First of all, you may remember that our landlords had offered to let us drill a well in place of rent for the first while. That was a huge blessing in itself, but we probably hadn’t even thought of the possibility of not hitting water! Well, we arranged for the crew to come the day after we arrived. We suggested a place for them to try drilling, and they got to work. But 60 meters down (Our neighbor’s well is only 60 meters deep.) it was showing no hope of water, so they quit and moved to another spot. That’s when we thought, “What if they don’t hit water?” But God had led us here so clearly. We prayed (and asked some others to pray) and left it in God’s hands. At the second spot there still wasn’t water at 60 meters but there was mud so they kept going. And kept going. They ended up going to 112 meters all for the price we had agreed on ahead of time which would usually only cover for 60 meters deep, or so. And we had water. And plenty of it. When they pumped it out the next day they got about 5 gallons per minute. Isn’t God amazing? I think the Holy Spirit moved the owner to keep going when he could have just said “no water.” (The fact that around here they don’t charge if they don’t hit water was probably also part of what motivated the owner to keep going.)
The next thing we had to figure out was how to get the water to the house. We were trying to figure out how to do it ourselves when someone counseled that we hire it out. We did. And we’re happy we did—not just because it got the work done in a reasonable amount of time but also because we got to work with them. Jonathan especially found it a blessing to be able to work with our neighbor who was doing most of the pipe work. Any opportunity to connect with people is good. :)
Now it’s been nearly two months, and life goes on. We have lots of work to do outside to make a garden (We’re SO thankful for all the space!), we still have some video editing work to do, and we spend part of each day studying Thai reading/writing.
We didn’t move here to just do that, though. Our burden is to connect with people and ultimately share Jesus with them. So rather than exercising here at home, we’ve been going into town about 3 times a week to exercise at a couple of different places where there are other people exercising. So far I (Hannah) met a Christian lady from Kenya (Judy) who we will be having to our home soon. Please pray for us as we hope to connect with her, especially on a spiritual level. Jonathan was able to reconnect with a guy our age (Boot) that we met here in March. They’ll be running together some times. Please pray for that relationship and openings to share Christ with him.
We also got to make friends with a couple that are closer to our parents’ ages. How we met them was an amazing miracle in itself! (Watch the Testimony Tuesday video on YouTube.com/missionviewfinder next week to hear it.) We were able to go for a 24.5 mile bike ride with them last week and plan to do so each Sunday, weather permitting. Prayers appreciated as we get to know Joe and Molly better.
Also, God blessed us with the kindest next door neighbors. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us in reaching out to them and others in our village.
We hope and pray that each one of you will be blessed in ministering to the people in your corner of the globe. It’s not always comfortable, but there’s enough joy to make it worth it all.
Until next time . . .
God bless each of you!
Jonathan and Hannah
Foreign Correspondents
Jesus4asia.org/jonathanhill
Vimeo.com/jonathanhill
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