Wednesday, we met with the women in our women’s program. We shared our burdens and also the joys of the last few weeks with one another. Then I encouraged the women to continue building their faith as we wait for the program to officially begin. We talked about Isaiah 35 and how we believe that God will cause, “water to gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert…” That as we wait for funding to come in for this project, we wait patiently, yes, but we wait with expectation, knowing God is coming through. When we pray together, we believe we have what we ask for. And as Mama Janet so eloquently said, “Don’t look at the situation, look at the promise,” we focus on Jesus and on what we believe will come to pass. And we declare that in the waiting, in the wilderness, that God is bringing the streams.
What a gift it is to declare His truth, even when we don’t feel like we’re experiencing it, even when we can’t see it. In the waiting, in the not yet, we will cause faith to rise in one another, “being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.”
Just as Miriam carried her tambourine as she crossed the Red Sea, so we also will carry ours, because we, just as she did, expect to one day have a reason to praise the Lord. Not only that, but we have reason to praise Him now. We are a community of women who will praise the Lord in both joy and sorrow, in the known and unknown, in the waiting and in the receiving. So we carry our tambourines together, but we aren’t waiting to use them. We are using them now. And when we have occasion to use them when what we are praying for comes to pass, all of Maai Mahiu will have to plug their ears to drown out the sound of our worship.
