WorldWide Drilling Resource

by Tim Rasmussen The bridge looked old. There were some broken deck boards here and there. Seth Weilage decided to take a closer look, so he pulled off to the side and climbed down out of the drill rig. He made his way down the bank where he could get a better look at the condition of the bridge from the underside. He did not like what he saw. The bridge had been built on large logs. It sagged a bit in the middle. There were no supporting timbers under it, except for one which jutted at an angle out of the river to support one of the old logs. As he stood there, a small truck came by and passed slowly over the structure. The bridge sagged a little under its weight. Seth wondered what would happen if the full weight of the 10,000 or so pounds of rig was on it. He looked down at the water below. It did not seem deep, and the stream was only about 30 feet wide. If the bridge broke and the rig went into the river, it would never come out, or at least not come out in one piece and that not without a huge effort. In any event, the rig would be ruined. Seth came back up the bank just as Jon Hansen pulled up. He had been following Seth, driving one of our small 4x4 double cab trucks in which they had planned to come back. The village they were heading for was another 45 minutes farther down the rough road that wound through the hills and valleys of Guatemala. They were on a mission to bring clean water to a remote village which had none. Jon had been to the village before and had immediately been struck by the poverty of the people there. He had been to poor villages, but this was one of the worst he had seen. It was just a few shacks near the road and paths leading from the road into the heavy jungle vege- tation. There were no public buildings or anything that looked like a school. There was only a polluted stream for a water source. The people there were desperate for water. Jon and Seth talked it over and decided they should not trust the bridge. It was not worth risking the rig. Just upstream there was a place that looked like it had been a ford across the river years ago, probably before the bridge was built. It looked like he could get down to the creek okay, and there was a road up out of the river on the other side. Seth and Jon decided they could probably cross there, hoping there were no huge rocks or holes in the streambed. Easing down off the road, the rig swayed back and forth dangerously as Seth approached the water. He could see the water was only a foot or so deep and the bottom was covered in small rocks. There was no mud. As he got to the water, he decided not to stop and just kept going with as much speed as he dared and as seemed safe. Plowing through the creek, he came to the other side and started out of the water. For a moment, the drive wheels seemed to slip and then caught, and he was up and out of the creek. Then he was back on the road. “Thank you Lord,” he said out loud, but he did not stop to marvel at what he had done. He just shifted into second and started back down the road toward the village. Toward the people who needed the water. Toward the children the clean water would save. Yes, thank you Lord, for men like Seth and Jon, who give of their time and talents to serve others. If you have a heart for other people, and the skills to run a drill, please come and help. Contact Gary Bartholomew at 509-466-5075 or 509-939-1941 Tim Tim Rasmussen may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com 27 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® AUGUST 2019 ENV October Issue Deadlines! Space Reservation: August 25 th Display & Classified Ad Copy: September 1 st