Well, Well, Well

Math teachers, eat-your-heart-out! David used math (in real life!) to teach well workers how to calculate the amount of broken tile they needed to purchase to cover our well. Guineans waste very few resources, so even broken tile is sold and used to finish everything from showers to driveways. It was quite an exercise for the two men who probably never finished more than 8 years of elementary school (source).

For weeks, a few men worked by hand in the blazing sun to dig our well wider and deeper. Hand over hand they hauled up water, dirt, and rock in a bucket dumping it in front of our house to fill huge ruts the rainy season had carved into our road.

Finally, the well was ready to be capped, fitted with a hand pump, and tiled.

Everyone needs water to live, and toward the end of the dry season water can be especially hard to find. Fortunately, our well has never run dry and neighbors know they can come and draw from our well anytime. Just as we needed a well for water, the workers who dug the well needed living water.  During the weeks the men were in our courtyard, David shared the Good News with them under the shade of a banana plant although no decisions for Christ were made. I wonder how they will respond when God points not to the times they provided water through their hard work, but to the time they were freely offered living water.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14)