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Well Inspections & Site visits | Current Challenges | Concluding Remarks | Prayer Requests & Praise Notes
We had opportunity to visit a few new well projects done recently, and some old projects still in service, and a new proposed well coming up soon at Ikeduru, Imo State under the leadership of Dr. Linus Ihetuge. A few of the sites were visited by Michael- David Reilly (in my absence) to help highlight our work over the past 10 years of ministry and project-oriented services. To date, RNM has done approx. 200 projects since 2001. The visited sites were:
Lagos - a project at Eric Moore at Games Village Foursquare Church where five people recently gave their lives to Christ during the well commissioning. Ademola Banjoko was responsible for this project. Photos: Left above – Old hand dug well was previous water source for Church and Community; Center: New well taps – the new well is drilled and sealed and located behind the wall in the Church compound. Right: is the overhead water storage tank built by the Church as part of their contribution
Old
Water Source
Two projects were completed between late March and May 20th for Christ the Ark of Salvation denomination – one done for a Bible School & Community; and the other done for their remote Church near Aba - Christ the Ark of Salvation Church Alaukwu; both are in Abia State. The second site is in Osissioma LGA (Local Government Area). Stanley Madu was responsible for these two new projects.
Four of our recent project sites in the Abuja & Nassarawa State area, namely Songo Burua, Bakin Kogi, Gida Kura, and Masaka. A detailed report shared with our partners, LWI, for donor benefit is posted Online [Read more > click link. Engr. Moses Aende was responsible for these projects. Masaka drilling, done by KDS for RNM had its pump installation and completion done by Hosea Apeh’s ministry in Abuja area. This site has been transitioned over to Engr. Moses since October, 2010. I was accompanied to these project sites by Michael-David Reilly to capture the moment from the well beneficiaries in their day-to-day living. Photos and videos shot by Michael-David would be used for the 10th Anniversary Gala of RNM. The Bakin Kogi well which is functional can be viewed on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZmybaRhqDo&feature=related
Three additional new project completed recently were visited by Michael-David Reilly in Benue State. These sites are near Gboko, and were done by the Northern team lead by our Brother, Engr. Moses Aende and his skilled crew supervisor Brother Sunday Joseph. (Photo below – the HGY 200 Rig) Further, Engr. Aende’s team is credited with the rehab of the large capacity hand dug 3 meter diameter well on the NKST MKAR Christian University campus, near Gboko – on the hills of MKAR.
Above: Photo of drilling in Gboko - shows Sharjeel Shakeel (Pakistani Operator & Rig Technician) training other Nigerian crew to operate the Chinese HGY-200 Rig. The team completed new water well and Public fetching points at Host Residence of Engr. Sam Inyionumbe of Benue Cement Company.
Below: Photo shows crew at work with air compressor during MKAR University well rehab. (Photo below – MKAR University well rehab)
An on-going project site in Imo State where the community have almost completed the erection of a 3000 gallon capacity water storage tank in anticipation of a new well from RNM and LWI. This is a good way to get a motivated Community buy-in into our projects. When they are ready with a fully constructed water storage tank and tower, we show up with our rig and drill them a well. Because of limited availability of electricity to pump always, it's important to have a good capacity water storage tank for rural communities. Depending on tank capacity, their populations, etc, this can also be a considerable cost in terms of capital outlay. In the long run, it is a worthwhile investment in the lives of women and children.
A recently completed project site for the National Youth Service Corpers in Port Harcourt, Nigeria which is in need of a water treatment unit to improve the quality of the well water now coming out of the well drilled last year. It is said to have some odors. This project was executed by Pastor Ben Onos in P.H., River State.
Photo above: National Youth Services Corp members at their well in Port Harcourt.
GWORM projects in Nassarawa State / Abuja area:
a. Angwar Zaria remains the major issue at the moment for us. Given our current situation, and pressure from donors to get this project completed ASAP, we engaged the KDS Company – a Korean Drilling Services company in Abuja area - to go in and punch the hole for us so we can complete the well and pump installation. Unfortunately, 1 KM into the 4 KM access road to Angwar Zaria, they gave up complaining bitterly that the road was too bad for their heavy rig to go to and return safely. We now have an alternate arrangement. They will return to the site as soon as they repair a smaller rig which they believe can safely go to Angwar Zaria. Our backup plan would be to drill the well with our own equipment if they fail pending our getting the all the parts needed to re-mobilize our team again to the location.
b. Bakin Kogi – has the worst access roads of all the locations where we’ve done projects since 2001. Some village roads in the Zing area, and West Kogi Fulani Camps were terrible, but were still a lot better and shorter than the two routes into Bakin Kogi and Gida Kura. At this location, we presently have a functional well that we drilled with our rig, but unfortunately, the production of the well is too small to serve all the needs of the village. The well happen to be drilled at a location more convenient or nearer the host Church building but not exactly at the surveyed location as the team got to learn after completing the existing well. As a result, there is a new proposal to drill a second well at another site in Bakin Kogi that we recently surveyed as more prospective to about 60 meters depth. Based on our difficult experience with KDS, or hiring other contractors who have lousy equipment, we’ve decided to shelve this project until the rainy season abets and the construction work on the second access road completes. It took approx. 1 hour 30 minutes to reach this site which is only 10 KM from the major paved road – the Abuja to Keffi road. We crossed about 7 river beds, which will be impassible during rainy season by any vehicle except heavy and high army trucks, or 4-wheelers. On another note, the people of Bakin Kogi were very pleasant and friendly, and very open to the gospel.
c. Songo Burua: We visited this site to discover what went wrong again on this well pump following a repair we did about a month earlier. It was reported that the water was getting muddy. Our Northern team had raised the pump cylinder the first time to mitigate this problem. Upon reaching there through a 9.5 KM bad access road in 1 hour’s time, we quickly lifted pump cylinder out of well and discovered it was covered with mud with it’s rubber damaged and clogged up with mica looking sand and silt. We re-engaged KDS which we used to drill this well and they agreed to clean out the well better than they did before, add additional 4 inch casing inside the existing 6 inches casing, plus pour in some quantity of rice sand to gravel pack and resolve the situation. They did exactly that and we re-installed pump with a new cylinder rubber to get the well back to service. We also completed training with the young men of Songo Burua and handed a set of tools to them in care of their Pastor and Chief. Both KDS and our team had a rough time on this second trip to repair the well because KDS had their air compressor truck break down on this village road. It took them over 30 hours to get help and fix the vehicle for the journey to continue. But despite these challenges, we made it through. Praise the Lord. Having to spend an unplanned night at a hotel in Keffi versus Gboko or Abuja was an unpleasant experience for our US Relief Ambassador – Michael-David Reilly, who was on a mission to take photographs of our work to help with our 10th Anniversary Gala. [Learn more > click link to read report for LWI / GWORM]
The word “Ebenezer” amazes me. With some 200 well projects done; 12 medical outreaches in many rural communities; 10 formal and informal VTEN (Vocational job skills training) done in addition to the 13 Health & Water And Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) training & radio broadcasts – all reaching over 600,000 people and nearly $2 million worth of resources invested in the lives of people. We know it has to be the doing of the Lord. We have always believed that we could have done none of these without God’s help, your partnership, and our volunteer network of Relief Ambassadors. And because of that, we can all say – “thus far has the Lord helped us …at the place He calls Ebenezer!” If it were not for Him, we would have achieved nothing – that’s awesome considering the facts that Nigeria is one of the most difficult mission fields in the world. Yet, the Lord is blessing us with people He himself has selected to help us do some of the hard work ahead of us. Often people tell me Nigeria has too much corruption, and you cannot trust anyone, but truly only the Lord picks out quality people of integrity at the national or grass-root level for international impact.
a. Pray for the coming 10th Anniversary Gala – finding and selecting a keynote speaker, planning, publicizing event, and activities that would raise awareness to generate funds.
b. For big rig repair work to finish soon, including the 1st water truck – Blue (Ebenezer II), it needs new engine waiting to ship from the Port of Houston, Texas.
c. Chinese Rig – acquisition of tools for rock core drilling, and misc. parts: brakes pads, clutch disk or plates, several diamond bits, core lifter with shell, and other accessories needed
d. Training / Travel: Sharjeel Shakeel – pray for his air fare to China and back to Nigeria from PK – provisions for him and his family
e. Pray for the ministry home office base and other worker overheads & office needs are met on time to keep things running
f. Pray for 1 good rig that will ship to Niger Republic in our collaborative outreach effort with Faith for All Nations Church intending to sponsor several well projects in that French West African country.
g. Pray for more volunteers, including board to be proactive – that everyone connected with the ministry will be a good advocate, telling and sharing the story, links, and website engagements to garner support and raise more funds.
h. Thank God for our safe return back to the States – for His covering and protection over Michael-David Reilly and giving him victory as now an accomplished Relief Ambassador (first time to travel to Africa, and outside the USA). Pray for a rapid recovery from any unpleasant experiences or things he saw.
Acknowledgements: On behalf of our Board of Directors, I wish to gratefully acknowledge with many thanks - all the donors and volunteers / partners that make our work possible and easy.
Your gifts and prayers are deeply appreciated.
May the good Lord of Heaven keep you safe in the palm of His Hands. A. Sunny & Florence Ochi-Okorie for RNM, Inc.
www.relief-networks.org . Praise the Lord!