We all need water and most of us have it in abundance flowing right out of the tap. But what happens when that water turns muddy or stops flowing entirely? Well, that is exactly what happened at my parents’ ministry just before they left on furlough and while they were away.

A few weeks ago I got a call that the water was getting very, very dirty in one of the houses. Upon checking the water tanks, it turned out that the water being pumped out of the ground was very muddy. The interesting thing is that this well had already been replaced in the month prior. Seeing as there was nothing I could do about it myself, we called up the company that had drilled the well and asked them to come back and put a new well in. Luckily they decided to do this for free as their previous well had not worked out for us. Finally, after a whole day of drilling we got clean water.

But the problems weren’t over, and I kept getting calls that the water was still dirty. Turns out that the tanks themselves still contained a lot of dirt, and that the filters were also very dirty. So I set an appointment with the guy who normally helps Dad and we went up on top of the water tower and cleaned the tanks. We also cleaned the filters and after about two days worth of work, the water going into the house was finally clean.

In the weeks following this dirty water cleanup the water would occasionally stop flowing. Which is weird considering that we use gravity to build pressure in the pipes. So then the only explanation is that the tank on top of the water tower is empty. Upon checking, it turns out that the sensor in the tank that tells the pump to start running was jammed and so the water would keep running out until the water level dropped too far. A little bit of lubricant in the sensor and the tank is once again filling properly when the water levels drops.