Genesis 9:13-17, Never to Flood the Earth Again

Not quiet a universal flood covering the entire earth, but for Shindand it is flooding enough. The last few days of rain have caused dome issues here at the base and the surrounding town. Actually over the past few weeks there has been alot of flooding that has required the US to provide Humanitarian Supplies to be brought in to help the locals. Yesterday a new problem poppped up and required us to take some fast action.

Afghanistan, however being a desert, has a lot of water available to the residents. It is unfortunately underground. The way they have accessesed it for thousands of years is by diiging down into the underground system with a series of holes from the surface, and then connecting the holes to make the aqueduct.

With all the rain and with all base construction yesterday the flooded water bagan to erode the surface mounds of dirt around the holes and then pour into the underground system. This is not so bad but the water was causing two problems. first it was erroding the subsurface aqueduct and secondly it was pushing water out in the town where it doesn't normally come out. With this the two local Elders came to the base to get help.

So at around 15:00, I was called to lend assistance with my MHE equipment, and the Heavy equipment, back hoe and dozer. As we arrived on the scene it was a mix of a few locals, the Afghan Army, and American Army. The water from the entire South end of the Airfield was pouring into the underground system. It looked like a hudge bath tub drain, swiriling around and taking hunks of dirt with it.

At that point we began two things, first to get sand bags and T-walls to try to get a dam built and then to dig a trench to the outer drainage system to get the water diverted from the hole. This took a lot of switching of resource and coordination. The nice thing here is that the Army Command, in these matter leaves you alone to do what you need to do. At that point I have a blank slate to get the resources needed.

So trucks into the Italian Compound for the sandbags, a crane into the Red Horse yard along with a truck for the T-walls, etc. So as this was going on the trench leading out to the outside colverts was about complete. One of the elders went under the fence to finish the work with a shovel and an axe. The bulldozr arrived and began to push the dirt into position to stop the flow in the hole and then the trench was completed. The water rushed to the outside liked planned. Then the final push of dirt and some shovel work by the Afghan Army closed the flow to the hole.

There were alot of detail for the day, more then I can write out here. But it was a good feeling being able to help in such a way yesterday. Seeing all of the people from all the different aspects of life coming together to fix this problem was incredible. Interacting with the Town Elders and Afghans, the locals all was a great experience.

There are more issues related to the rain and the drainage here. It was described by the locals that the base construction had changed their work and the routing of the water so there will be some things that the Military will need to do. This is good work though, besides the work of war. As one of the Col's said, "I like this better then bombing", how true. We are here for war but that is different I think then it used to be. I am glad for that.

Be belessed and know that there is good work to be done here also. We can do our jobs in many ways and still be the hand of the Lord when we do it.

Lord thank you for another experience.