FAIR Blog

This past fall, Fellowship International missionaries Jesh and Julie Thiessen alerted us to an immediate need for the Good News Hospital (Madagascar) where they serve. The hospital was often forced to run on just one hour of water a day during the dry season because the publicly available water services weren’t able to provide enough water for everyone. Through the Thiessens’ network, there arose a time-sensitive opportunity to dig one or more wells for the hospital. A specialized team would be in the area, and was ready to start drilling immediately, when the water levels were lowest. In faith, drilling began in December 2022. Now they just needed to raise $40,000 to cover the cost of the drilling, and the equipment and infrastructure to pump water from any successful wells to the hospital.

FAIR generally starts projects like this one with lots of advanced warning so that funds are in place before the work begins. But sometimes, God shows us a need like this one, and it’s clear how we should respond — in faith. The FAIR team prayerfully added the #WithoutWater project to our Love Extended FAIR Catalogue and sent an email out to those who have supported Madagascar projects in the past, letting them know about the #WithoutWater project.

In February, there was already encouraging news from the well-drilling, which Jesh shared on the Good News Hospital blog (English only).

“We wanted to wait ‘til the dry season and so in late October a Malagasy drilling team hired by the charity arrived and began drilling the first hole. This was not without challenges! Hard, difficult rock was encountered after three metres of soil and hope was waning. Then the drill bit got stuck and was lost at a depth of 10 metres.

“But, we serve a God who can bring water from a rock! A new diamond core bit was purchased and a new hole started. One week of drilling later, multiple fractures were identified in the core samples but we still were not convinced there was water. Hope was waning again. At 28 metres, the driller suddenly began smiling as his lubricating mud began disappearing down the hole and he could no longer circulate it back to the surface. This meant it was being taken away below the surface by nothing else than water and a large quantity of it!

“All this said, we have three new bore holes each of which yields roughly 2,000-3,000 litres per hour (or 7,500 litres per hour in the dry season!!!). Our goal was to be able to fill the hospital reservoir (60,000 litres) in eight hours. God has provided this for us with these three new bore holes.

“We look forward to dry season this year where we can have an abundance of clean water to use and share.”

Over six months after drilling began, Julie shared an update in a recent blog post (English only):

“As many of you will recall, last fall we ran the #WithoutWater campaign to bring more water to our hospital. The campaign was a roaring success, and we raised nearly $60,000 to support obtaining more wells and infrastructure to support bringing more of this life-giving resource.

“Little did we know that this past January, our water levels would reach an all-time low. Rainy season didn’t come to our part of the country, and water restrictions began — seven months earlier than usual.

“Thanks to #WithoutWater, the hospital has been surviving off the added well.

“God knew what he was doing when you all pitched in to make that project a success. Even with the additional well, our maintenance team are trekking to the dry riverbed daily to dig holes and supplement the hospital’s water needs.

“But we aren’t done yet!”

Praise God for His faithfulness in bringing water to the Good News Hospital in time for such a dry year. Our thanks to all the generous donors who helped make this happen.