Aargh! I felt like pulling my hair out, but I tried to remain calm on the outside. We had arrived in the village only to discover that our well pump wasn’t working.

Friday, some friends came and cut the cap off the well so we could pull out the pump. Normally, pulling the pump shouldn’t have been a difficult task for a two strong men, but they couldn’t do it. On Sunday I called my friend Gary who suggested using scaffolding to get above the well so we could pull using a lever or pulley. I ended up building a bamboo tripod and attaching a pulley at the top. Then my friend Mean helped me pull on the rope. Ka plunk! We both landed on the ground. The hook on the pulley had opened up. Mean disappeared on his motorbike and soon came back with a bigger, stronger pulley. Again we pulled, but to no avail. Again, he disappeared on his motorbike and reappeared with three other men. All five of us pulled as hard as we could. The pump didn’t budge. Mean disappeared a third time.

Now that I was at the hair-pulling stage. So Ruby and I did the only thing we could—we prayed. We knew God could get the pump unstuck.

In a flash, Mean was back with a chain-ratchet winch. Soon we had that rigged up and started pulling. Still, the pipe didn’t rise one inch. I was climbing down the ladder ready to give up in despair when Mean let out a yelp of Joy. The pipe had suddenly sprung up about a foot and a half. The pump was free! God had come through once again. Praise the Lord for answered prayer.

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