studies 14:31 in the back of them. They were provided by a partner... 14:37 Well, Lightbearers. 14:39 Lightbearers! Thank you. Lightbearers. 14:42 A whole container, 20,000 Bibles (20,000 Bibles) 14:46 were delivered to us while we were there last winter. An 14:48 awesome blessing and so we used those that were sent down by 14:53 Lightbearers and start Bible studies and then it goes on and 14:57 on to building churches and things. 14:59 Do you have any stats of how many churches or members that 15:03 have been baptized as a result of your ministry? 15:05 Well I know we've had thousands of baptisms. We do not keep 15:10 track. Those are the Lord's baptisms and we work very 15:14 closely with the Northern Guatemala Mission where we are 15:20 working drilling these wells in the northern third of the 15:23 country. So it's an effort of all of us. We built 14 15:30 structures last year, Water for Life did. That's kind of typical 15:36 each year probably. (Okay) 15:37 We were told by the Northern Guatemala Conference that it is 15:43 one of the fastest growing conferences in Central America. 15:48 You know, so that's exciting to be part of that. But again 15:55 this is all the Lord's doing. Definitely, we want to work with 16:01 Him in what He is doing and this is just one of the ways that we 16:06 can do that. 16:07 Exactly, exactly. 16:09 So tell us what are some unique aspects of how you do your well 16:12 installation and maintenance in comparison to other 16:16 ministries and well services. 16:17 Yeah, so there are several things that we do but one of 16:22 them I'd really like to focus on is we make this sustainable. 16:28 I have been a part of other water projects around the world 16:35 and it hasn't been sustainable. It's wonderful to go in and get 16:44 this big flash, this big wonderful thing of giving a 16:47 village water but we have to make it sustainable because if 16:53 we don't, if the pump quits or something goes wrong these 16:59 people go back to the mud puddles that they were drinking 17:03 out of literally. You would not let your dog or animals drink 17:07 out of some of the puddles that they are getting their water out 17:11 of. And so we have to make it sustainable. We have the crews 17:17 there that repair these pumps, keep them mainenanced on a 17:24 regular basis and keep them working long-term so that this 17:30 is a sustainable thing that can keep going on and on. We don't 17:35 want to just come in and get the initial well and pump and all of 17:39 that and then leave. Most of our pumps are hand pumps and 17:45 that way it's simpler but it still takes maintenance and we 17:50 have to keep that going and headed in the right direction so 17:56 that's really one of the very unique things that I think we 18:00 provide that a lot of other ministries tend to overlook and 18:07 we just don't want to do that because once they get clean 18:13 water if they go back to the nasty water it's even worse 18:18 than if we hadn't have given it to them in the very first place. 18:22 And so it's got to be an ongoing thing. (Wow) 18:25 Amen. You know you mentioned the hand pumps. I think we have a 18:29 video. You can show that now. Because in my mind I was 18:33 thinking that the hand pump was going to be something like this. 18:36 And we do have some that are like this. But the ones that we 18:41 found now that go like this and we'll be able to see in the video 18:45 in just a minute here, that really has been a game changer 18:51 for us. That is a pump that is by far the best hand pump in the 18:58 world today. Look at them cranking that. And actually 19:04 pumping water by cranking that. The old-style hand pumps, and we 19:11 have a lot of those down there but they sometimes...if we're 19:18 pumping water 12 to 14 hours a day which is common in these 19:24 villages, literally 12 to 14 hours a day. We have to 19:29 understand that each one of these pumps serves on average 19:33 250 people. You know here in the U.S. each home has its own well 19:39 or maybe multiple wells. But down there whole villages use 19:45 this one hand pump or this one well and so 250 people using it 19:52 12 to 14 hours a day it can get some pretty extreme wear. So 19:57 there's times when we have to maintenance those hand pumps 20:03 that go like this three and four times a year to keep them going. 20:06 Where the hand crank style hand pump, which has definitely been 20:13 an improvement and a better pump We can go sometimes three to 20:17 five years without maintenance. (Wow!) And that is a huge, huge 20:23 difference. They are much more expensive but in the cost of 20:27 maintenance that it saves us it's actually over time per 20:32 gallon pumped a lot cheaper. 20:34 It gives us some other options too. The old reciprocating hand 20:39 pump goes up and down, aah give 100 feet deep that's about all 20:42 you're going to get. The life pump which is the one you crank 20:47 400 feet. So it opens up new options and we have drilled some 20:52 600-foot holes and so it's really given us some good 20:57 options. We also install electric pumps and solar pumps 21:01 but these hand pumps are the mainstay. 21:04 Amen. So tell us...I can imagine that you're probably very 21:10 excited when you go in here and set up these wells. What's the 21:18 most gratifying aspect of Water for Life? 21:22 To me the most gratifying is that we're reaching those remote 21:27 villages with the gospel. (Amen, amen) Ah drilling is a platform 21:32 to share the gospel. Once we have drilled in a village, ah, 21:36 we have a tight just a tight time with those people. 21:43 Jesus's method. 21:44 Yeah, they understand that we're the ones that brought them water 21:47 so they come running when our Bible workers come. Then we are 21:51 able to have Bible studies. That's the most gratifying thing 21:55 Those people are destitute and they're so happy to find there's 22:01 a better place coming. (Amen) 22:02 The second thing I would mention in regard to that would be this 22:08 is actually saving lives. So we will go in and put a well in a 22:17 village and then come back a few years later and they will say, 22:22 you know, the year before you put this well in we had three 22:27 infants die due to waterborne illness. After you put the well 22:31 there have been zero infants die due to waterborne illness. So 22:36 you can't put a number on this. It is an absolute life-saving 22:42 thing and like Dad mentioned once we save their physical life 22:48 here on this earth, the Lord can work on their heart and save 22:52 them for eternity. (Amen) So it's just an ongoing wonderful 22:59 thing. And if we give them clean water that changes their 23:06 life forever. You don't have to guess the villages that we go 23:11 into the ones that have clean water, because you don't see the 23:15 distended bellies of the kids because of the amoeba or 23:18 whatever. And they are active. They're more vibrant. They can 23:23 actually, live instead of just existing. If we're sick and 23:31 cast down we're just existing and trying to slog through the 23:35 day. But if we're vibrant and have that energy it changes the 23:41 whole entire outlook of life and your entire life until either 23:50 you die or the Lord comes. (Right, right) and so it's a 23:55 huge thing that giving people clean water changes things 24:00 forever. (Amen, amen) 24:02 It does. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. 24:03 It makes me want 24:05 to get involved. (Amen, amen) So with the recent pandemic, did 24:08 that affect your ministry significantly? 24:11 Oh yes, the pandemic did affect us. Let me tell you how the Lord 24:15 turned that. We had people down there, supervisor-type people 24:19 because we weren't drilling with a national crew yet. It was 24:23 simply volunteers going down, drilling wells and then they'd 24:27 come home and we'd put the well drills away for the rest of the 24:30 year. So we were training hoping to get a national crew up that 24:35 would be able to work all year long. The pandemic kept some of 24:40 our people there several weeks longer than they wanted to be 24:45 there. And they're semi-retired. They said we're okay with that 24:50 We'll go home when the Lord allows. But what it allowed was 24:54 we were able to finish the final training of our crew and then 25:02 that whole year they drilled on their own and we drilled by 25:06 Whatsapp. I didn't think I'd ever drill a well by whatsapp. 25:10 They come into a problem, they send a message you know up to us 25:14 and we could advise them. So that was the first year we were 25:17 able to drill with nationals, no Americans present. And now this 25:25 is the second year. We've almost completed two years now with 25:28 national crews. And another blessing that came out of that 25:31 they're training others and so that's the future of Water for 25:36 Life. It's come up and it all started with COVID. (Wow) 25:40 It's been a blessing in some ways. 25:42 Look at God. Look at how God's been working. You know that's 25:47 a miracle in itself right there. And I'm sure that they've got 25:51 more miracles that they can share. You know I love hearing 25:54 miracles. Do you have any more that you can share with us? 25:57 Well, we've got a lot of them. Just the day before yesterday 26:01 we loaded a 40-foot container that goes to Guatemala and that 26:05 was out of my shop. I'm retired now so that shop is used to 26:10 stage equipment and supplies that go to Guatemala and in the 26:14 disarray that shipping is in now it's just terrible. So we had 26:20 three different dates. They kept changing the date that you'll 26:25 load the container and it finally came this week and that 26:28 is on the way. (Amen) And we've seen other miracles. We've seen 26:32 definite miracles, huge things that we knew were impossible 26:35 just, for one thing, beginning Water for Life and getting 26:39 equipment to Guatemala. How do you ship it there? Things like 26:43 this. And what it does for us is give us confidence in the Lord 26:47 because when those "impossible" things actually come about then 26:53 we know who did it. The Lord did it. (Amen) Rod probably has... 26:57 You know, the Lord has done so many miracles in this ministry. 27:02 But one that just comes to my mind right now is that...and I 27:07 know that we've shared this many times before but it just really 27:12 brings home what the Lord does for us. I was going to some 27:20 conferences on the other side of Washington over in the Olympia 27:23 area and I got a call from my uncle. He was in Guatemala. He 27:27 said I can't keep this drill rig running. I need another magneto. 27:32 And I was like okay and he said oh by the way...this was 27:41 Thursday and Sunday there was somebody that was leaving from 27:46 Spokane and he's like is there any way you can get a magneto 27:48 in their luggage so that they can take it to Guatemala with 27:52 them on Sunday. Well this is Thursday and we've got Sunday 27:58 coming really soon. So I started doing some calls. I called a few 28:04 different vendors and I said okay I need a magneto for this 28:10 drill rig and a couple of them were like well what's a magneto? 28:14 I knew that wasn't going to go very well. And so a lot of 28:21 people probably don't know what a magneto is but it creates the 28:22 spark to make an engine run. Okay. And this was an old style 28:27 engine and so that's what we needed because without spark 28:31 you're not going to have an engine running. It's just that 28:35 simple. So then I was just driving along and praying and I 28:39 said Lord what am I going to do here? And He says call Brett 28:42 McCarty. And so I called Brett McCarty and I said Brett, I said 28:49 because I knew that he had the same style drill rig that we 28:53 have down in Guatemala. It's a percussion style and we actually 28:57 have a video of that drill rig running. We've since changed 29:03 it over to diesel engines so it no longer has the magneto on it. 29:08 It's a diesel engine on it now instead of a gas but...I called 29:14 Brett and I said Brett, Lynn's down there. He needs a magneto 29:17 to keep this going. Is there any way that you can help me out? 29:21 And Brett's like well I'm on the way home from a job and just 29:27 five miles ago I passed a guy 29:30 who rebuilds magnetos. Let me turn around and go back. This is 29:36 when I called him, by the way. He had just passed this. Let me 29:39 go back and talk to him and see what we can do to find a magneto 29:42 He gets back and he calls me from this magneto shop. Well 29:50 this guy, it's actually out in the middle of north Idaho and 29:53 people would send him magnetos. He would rebuild them and send 29:58 them back to them. He didn't stock any magnetos at all. But 30:02 he said okay what is the model number, serial number all of 30:07 that of the magneto that you need. I told him and he called 30:11 me a few minutes later when he got back and he confirmed this 30:15 is the part number, this is the serial number, all of that of the 30:20 magneto that you have and this one is what you need and he's 30:26 like I have one in my hand (what?) And he told me he said 30:30 three years ago, three years ago somebody brought this 30:36 magneto to this guy had him rebuild it and never came and 30:41 picked it up. (Wow) This was the exact magneto that we needed 30:46 for that drill rig in Guatemala. Look the Lord took care of this 30:51 problem three years before we knew we were even going to have 30:55 the problem. And so then Brett said, What do you want me to do 31:00 with it now. Well I wasn't home yet but my wife met Brett at the 31:04 Washington/Idaho border, picked up that magneto and it was on 31:09 it's way to Guatemala the next Sunday. (Amen) 31:13 Praise the Lord. 31:14 And so you know this is the kind of thing that the Lord loves to 31:18 do. He loves to take care of His people and He wants them to be 31:25 happy and to have clean water. 31:27 Amen. You know that's a wonderful miracle story. I know 31:33 you guys have more. Can you share with us maybe just one 31:36 more? There was one I saw that you mentioned about sacrificing 31:40 a pig. (Oh) 31:41 Yeah I want to hear about that one. 31:43 You want to hear about sacrificing a pig. 31:45 What's that about? 31:47 The villages we work in like I mentioned are pretty remote and 31:51 there may be a lot of spiritualism in those villages. 31:55 The village just previous to this one Alacatillo had prayer 32:01 where they wanted the well drilled and we had drilled there 32:06 had a successful well, nice water. They were happy. That's 32:12 where we were handing out the Bibles and they were reaching in 32:15 over me. I thought I was going to need a hard hat to protect 32:18 myself. The next village further back in the jungle 32:23 Samorach. Samorach told us well we sacrificed a pig here and 32:30 it's right in front of a church. We sacrificed a pig here and 32:35 this is where we want to drill. We drilled there. We set up with 32:39 a rotary drill. That's different than the little percussion drill 32:43 you just saw, you know, up and down. It's rotary and we 32:49 couldn't get down. We hit a huge cavern and had some problems. We 32:53 couldn't get down and we moved away. We told them we would be 32:58 back but it really scared them because here they didn't have 33:02 water. Again we told them that we'd be back. And our lead Bible 33:10 worker man who coordinates all the Bible work, he says you know 33:14 you shouldn't have sacrificed a pig. You should have prayed to 33:16 the Lord who knows where water is. (Amen) So he started off on 33:21 the right foot right there. We came back in with the old cable 33:25 tool and we were able to get down and get the casing, steel 33:28 casing in the ground and things we needed and we completed that 33:33 well and what a happy day that was. I was there when we had the 33:39 well, dedication. It seemed like there were people there from 33:42 several villages probably just because everybody turned out 33:45 from that village and we were able to...we have many Bible 33:50 studies going there in Samorach right now. (Amen) That was 33:57 something that was about impossible getting down that 33:59 hole just the mechanics of it. And the Lord turned that around. 34:03 Praise God, praise God. 34:05 Had a positive for His name. 34:07 Amen. Well you know I know you that are viewers at home are 34:13 wondering how can they participate with your ministry. 34:17 What can you share with us, what can they do to participate 34:24 whether it's help, or can they come down there and work as well 34:27 Financial help? 34:29 Sure. Absolutely. There are many ways that they can help but 34:32 you know if they want to come down there are many things that 34:39 they can do even if they don't understand or know about 34:45 drilling wells. Families have come down and done vacation 34:52 Bible schools. They have come down and they have helped paint 34:58 our apartments. They have come down...you know drillers get 35:03 dirty and sometimes a housewife comes down and the only thing 35:08 that she knows to do is how to clean a house or cook a meal or 35:13 all of that. That's all stuff that can be a huge blessing 35:18 because these people when they're there they want to, the 35:22 drillers especially, they really want to make their time 35:26 effective and so if somebody else can help them with their 35:29 laundry or cook meals for them and all of that, that helps out. 35:35 We also have dentists that come down and do dentistry. We have 35:40 dental hygienists come down and pull teeth or clean teeth. 35:47 Different medical workers doing things in the villages. You know 35:55 this has been a few years ago but we had a big crew come down 35:58 and build a reservoir for the orphanage and school campus. We 36:03 actually built two very large reservoirs and that just takes 36:08 manual labor to do. And so there's a lot of different 36:12 things that people can help out with and that can be something 36:21 that they can actually go down and help with if they're 36:24 interested in actually going to a project. (Okay.) 36:28 Another thing I'd say, we can use translators because 36:34 volunteers that go don't always know Spanish and I know very 36:38 little. I just kind of get by. I wish that I could know it 36:42 better but we need translators. If someone's willing...maybe 36:48 they want to be a mechanic. Maybe they want to help pass out 36:51 Bibles. There's so many things that we can use. (Amen) 36:56 Then on the financial side of things, you know since we all of 37:01 us in the U.S. are volunteers. We pay our own way down. We are 37:06 complete volunteers. None of us get any remuneration for what we 37:12 do for the ministry. But down there it's a little different. 37:16 Since we have national crews helping us now and actually 37:21 doing the drilling, doing the pump work, doing the repairs 37:25 all of that, every one of those needs to be paid. Our Bible 37:28 workers have to be paid. They can't do that for free. And so 37:35 it has become a bigger deal to keep that going year-round and 37:41 so that funding is something you know the Lord is a Lord of 37:48 just enough. An infinite amount of just enough. He always gives 37:54 us what we need. Usually not a penny more. But that is 38:00 something again we now have a crew down there that is there 38:06 year-round drilling these wells It takes more supplies to do 38:10 that and it takes their wages as well. And so all of those 38:18 things take funding to do. 38:21 So for the funding, if a viewer at home wants to send in some 38:28 money how can they participate or what's the website or phone 38:33 number that they can call or how can they contact you? 38:36 Yes we do have (up on the screen as well) we do have a 38:42 the website is H2OForLife.org H2O it's not H2zero 38:47 H2OForLife.org. Another easy link but I better not confuse 38:55 you too much. GuatemalaWells.com and that gets 38:58 you to that. Sometimes it's hard to get that H2OForLife.org and 39:03 we have a number. It's toll-free It's in area (509) 795-1912 39:10 (509) 795-1912 and that will contact us. There's ways to 39:19 donate on the website. We're just delighted that those 39:24 fellows down there are capable. They're happy for a job and 39:27 we're happy that they're carrying out our mission. We go 39:30 now to mentor rather than to drill wells. It's growing. 39:36 You mentioned families coming down to help and I'm thinking 39:41 about maybe there's some children at home who are 39:45 thinking, boy! Mom and dad, that sounds great. I would love to go 39:49 down there and participate with that. Can you use children to 39:53 help? 39:55 Yes. (How) Anywhere from one person up to 35 and we're 40:01 equipped through Bernie our lead man who's in charge of the 40:06 Bible work. It would be most Bible work and I tell you 40:09 children can go down and they can help with these VBS and 40:13 things like that. Any village of 200 or 250 people there's 40-60 40:19 children. And you'll become close friends with those 40:22 children. So kids if you want to go, jump on board. It's very 40:27 rewarding. (Amen) 40:29 My daughters have been down a couple of times. The first time 40:33 that my youngest was down there was in mommy's tummy but my 40:40 oldest actually has been down two times that she remembers and 40:44 they love going and helping out with the vacation Bible school 40:50 They actually help me a little bit on the pump rig, setting a 40:56 pump and stuff like that as well but the friendships that they 41:01 made during those vacation Bible schools and the meetings that 41:06 they were helping with, oh they just loved that. And you know it 41:11 makes our kids understand how good, we have it. We here in the 41:18 U.S., well let's just face it, we flush our toilets with 41:24 drinking water and we don't understand that down in some of 41:27 these countries they don't even have drinking water to drink 41:31 much less flush a toilet with or even have a toilet. And so 41:35 those things that let our kids see that these people are happy 41:42 even though they don't have all of what we have can really 41:46 change their lives. There was a certain gal who went down with 41:52 a family. She came down. She was not really happy to be there. 41:58 She just wanted to be on her device and just really wasn't 42:02 getting into this. But then one day one of the pastors took her 42:11 out and she did some dental work in the village and she really 42:16 got into that. And you know, that changed her whole career. 42:20 She came back and she decided that she was going to go into 42:24 the medical field to help people and so maybe she wasn't excited 42:29 to start with but it changed her attitude on what she wanted to 42:35 do in life and so it was a life- changing thing for her by 42:42 helping somebody else. And that can really change each one of us 42:46 (Amen) And one thing we do have in our sights is a mobile dental 42:53 clinic. This will not be just used two weeks when a group 42:57 comes down. We're planning to hire a dentist in Guatemala. It will 43:01 be used year around with evangelism in mind and people 43:08 that come from the states will have it up and working and they 43:10 can join in on that. And this 11-year-old boy, I can't forget 43:15 he did a complete series of meetings down there. Had many, 43:20 many baptisms. (Wow, praise God) We don't have time to tell of 43:22 miracles that happened there. (Amen, amen) 43:27 So someone wants to go. What's the logistics. Do they need a 43:29 Visa. If they stay how long can they stay? 43:32 Well they just need a passport. They don't need a Visa. You go to 43:36 Guatemala City and then our website talks about how to get 43:40 north; by bus which is fine. or by air. So it's easy if you 43:48 just get to Guatemala City and then we can put you up. We have 43:53 nice apartments with queen beds and safe water and it won't cost 44:00 much to stay there because the food is provided from the school 44:05 on the campus where we stay. The school and orphanage where 44:09 we first drilled. So it's an easy trip. 44:14 Yes this is a fairly easy mission trip. This is not 44:17 you know roughing it so to speak like some of the mission trips 44:23 that we've been on. We have apartments on our shop that have 44:29 accommodations for people and we have other apartments that we 44:34 can use as well. And so I would say a pretty cushy experience 44:41 because you can actually have a warm shower and a few things 44:46 like that that are pretty nice comforts that make it a pretty 44:50 easy experience but yet you can still experience this third 44:56 world country and what it takes to help people. 44:59 Okay. So if a family goes or individual they're going to need 45:05 to take something. Do you have any recommended things that they 45:10 need to take with them for a trip down to Guatemala. 45:14 Yeah, some anti-itch cream. If there's any bug to bite it'll 45:19 be in Guatemala. Other than that you have to pay close attention 45:25 to you know your hygiene and what you eat and what you drink. 45:31 But we have safe water there and there's bottled water all 45:37 through Guatemala. And you would want to see some sights like 45:40 Tikal right next to these major Mayan ruins. Things like that. 45:47 But it's encouraging to us when people join us and it would 45:51 certainly, be an encouragement to them. 45:53 I would also say bring layers because in the morning it can be 45:58 a little bit cool but in the afternoon it can be pretty warm 46:02 and there are times when it rains pretty hard as well. So 46:06 that's definitely...And we're happy to you know speak with 46:11 people specifically. Contact us on the website or the phone 46:15 number. We also have some frequently asked questions on 46:21 the website that you could look at those as well to see if this 46:25 is really for me. But we're always happy to chat with people 46:30 about that. 46:31 Allow me to go back and answer your question a little more how 46:35 it started. (Okay) We adopted our daughter from Guatemala in 46:40 1985. We had Rod and his older brother. They were 11 and 9 and 46:46 we didn't want an infant but we thought we'd like a daughter. 46:50 And we adopted our daughter Summer in 1985. So we were 46:56 always you know kind of open and interested in Guatemala and we 47:00 had an opportunity to go there in 1997. She was a product, a 47:06 victim, of the civil war that went for 40 years. Her village 47:09 was wiped out and some time later an army general came by in 47:15 his helicopter and saw this little gal rummaging in the 47:18 garbage outside the village trying to find something to eat. 47:21 He landed and picked her up, took her right to the orphanage. 47:26 (Praise God) And that's our daughter. (Hmmmm) So Guatemala 47:35 has part of our heart. (Yes definitely) So it's out of that 47:41 that we realized this orphanage and school doesn't have safe 47:46 water and so in '97 we started going there and then in 2005 we 47:52 started well drilling. 47:53 (Okay) So you were blessed with a daughter and you're blessing 47:57 them with water. (Amen) I am so inspired. So what if we wanted 48:00 to go on a mission trip? Ricky does the preaching, I do 48:04 some health presentations. (Oh yes) How would they coordinate 48:06 that? Any time of year or is there a specific time of year? 48:09 Any time of year is fine because Bernie is there. He's a 48:13 tremendous host. He's bilingual. He's been on this set before 48:19 at 3ABN. If you go in the winter my wife and I go January and 48:25 February. We'd love to see you. So come if you can. If it's 48:31 another time of year that suites you better, yes, any time of 48:34 year is fine. The health work is greatly appreciated. 48:41 So we need to start learning Spanish. (Hey yeah) 48:46 Well if you know black beans and tortillas at least you won't go 48:55 hungry down there. (Right, right) 48:57 You know I'm thinking about the wells and two questions come to 49:04 mind. When we're coming up with a site for a location how do you 49:10 go about finding that and then also do you ever use solar at 49:15 all for any of the wells? 49:17 Yes we do use solar and some of them that are really deep that 49:20 we couldn't access with a hand pump, we used solar. Now with 49:24 a life pump that's kind of changed because we can even do 49:27 it with a life pump if it deep. So solar works great. As far as 49:33 sighting we do it on public property so it's going to be in 49:36 a church yard or it's going to be in the soccer field or at the 49:38 school or the local village clinic. We don't do it on 49:45 private property. And that way it's open to the people on the 49:50 street. The whole village has access to that well and that's 49:54 important to us. It so happens the Lord put water under about 49:58 95 or more percent of the earth's surface so it's hard to miss 50:01 when you look at it that way. We've wondered a little bit 50:04 about that when we had to go deeper and deeper and deeper, 50:08 but it all works out. 50:11 Amen. Amen. Well I can see that our time is almost up and before 50:16 we're going to take little break But before we go I wanted to let 50:22 the viewers know, you may be wondering how you can 50:27 participate, how you can support this ministry and you maybe want 50:31 to maybe come out with you and your family. Or maybe you're an 50:35 individual. Maybe you're a well driller, maybe you are a dentist 50:39 or nurse. Whatever your capacity you want to get involved. If 50:45 you're excited about getting involved we want to share with 50:48 you some information, it'll be coming up on the screen, of how 50:51 you can participate. Where you can call in, you can write for 50:57 those of you who want to write a letter. You can email us, 51:02 email them. You can also donate on their website. So we're 51:07 getting ready to show you that information that's going to come 51:09 up on your screen of how you can contact Water for Life 51:16 International so stay tuned for that message right now. 51:20 If you would like to contact or know more about Water For Life 51:25 International, you can do so in the following ways: You can 51:29 write to them at P. O. Box 2330 Deer Park, WA 99006. You can 51:36 call them at (509) 795-1912 You can visit their website at 51:48 H2OForLife.org or send them an email at 51:57 Info.H2OForLife@gmail.com 52:02 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2023-01-03