Jacob's Well

Jacob has given me his blessing to tell the following story. It's important to Jacob that he not be glorified in this story, but instead that God be glorified. Amen.

In July 2008, a young high school student named Jacob came to South Africa with the Lake Pointe youth team. Jacob was drawn to the rural area, referred to as Khula Club, that Genesis partners with. There is a crèche (preschool/daycare), a church, a ‘kitchen’ for cooking, gardens, play areas, and several homes spread out amongst the hills of the Khula Club area. It is said that not until recently, many of the children in this area had never seen a white person. Fetching water is no easy task, as you can imagine, as it’s a very rural area with a lot of space between each home (hut).

On the way back home last year, Jacob had the idea to help this community get water by providing a well. Thankfully Jacob did not get back home and forget this idea and return to every day life in the states. He began to talk to people back home about holding a fundraiser to raise the money for the well. He wanted this to be a way that he and his fellow students could reach out to help others instead of just stay in their sheltered community. They had t-shirts made and he and his friends sold them during the lunch hour at their high school. Jacob wanted to go big and had plans that if each senior bought a t-shirt they’d have the money raised in no time. A lot of t-shirts were sold at first but then sales tapered off. This caused doubt in Jacob’s mind…doubt in God, doubt in himself. The event for the fundraiser was to be a dinner – an evening of sharing about South Africa. Not about the food itself, but people coming together within the community of Rockwall to help another community half way across the world that struggles just to have water each day….each week.

There were a couple times that the dinner was almost cancelled. They didn’t think they’d have the turn out, caterers were not working out as planned, etc. etc. etc. Looking back, I think this was Satan’s way to intervene. He tried….but he did not.

The dinner happened as planned. It was held at the Rockwall-Heath High School. A lot of paper work with the Board of Directors of the district had to be done and approved in order for this fundraiser to take place. All of it was approved. I attended, as did my family. Many that are on the adult team that have now come to South Africa three years in a row were all there. It was a pull-at-the-heart-strings kind of evening, along with a few laughs.

Turns out donations poured in and with a goal of $5,000 to drill the hole for the well, all in all $16,000 came in! Praise God! The total for the well to be drilled, pump in place, generator, etc. was about $8,800… God is good, ALL the time!

As the time approached for the Lake Pointe teams to arrive this year, we at Genesis knew the well needed to be started on by the time the team got here. There were still final cost quotes to be gotten and arrangements to be made for this to happen, all within about 3 weeks time. Studies had been done on the land awhile ago, and it was selected where they would drill. There was a chance water would not be hit at all. God was in these plans of course and everything came in to place for the drilling to begin. While the adult team was out at Khula, the drilling of the well began. Early that day we were told they would only work until 5pm and they would not hit water that day. Maybe the next day. Here you can see them drilling in the background as the team had VBS with the kids.

As the team walked out of the church at Khula, after having a great day, one team member said that it was the perfect day, now only if we’d hit water. This was at about 5:15pm…remember, they were going to stop at 5pm. It was at that moment that water started spraying up into the air! WE HIT WATER!!!!

What an amazing moment to experience as a team! We were all jumping around, laughing as water sprayed on to us, praising God, taking pictures, loving God. We joked that the paparazzi showed up because a lot of the team had video cameras and high tech camera equipment to capture the moment. It was just 123 meters down that they hit water!

We were sad that Jacob couldn’t be there for this moment…the youth team had arrived to South Africa earlier that day and Jacob was once again part of that team. We knew that he’d get to see the well though, now flowing with water.

It was that Monday that Jacob got to see the well. At that point it’d been capped off with a rusty cap. There were a lot of holes all around but it was very obvious which one would pump water from it. I was there when Jacob saw it for the first time. At first there were tears and we soon formed a circle around the well and held hands.

People prayed and it was to end with Jacob’s prayer. He went from praying, to sobbing, to on his knees praying, to sobbing, to singing, to sobbing, to praying….you get the picture. What an incredible worship of God…who used Jacob’s idea to bring this community water, and to see Him glorified through it all. Jacob spent a lot of time around the well.

Several of us collected a rock that was left over from the drilling. Jacob collected water and sand in a water bottle to take home. It was later stated that the rocks we collected are a reminder of faith. In took faith for this idea to come to life, to spray water out of the ground. Any time I am lacking faith, I will set my eyes upon that rock.

The well now pumps 5,000 litres of water per hour! PRAISE GOD. The people in this area now don’t have to walk for miles to get clean water.

That night, as the youth team held devotions, Jacob spoke about the journey to finally seeing water out at Khula. He said that he doesn’t see himself when he sees the well, he doesn’t see all the t-shirts that were sold, or all the people that helped raise the money, or even the people that now will have water close at hand. He sees GOD. God is to be glorified through all of this, and always.

AMEN.

The well may be named Jacob's Well, but ultimately it's God's Well....His water for His people.