“Please sing and shout, beat your drum, play the harp and thank our Almighty God, for we have hit an ocean (of water) at Ololchura!”

The excitement in CMF missionary Gene Morden’s words leaped off the computer screen last week as he reported the big news: after two long years of searches and surveys, prayers and persistence, water has been found on the campus of the Ololchura School in Masaailand, Kenya.

There were many times along the way when it looked like the dream of a well for the Ololchura community would never come to pass, in spite of the funding provided for the project by Crossroads Christian Church, Corona, Calif., according to David Giles, CMF’s Director of Church Catalyst Ministries.

“We had one unsuccessful attempt to drill, and a driller who ran off with our deposit,” said David. “Some of the surveyors said there was no water at this drilling site, but Gene (Morden) had so much faith in Brother Dario, a water douser, that we stepped out on faith and drilled where he told us to.”

“I had experience with Brother Dario, a water douser in Turkana, who has a 98 percent success rate throughout Kenya, compared to the scientific methods that yield less than a 50 percent success rate here,” said Gene. “He came to Maasai and marked where he thought water would be found at three different schools and all three were successful. So the more I prayed, the more I felt like we should try to drill at the spot he marked at Ololchura.”

The drillers, from Christian Relief Fund, began drilling on the spot marked by Brother Dario, and hit some water at 35 meters, just as the water douser had predicted.

“They kept going then because there wasn’t enough water there (at 35 meters), but they hit the ocean at 170 meters,” Gene said. “They test-pumped for 24 hours and the static level of the well stayed at 26 meters throughout with a very high flow. I am now praising God for this because it will greatly reduce the cost of the water pumping system. The drill team says this is the best well they have ever seen!”

“We were on our last bit of hope,” adds David Giles, “and then we hit the ocean. We are thanking God for this, as well as Gene for his hard work, the drillers from Christian Relief Fund and our funding partners at Crossroads Church for sticking with us through this long process.”