Archive for January 25th, 2012

Tuni and Trichy

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Another trip completed and if you weren’t following me on Twitter,  @wellsforlife, then you probably have no idea how this trip went.

I am discovering that tweeting is about the best way to communicate because in many places there is limited or no strong internet connection or if there is I can’t find the time to exploit it, however having a smartphone with downloaded apps sure does help.

I got one of these smartphones in Tuni and now if I could just figure out how to use it, you would think it would be simple and maybe it is but I think because I didn’t spend a lot I got the model which requires a coursebook for operation.  I have never had a phone with so many features and it pales compared to what is available on a Droid or iPhone however this Samsung Galaxy is supposed to be all that here in India; all I need to do is learn it or at least discover how to keep the battery from being drained and enjoy the touted 3 g speeds while seeking to look at emails, tweet or update FB.

Back to the trip.

We carried out 2 well dedications in Tuni for which video and photos will come once I return home but in each place the reception was amazing  and the power of water was evident.  God truly has a good thing going with water!

While in Andhra Pradesh, much of my focus was outside of Wells for Life as I was traveling with several of the leaders from Westside and we were engaged in meetings with those resposnible for running New Life Children’s Home where we have 200 kids.  Our goal was to share our movement towards a holistic approach towards ministry and our involvment with CHE or Community Health Education/Evangelism.

The time was productive and foundation laying and we’ll see how things progress. The upside of all of this is that I believe we are all on the same page and know where each other is at and where our priorities lay; at least I think we know that now.

Trichy was the main focus of my trip on the Wells for Life side as we were dedicating 10 village projects and a solar light panel project along with classroom building at Fr. Dhana’s school, Annai Erica.

I traveled to Trichy with Sue Shroyer, Chris and Sandy Karcher and Dan Southerland.  This was a first time experience for the Karchers and Dan in Trichy and it was fun to watch them go through the day. We couldn’t have asked for a better first experience for them; the weather was tremendous, the accomodations at Hotel Sangam were again perfect and the villages were incredible. For whatever reason of all my trips to Trichy this one felt the most successful for me personally.  Nothing was different on the outside, Dhana and his DPWA staff did an amazing job as always with every detail, I just have to believe that what I was sensing was the fruitfulness of our labor for the past 8 years.

Fr. Dhana and his work with DPWA and how he is moving forward in his development work within the villages and schools like Annai Erica is truly amazing, he has a firm grasp on sustainability when it comes to education and orphan care and I believe is also taking incredible strides in their holistic efforts within the rural villages.  We partnered with him in 5 villages for holistic development and in a short period of just over 1 year he has expanded the program to another 10 villages without our financial assistance; truly an amazing and God blessed man.  His son Prassanna isn’t that bad either; and as a side note, he can sure drive!

I leave Trichy today with a greater sense of accomplishment than I have had in previous trips and I am hopeful that this year we can made further gains within rural area with water.  Funding is the only thing that prevents us from doing more in this region and so my prayer will continue to be that God brings to us the resources so that we can exploit them here through providing the villages with clean safe drinking water.

As I close let me just end by naming some names; Jared Wells, Moonie Narayan, Hovey Williams LLP, Bible Action Group in Lenexa, Kid’s Ministry at WFC, Ron Medina and Hope and Helps Ministry, Allaina Mackay and friends of Wells for Life – you all made this trip possible and water possible in these 12 communities.  You are game changers, life changers, and incredible people; thanks for helping make a difference in rural India through water.

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