Developments in Kakuma
Lighting up the base... | Drilling Equipment... | Motorcycle blessing...

An aura of hope hangs over the residents of semi-arid Kakuma as they embrace the new developments that are slowly been implemented. Save for the fairly good roads, marginalized Kakuma depicts a myriad of unavailable resources. Starting with no or poor lighting to lack of water, the people of Kakuma have surely been in darkness. Recently, (February 2006) the ACMI Kakuma base benefited from a solar panel installation. This progress that has long been awaited is just the beginning. They are now expectantly awaiting the start of the drilling of wells project that will go a long way in saving lives and reaching out to the people of Kakuma. We interviewed the men behind all this and this is what they had to say:

We got to Thika, Kenya on February the 9th and spent two days with Bishop Henry. Bishop had been at our church in America, Weaver land Mennonite Church. He had preached and we got to know who he is. He has also been in our men’s prayer meeting and we’ve had some good exchange with him since.

We had heard about the need here and he found out that we were well drillers by trade. We have about eighteen men and drill about 1,000 wells per year. My sons, Ron Junior and Ryan do pump work and drilling and we have five machines. The Lord laid in our hearts a desire to come and see what is here as far as the need Bishop had shared. And we decided to come and see what the possibilities are for drilling a well there.

On Tuesday last week we flew on to Kakuma on 14th with the whole family and did some food distribution there for relief. What touched me most about that was that there was a woman there who walked for about ten miles and she prayed that morning that there would be food for her. She didn’t know there was going to be food and she was walking for water. We were there when she got her water from a well that is near where we were doing distribution and we also got to give her food. It was a real miracle.

We also saw little kids sited on rocks in a classroom-like structure. They were covered in dirt and were having class. It was something for us to see. We want to find a way of providing desks for them. Our hearts are just open to whatever the Lord wants us to do.

My highlight was in spending some time with Benson The Desert Boy [www.justadesertboy.com] and learning how he lives, how he survives and how far he walks even without water. God has really continued to provide for him and guide him. He’s been shoot at the chest and has gone through all sorts of things, even having fellow workers die on him because of lack of water. We want to see how we can supply him with a motorcycle. That would help ease his task because then he would do more over a shorter period of time.

It’s interesting to see how God moves in more incredible ways in Kenya than in America as we see it. Here it’s on the forefront while there it’s kind of suppressed. We have been challenged by what we see here. Sometimes we go on vacation and spend a lot of money, having lots of fun and we get back home after it all having run out of the money. It makes a lot of difference here because we spend on things that will benefit others in great ways. There’s actually more value for the money when you are spending not just for fun but to change someone’s life. We’ve been greatly blessed by all the things one can do to make a difference.

We surveyed Kakuma and picked up two possible areas where we would like to try and develop a well. Our heart is in really trying to help ACMI acquire equipment to put to work on a long term basis. And we are here to survey and see what the possibility of that is. However, while in Kakuma, we felt the need to redeem time and do something while we are here as a family. So we installed a solar system for the base for lighting. The Lord helped us purchase all the necessary equipment and it’s a real blessing now that they have light. We were able to put three solar systems, one for each dormitory (men and women), and one for the main hall. It’s a total of 25 lights including in the bathrooms and the showers, and we put three receptacles that you can plug in laptops, fans, mobile phones, iron boxes, e.t.c during the day and a bunch of switches to the lights. That cost us about US$6600, that’s almost US$7,000.

Pastor Stephen Mutune (Field Coordinator, ACMI) helped us big time with accessing the supplies. He handled the town errands that had to be made to get equipment and made sure that f we needed to go to town, we don’t get lost. He was on standby all the time. Even in helping get us into the plane. We wouldn’t have known how to get a bus. Initially they wanted US$300 for the plane. They were charging us more than the usual price but Mutune helped us with that.

We worked really hard to get the solar panel installation completed. We worked for four long days. We are not even professionals in installing solar panels. We are just professional drillers. But we have had some amount of experience with the solar panel installations. We did that for our cabin, up in the mountains, back at home and I have also done quite a bit of studying for that. It’s like God was preparing us for that.

About the well, it’s possible to find water even though it may take multiple holes before finding one that has water. But once we get the drilling equipment there we will be some positive developments. There’s a lot of equipment that has to be trucked up to Kakuma. This is a big investment and we plan to get about two or three people who are committed to help with the work when we are done with the initial well. But it will all be worth it. God has been faithful to us all through. It even rained for three of the days we were there. It rained on Sunday for two hours, on Monday for about fifty minutes and I think it rained on Tuesday too.

We plan to come back but it’ll take quite some time, a couple of months, maybe two or three. We have some finances but we are planning to partner with others who are interested in this venture. We met another team that wants to bring a drilling rig so we plant to connect with them and work together. We are also planning to partner with our church and see if they want to support.

Why I am doing this is (the boys don’t know but I do) that for thirty five years I have worked for myself. I feel it’s about time to give back to God for all. He has been good to us and is able to do all if we are willing to do what we can.

One of the ways God has been faithful is that when we planned to do the lighting with Henry, we thought it’s probably just one or two lights and but when we sketched the diagram we found that it was about three times the lights required. And when we started working we just used up all the materials available and they were just enough, no extra materials left. This trip has been satisfying to us. The drilling in Africa is different but we have to wait on God to see what’s in store for us.

» Back to Top