Streams in the desert.

Retired Canadian medical doctor Jim Carlisle awoke one December morning in his home in St Thomas with an unexpected thought--the plight of Mexican Mennonite migrant workers stranded for the winter in Aylmer, Ontario.

At an MRA conference in Toronto, Carlisle had realized his lack of concern for Canada's immigrants. Now he decided to act. After numerous inquiries, he was told there were no problems; various social agencies were helping the labourers. Unsatisfied, Carlisle phoned the Aylmer food bank and discovered there was indeed a food shortage as well as a need for blankets and winter clothing.

Together with people from several churches, Carlisle took two van loads of supplies to Aylmer. `People were lined up in the cold waiting at 10 am,' he says. `That day, 140 people were helped. Everything but a few blankets was used up.'

A severe drought in Northern Mexico and the devaluation of the peso had prevented the Mennonite migrant workers from returning to their farms in Mexico as usual. To compound the problem, many were ineligible for welfare. The Mennonite Central Committee was overwhelmed with their needs.

A few days later, Carlisle met a camera man from an Ontario TV station who was on the street looking for a story. Carlisle directed him to the Mennonite Central Committee, and `that night the plight of the migrants was shown on TV'.

`The next day the group's phone rang off the hook with people wanting to give donations,' Carlisle recalls. `The crisis had been met and I was convinced that God had put that thought about helping the Mennonites in Aylmer into my head.'

Carlisle was introduced to a travelling evangelist who works with 26 Mennonite colonies in Mexico. The two drove 1,500 miles to the Durango colony, made up of around 6,000 people. Although the land is fertile, it is too dry most years to yield good crops. `I found tremendous needs there,' says Carlisle.

During a meeting with church leaders from Neuvo Ideal, a nearby town, `it became clear that the place to begin was with some water-well drilling equipment,' states Carlisle. `With irrigation, agricultural productivity could be greatly improved.'

Carlisle formed a company, Belle Blue Ventures, Ltd, and bought a well drilling rig. So far, two wells have been drilled with a third in process. `We hope to drill at least one well a month,' he states.

Carlisle also hopes to set up joint ventures with farmers. `I will supply capital and they'll supply land and labour. We'll split the net profits 50-50.

`I'm building a team and a company,' he says.