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Journey Information
John 4:13-14
13Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
DAILY ACTIVITY NOTES
FROM AFRICAN TRIP
The project started with us traveling from Hamburg, AR on Tuesday morning, November 31. From Hamburg, we traveled to Crossett, AR to pick up Rev. Bouie and from there we traveled to Monroe, LA to pick up Rev. Green and then proceeded to the airport. The traveling party consisted of Mr. Willie Booker, Rev. David Bouie, and Rev. Samuel Green. We flew from Monroe to Memphis International Airport to Amsterdam Holland in the Netherlands. This flight lasted 9 and ten minutes.
November 1, we landed in Lagos, Africa that is the capitol of Nigeria, Africa. The flight lasted from the Netherlands to Lagos 6 and one half hours. We spent the night in a hotel called the May Hotel. On Thursday, November 2, the leadership from the AME Zion Church picked us up and they provided housing for the day. We met Rev. David Isong, and Sinwa Sewege, and Mr. Sewege introduced an engineer by the name of Mr. Taylor and this is how the planning begun.
We planned to put one well in Lagos and one in Bonny where Rev. Green is originally from. This was the conclusion for the day of Thursday, November 2.
Friday, November 3, the group included Mr. Booker, Rev. Bouie, Rev. Green, Rev. Isong, and Mr. Taylor the engineer. We flew from Lagos to Oweni, for 1 hour and ten minutes. The airport in Port Harcourt was closed so therefore we took a taxi from Oweni to Port Harcourt and the travel time was 3 hours. We were stopped frequently by police officers for the reason of contraband, but they were really looking for money to be given to them; that is the real reason for it taking so long to get to our destination. We checked into the Aldgate Hotel in Port Harcourt. Check-in concluded Friday, November 3.
Saturday, November 4, the same group took a taxi to Peter-Side Bonny. This is where Rev. Green was born and where he grew up. From Peter-Side we traveled by boat one and a half hours, (approximately 35 miles) to Bonny. (This was the worst boat ride from Peter-Side to Bonny that you would ever want to experience). This is where we planned to put the first well. When we arrived in Bonny Chief Justine Jim-Halliday and his staff greeted us. In this meeting we discussed the details of the well. The Chief made it very clear that they had several wells on the island already but none of them had drinkable water. The chief made it very clear that if were to put in a well this time it would have to be one that produced drinkable water. After careful consideration with Chief Halliday, we decided to place a well that produced DRINKABLE WATER in that compound. After this decision, Chief Halliday sent a crew out to find a central location in the compound for placement of the well. Once the location was determined, we had a ground-breaking ceremony.
After the ceremony concluded, we toured the compound, cut fresh coconuts from the tree, drank fresh coconut milk and ate fresh coconut meat. We visited the mango trees, banana trees and feasted on fresh fruits. We then returned to the counsel office, signed all agreements, and closed the day with a word of prayer. On the long, ROUGH boat trip back from Bonny to Peter-Side, Port Harcourt closed the day of this adventure.
Sunday, November 5, Pastor P.N. Robert of the Bishop White Memorial AME Zion Church in Port Harcourt Township picked us up. Rev. Bouie, Rev. Isong, and I was treated as special guest and participated in the services. Rev. Isong is a presiding Elder and had several activities on the program. The service was a Harvest Celebration program. Mr. Booker gave a brief overview of our mission and later led a prayer for a group of about 50 young children and this gave him a great overwhelming feeling. Rev. Bouie preached the message from Proverbs 3:10. The harvest is plenty and the laborers are few. The most moving moment was when approximately 40 people came up for the invitation to discipleship and out of that amount approximately 29 people were candidates for Water Baptism. After service was over the host treated us to a good meal and drove us back to the motel.
Monday, November 6, we spent the day at the motel. The morning portion of the day we spent with Chief Halliday and Mr. Taylor the engineer. We discussed the problems with the well and concluded that everything was in order but we had to also get a purifier for the well. Chief Halliday and Mr. Taylor brought water samples with them for us to see what the water really looked like coming out of a well with purification. At this point we decided to add the purifier, which cost an additional $2000. We also found out that the community generator was broken down and there was no funds to repair it and this led to us having to purchase a generator for the well also. This was an additional $1000 cost that we had not anticipated on. We purchased a generator that had a 5-year guarantee on it and Chief Halliday vowed that he would insure that he would keep the well up. After purchasing the generator, Chief Halliday and Mr. Taylor returned to Bonny to continue working on developing the new water system. This concluded the day.
Tuesday, November 7, the weather was extremely hot and it was a very rough day to endure. This day was in the upper 90's and we were dripping wet with sweat from the heat with high humidity. We were taken on a tour of government buildings and of cultural centers. We observed different arts, crafts, and cultural practices. While on the tour, we went by the airline office to confirm our return trip back to the states. The traffic was unreal due to people on foot, vehicles and motorcycles. This is a small city and area, however, there are 13 million people here. After returning to the motel, we discovered that there had been acts of piracy on the Peter-Side Bonny waters. The pirates were stealing merchandise and robbing people of their possessions. Our engineers were caught on shore and could not work for approximately 2 whole days. After the second day 2 of the thieves were shot and left where they were found and the 3 was arrested and jailed. The article in the paper only discussed to people in jail and not the ones that were killed and left for dead. The work crew for the well were great because they worked day and night to make up the difference for time lost in order to stay on schedule to get the well completed before we left Nigeria.
Wednesday, November 8 and Thursday, November 9, we met with Mr. Taylor the engineer and his crew and we observed samples of the treated water and the untreated water. We took the treated water to the state lab for testing and it proved pure. We went over the plans of work to insure that the work would be completed. Mr. Booker signed the Exit Documents and ended the process of the well. This was done at 10am. At 3pm we met with Chief Halliday and his advisors to plan the well Christening ceremony which was to be held in Bonny. Once planned, Chief Halliday summoned the villagers to attend the ceremony at 10 am the next day. Plans included Chief Halliday speaking and introducing our team as missionaries. Mr. Booker and native Son Green spoke and Rev. Bouie gave a short message from the Gospel. The pastor from Port Harcourt extended the invitation to discipleship. The Governor for the island of Bonny and two other adjoining islands performed the Christening ceremony. The festivities concluded with song, dance and praises unto God! This was an excellent way to end this day! After the celebration concluded, we returned from Bonny to Port Harcourt by boat. The boat ride didn't seem so bad after that ceremony because we were high in Spirits! Once we returned to Port Harcourt, we took a cab to Oweni and missed the plane! We had to lodge in the worst hotel that we had ever stayed in.
Thursday, November 10, we took a flight to Oweni to Lagos. We arrived at the guesthouse and took a well-deserved shower. Since our work was finished and Rev. Bouie was sick, we decided to arrange our flight to an earlier time for departure. The change in flight did not occur. The airport personnel were not very helpful and they tried to scheme us in to paying $400 more dollars for us to try to arrange an earlier flight. This led to us sticking with our original plan to leave on Monday, November 14th. We stayed at the guesthouse for the remainder of our days in Africa. We had many visits from Rev. Caiafas, a presiding Elder and the owner of the guesthouse. Rev. David Isong, also a presiding Elder was our guide from day 2 to our departure date.
Sunday, November 12, we visited a church the Rev. Caiafas was a presiding Elder. This church was located in the most contaminated community on this earth. The people were real happy and very nice and the service was Spiritually High! Mr. Booker taught the Sunday School Class which included the entire church body. There was no discussion from the class until we had a question and answer period and finally, the whole class got involved in the lesson. Rev. Bouie preached the message from Jeremiah 18:12-17 and Luke about the ten lepers. Rev. Bouie had a great message and a great appeal for discipleship and Mr. Booker conducted a prayer for the children.
Sunday, November 13, packed to leave Lagos, Nigeria. We departed the airport in Lagos at 10 pm and arrived in Monroe, LA on November 14 at 8:30pm. Amen!!!!
This particular provided strategic advantages: Number one; it provided Drinking Water for the people of the village. Number two; it provided a permanent job of a watchman or a guard for the generator of the well. Number three; mission accomplished and God's work was completed! Future name for this project is: Pure Drinking Water and Everlasting Spiritual Water.
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