Well drilling update & needs before school starts

[Martin Becktell]

Dear Friends,

May God grant you a Merry Christmas, whether you've celebrated already or are still waiting to celebrate. And may God continue to bless you abundantly! To those who donated for the well drilling, please accept our deeply felt thanks. I am finally getting a chance to tell you the news. Surveyors from Sumadhura Technologies (Kampala based borehole drilling company) came out to our school Monday, December 14:

They walked all over the property considering which site would be best to drill.

Finally they decided with my father in Christ, Stephen, on a spot not far from the main road near one of the soccer goal posts:

Then trucks rolled in one week ago, December 19th:

Maria Babingaisadha, one of the founders of the church in Nakyaka, came to see the well installation also:

The workers took a sample of each kind of soil produced throughout the drilling:

They installed casing pipe and also dropped gravel to the base of the borehole to create a "gravel pack," which reduces sediment infiltration.

Finally, they put an electric pump in the well to test for water and ran it for a while until the water became clearer.

So, as far as we know, this location has water. The hand pump has not yet been installed, but, again, as far as we know now, there is water. And the hand pump will be installed very soon.

Then, on Monday, December 21, workers began to install the pump stanchion and concrete slab.

This well has been paid for entirely through donations to EcoMercy International. The total cost was $6200 plus related travel expenses. My father, Stephen, expressed his thanks as the final donations came in. He said,

"Thanks be to God!!!!!!!!!

   Ohhhooo!!!!
How thankful can one be !!!!
    Wonderful ❣️❣️💞"

He has had to wait a long time for this day.

He managed to snap this photo of the curious children:

Once again, thanks to all who have prayed and donated. And please continue to pray. We believe this well will function properly and produce sufficient water, but we would appreciate your continued attention to the matter. I shall provide another update soon when the hand pump is installed. (An electric, solar powered pump is also an option to consider, but we are going to go with the hand pump first.)

 

Children help to load equipment in the contractor's truck.

Please continue to help!

Now that fundraising for the well has concluded I beg to seek your help with further needs. There are still many things we hope to accomplish by God's grace. The most pressing concern is that the secondary school lacks metal doors on it's outhouse. Recently some government inspectors requested that we fix the problem, which we need to do for the sake of privacy for our students. See the photo below:

My father Stephen writes:

"That is the look of the latrine of the secondary School section. Two major needs: Refixing door frames. And plastering outside."

"Since sand is available, we only need to buy 12 door/frames and cement. Stelio can do that work."
960,000 / - for 12 door frames
130,000 / - for 5 cement
240,000 / - for 40 litres white paint
1,330,000 / - Total" (About $385)

We would like to fix this, Lord willing, before school starts on January 18th.

Another way to help is through purchasing uniforms and embroidered patches for the uniform shirt pockets. This has been a dream of my father Stephen and I for a long time now. We've been experimenting with mock up patch/badge designs from a couple different companies. The second option we've tried is California-based company with an online storefront called The Studio. Here is the mock up they provided. Notice the water drop.

Uniforms will accomplish three purposes:
1. Helping very poor families to clothe their children smartly at school.

2. Advertising our school locally in Kamuli District, Uganda.

3. Promoting EcoMercy International on Facebook.

Set up a recurring donation today at EcoMercy.org to cover uniforms and other needs! EcoMercy International, "caring for the Earth, for one another, & for our neighbor." If you sign up I'll also send you a patch or perhaps a refrigerator magnet!

Keep in mind that parents are still required to pay tuition in order to have their child in school. This is not intended to be a "child sponsorship" program. We believe it is necessary for parents to sponsor their own child's education, which ensures their active involvement. But we can ask your help to clothe the kids and beautify the school!

Some other needs coming up are:

• a front entrance and gate for the school campus.
• a dedicated classroom / guest house for EcoMercy International.
• a house for my father Stephen and his family.
  

Again, please donate at EcoMercy.org.

A blessed celebration of Christ's birth to you,
Martin Becktell

P.S. -- For some personal news, most of you know that upon moving to Harbor, Oregon, I set up my office in a shed in hopes of teaching online--I would like to teach a Classical history and literature course at some point before too long. But I have no firm schedule for this.

You can see it's a complete mess inside my office at the moment. Lord willing, I'll have time to figure out teaching and promote EcoMercy International and eventually clean up my office! Oh, and we're trying to start a church---kind of a church---a Sunday morning prayer and Bible study, also advertised through Facebook. More news on that to come. So please pray for God to help me to plod on with all that needs to be done. (Please also consider helping by donating for more windows for the office or insulation for the floor.)
 

Nevertheless, despite these office tasks, I've found that I'm also someone who really likes to keep busy with some sort of manual labor and so I started calling contractors to see if they needed any help and ended up landing a full-time job, which was not exactly my intention. But it turns out that contractors are actually quite busy here on the Southern Oregon Coast. Here I am making crawl space vents for a mobile home. 

My employer is a mobile home setter who isn't as young and nimble as he once was. He's 63. Yet he is very busy with five jobs stacked up and he just had to fire his lead employee. So he really needs my help. Please pray for God to give me the ability to help him as he truly needs.

My wife, Brooke, and our kids are doing well. Please remember them in your prayers also! Feel free to message me or write to me anytime.

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