The saying is old, but true....."You don't appreciate what you have until you don't have it anymore."

July 22, the Saturday before "winter break" started, we suddenly no longer had running water. Our pump wasn't pumping water from the well to the water tank, so therefore, we didn't have running water in our houses. We quickly turned the pump off to not overheat it until we figured out what was wrong. During the next week and a half, we lived with no water coming to out houses, trying to pump water maybe once a day, to then open the valve on the water tower to fill buckets with water to keep in our houses to use. Bucket showering wasn't too terrible except when I needed to wash my hair. Thankfully I have friends at South American Mission next door who allowed me to shower over there when I really needed to wash my hair. They also let me do laundry over there too......I love my friends.... :-)

After an initial analysis, it was decided we needed to extend the pipes to the well. So after graciously being donated funds by Refuge of Hope Non-Profit, they did just that - extended the pipes down 10 meters. And by the next day it seemed it worked and we had water!! I promptly took a shower.....

But then school started back on Monday, August 7.

No water once again and back to hoarding water in buckets. We called in a "well-expert" and were told that our pump was being overworked because it was too small for the depth it needed to pump up water and we needed to buy a stronger water pump. So by Wednesday we had a new pump and installed it. By Thursday we had running water again and with great trepidation, began using that water more normally, but not dumping out our saved bucket water in the event it suddenly went out again.

It has now been almost 2 weeks since the water issue, and I am feel the water problem has at least for now been fixed. It really makes you appreciate simple resources like water when you suddenly don't have it ready available.

Praise the Lord for Running Water!!!

#peru #missions #Peru #provision