Wine to Water?...

A BGR partner shares this update:

The southern region of our state is on a plateau, which is mostly covered by jungle.  The area is populated with strongly independent tribes who make their living hunting and gathering from the forest.  There is very little cultivation.  Water sources are creeks and rivers, and there are few wells, because on the plateau area, the water table is too low for a bore well to reach and produce water.  But an open well can be used instead as a source of clean water, if enough water is available for that.  In our well project from BGR, we decided to sink an open well to provide water for believers and the surrounding village. 

As always everyone is invited to take water from the well.  The well diggers came and began to dig the well by hand (pick and shovel, basically).  There are no machines available for this.  The open well must be about three feet in diameter and is dug in cylindrical fashion down until water is reached.  The well went deeper and deeper,until the person digging began to suffer from lack of oxygen. They brought him up with a crane and he was OK, but they decided to break the work into small shifts in order to avoid the stress, and the well went deeper and deeper with no water coming. 

Our local partner was feeling so bad about the worker who was overcome, with still no sign water was going to be found.  People will still have to go miles to get dirty river water.  She cried out to theLord for water to come to the well and bless the village.  The diggersreached a large rock, and when they pulled it up, water gushed into the well so fast they had to make a quick exit!  They told our local partner to go get buckets from the village and she ran to do that, so they could finish the well with a concrete casing.  Now clean water is available to the village without going long distances!

One woman was coming to get water from the well, and no one knew she was using the water to make liquor.  The problem was the liquor was tasting like water.  Her friends kept saying, “This is not liquor. It is water.”  So she came to our local partner and asked why she couldn’t make liquor from the water.  Our local partner told her that when she prayed to the Lord for the water in the well, she asked that the whole village would be blessed by the water.  Because of that, shesaid, God would not allow the water to be used making liquor because liquor is a curse.  She explained to the woman about God’s love and the abundant life he offers, and now the woman and her family know the truth!

I've heard the story of water to wine by Jesus, but this is a great "wine to water" story! :)