November 2, 2018
Rain doesn’t happen a lot here in Africa. But it did this week.
Walking to ministry day after day as the days get hotter and hotter can get tedious. To be honest, this past week I didn’t want to go to ministry. It meant walking in the heat to go sit in the heat to go walk home in the heat. Last week was how it looked. My brain and my body felt fried. This week started off like the last. It was HOT. My whole team had felt the effects of the sun and we were all tired of having to walk. We were told that the latter half of the week it would rain and the sun would chill out for a few days, but we weren’t really banking on it. As Wednesday rolls around, the morning starts out a little more cloudy than usual and the air seemed cooler. As we were walking the sun progressively got hotter and our hopes for the rain and the cool air plummeted. Wewent about our ministry day as usual.
Usually we have to walk home at 3 because we have to get back for dinner at 5. This means that we pass the high school kids on the walk home and we don’t get to fellowship with them. BUT because it has been getting hotter, our ministry host arranged for us to get picked up a few days a week at 4:30 so we can stay later, not only to see the high school kids but also so we don’t have to walk home in the heat.
Anyways, once we arrived at ministry, we went on a home visit with our shepard. When we got back to the care point from the home visit, the air started to chill again and the clouds rolled back in. The hopes for rain were back.
At 2 all the middle school kids had arrived from school. Still, no rain. My team helped give the shepard a lesson around three once most of the kids were there. As we were closing in prayer, that’s when I heard it; rain. It was finally raining! In my head, I thought that all the kids would walk home before the rain got worse and we would go back to the company early, but they didn’t and we didn’t. Instead, they all booked it for the newly built playground donated by Karson’s Kompassion. There were probably about 40 kids playing on that thing. Running up and down the ladders, going down the slides, hanging on the moneys bars. It was a crazy mess. Then one of my little friends, Slindle, grabbed my hand and told me to go down the slide with her. We ran to the ladder and went down the slide over and over again. For some reason I walked away from the play set for a few moments, I think it was to scoop some beans. But when I walked back over, I saw a commotion of kids dancing and singing. It was a crazy beautiful noise.
The kids here have a game where all the kids stand in a circle and chant, “ (insert name) on the stage! (insert name) on the stage! I think you can dance, I think you can dance.” And whoever’s name was called, stands in the middle and dances. This crazy beautiful noise went on for 40 minutes. As these joyful noises continued, the rain started to come more and more. It wasn’t pouring yet, all the kids went home before that happened, but it was raining good enough.
As I looked around at all the kids dancing and singing and at my team mates, I can see why God has us walking an hour to ministry every day, and why He had someone picking us up at a later time this week.
It’s for these kids. It’s to love on these kids. Jesus loves these kids so much more than any one ever will.
It’s why He gave them a playground when they didn’t have one. It’s why He let a family go through a difficult time to start the foundation that sent the playground. It’s why He gave them the shepard they have who loves them so dearly. It’s why He sent six specific women to serve them.
So, with that, I blessed the rains down in Africa.
IMG_7894 2 from Jordan Shea on Vimeo.
