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Well No. 8

Methodist Bible Institute

in Ñemby

 Sponsor - Cannon United Methodist Church Sunday School Classes and

The Memorial United Methodist Church

The Methodist Bible Institute trains pastors and lay leaders to continue the growth and development of the Methodist Church of Paraguay.  The Institute recently was blessed with the donation of a facility by Charles and Becky Jackson, former missionaries to Paraguay, but the facility was in need of a dependable water supply.  This project will assure that the facility has dependable water for years into the future; thereby playing an important role in the growth of the church.

The year 2004 has thus far been the "year of difficult wells", and the Bible Institute well has capped them all.  We wound up drilling this well 4 TIMES to get a successful installation!  All we can say is that the Lord was certainly teaching us patience on this one.  On the first try the hole collapsed and trapped the bit in the hole.  The details of this adventure are recounted in "Stories to Tell", in an entry called The Bits Stuck!.  With God's help (and the tractor He provided), we persevered and were able to move on to the second and third attempts.  We drilled the second hole twice, and due to thin layers of hard sandstone protruding into the drilled hole, we were unable to insert the 4 inch diameter PVC pipe which serves as the well casing.  We abandoned this hole as well, and moved to a third location to drill the forth time - and at last we had success!  However, at 41 meters (135 ft) the hole started to collapse again, and we decided to stop short of our 50 meter target depth and set the well.

We had the blessing of some able-bodied and willing helpers from the Alpharetta First United Methodist Church that came to work on the Bible Institute.  They did not know before hand that they would be drafted to work as volunteer well drillers!  They did a great job, and luckily for them - they went back to the US right before the hole collapsed!

As we mentioned above, the well is at the Bible Institute of the Methodist Church of Paraguay.  This facility currently houses almost 50 people when classes are in session, and they need a lot of water.  It is also a two story building, so they also need a lot of pressure.  We decided to install a pressure tank instead of our traditional elevated tank.  It is working great.

All in all it was a good experience.  We learned a lot, God taught us patience (a subject that we always seem to need a "refresher course" on - especially Ed), and we got to install a different type of system.  During the project we attended the Methodist Church in Ñemby and Ed got the chance to do a short sermon - and he was able to present our testimony on how God met our needs of getting the bit unstuck, even after leaving it in the hole all day Sunday.  He is ever faithful!

 Technical Details

Sponsor:    Cannon United Methodist Church Sunday School Classes and The Memorial United Methodist Church

Drilling date: May 4 to June 18, 2004

Location:   Asunción suburb - latitude/longitude unknown

Elevation:     Unknown

Total cost:    $ 2,460

Drill depth:    41 meters (135 ft.)

Soil types encountered:    Sandy clay; loose, fine sand; thin layers of sandstone

Static groundwater level:      15.4 meters below ground surface

Dynamic groundwater level:    19.5  meters

Installed well depth:   38.8 meters

Length of screened section:   18 meters

Length of gravel packed section:  22 meters

Length and type of sealed section:  Approx. 1 meter of bentonite pellets

Pump description:    1 hp three-phase electric submersible

Depth to base of pump:   28 meters

Flow rate:   1,400 liters/hour

Water analysis results: Not yet tested

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