Hospitals and Trenches: January Team Recap

Better late than never I suppose...

Jim Snyder, Jerry and Nancy Hibma, Debbie and Randy Discher, Dan Byers

Jeremy Howe, Jerry Jameson

A girl collects clean drinking water from the newly finished well at ELIKYA

Two members of the January team, Jerry and his nephew Jeremy, came out to Congo to train a team of Congolese how to drill for water using a rig that was purchased with funds raised by Constance Evangelical Free Church. Access to water has been a major difficulty in the Gemena area. Not only are there few pumps but there has also been a problem with the potability of the water that is accessible. A lot of it has microorganisms that can be dangerous, especially to young children. So having clean water available at ELIKYA is an enormous blessing.

Carpenters taking a rest from constructing the shelter for the ELIKYA well reservoir

Push starting the truck that carries the water necessary to drill

While the team was here they managed to see two wells drilled, one at ELIKYA and the other at the CECU mission. The Congolese team that was trained took the lead on the second well and Jerry took more of a backseat, letting them make the decisions and adding his input when necessary. Following the succesful drilling of these wells, the team looks to have a few more jobs on the horizon as there are some interested organizations in Gemena as well as plans to drill at the CECU hospital in Tandala.

Drilling at the CECU mission

Well drilling is an involved, dirty and time-consuming endeavour. The team did well, though, working through some setbacks such as the pit collapsing multiple times and difficulty getting enough water to flush out the sand, gravel and earth from the pit. Jeremy posted an update to his blog as preparations were being made to drill the first well:

"We've now met the team of drillers. The main guy, Ahundambi, was selected as the leader I believe by congolese folks in the e free church. He then selected 5 others to work with him. He did a good job, most of them have a mechanical or electrical training background of some kind, and they all seem to be pumped to be here.

Yesterday we finally started making material preparation to drill the well. There are a lot of preparations to make! Dig a pit, bring in thousands of gallons of water, make all the tools that aren't already here, etc. We'll spend all day doing that today, and then hopefully the next we'll drill the well, which should be done in one day."

It ended up taking more than one day but they got it done.

Nancy Hibma and Dr. Bienvenue making the rounds during the tour of Tandala Hospital

In addition to Jim and Jerry there was a team present from Constance as well. They were split several different ways and accomplished a lot. Their projects included 1) Pastor Randy lecturing at the Protestant University of the Ubangi (UPU) on spiritual warfare and healthy church growth, 2) Debbie and Nancy giving a 3-day seminar to women’s leaders in CECU churches on the value of women and on spiritual gifts, 3) Dan training ELIKYA staff how to counsel students and Nancy and Debbie training teachers to offer Biblical Worldview/Life Skills lessons, 4) Dan giving a seminar to pastors concerning counseling for youth and relational difficulties and 5) Jerry developing business plans for a variety of ELIKYA initiatives. The team also visited Tandala Hospital to understand the work and the needs and to investigate a potential partnership with their church.