Last night (April 16) before bed, I typed up the last post on Spiritual Refreshment. I didn't have internet to post it so I close my computer and fell asleep. Around 10pm or so, it began to rain. It was a slow soft rain on the tin roof. Enough to drown out the goats and noises from other houses but not enough to feel as if we were in a monsoon. It rained and rained and rained! By the time I woke up at 6am it was still raining. I laid in bed until seven something listening to the rain and finally got up to spend time in the Word.
I praised God for the nourishment our maize was getting and that we could now plant ayi, they use the English word beans but it is what we call black-eyed peas. I thanked him for the cool weather and that it was even possible to stay in bed until 7am.
Then as I was finishing my devotional it began to absolutely pour! Earlier that morning, I had set a 7-10 gallon bucket out under a gutter by my house. At the time it began to pour the bucket would be filled in about 5 minutes. I would empty it into a small cistern inside and then set it outside again.
In my last post I mentioned it seemed like people didn't realize the crisis in which we'd found ourselves. I was wrong. Girls ran out in the pouring rain with their large bowls and buckets on their head. I watched them run straight to my house and stand under the gutters. Two began to fight, dropping their buckets. I took one girls bucket and put it in place of my own. They are aware.
It rained for nearly twelve hours. After just an hour the girls had collected all the water their storage could hold.
God brought rain for our dry land, our dry weather and our dry pipes. There is still a problem with the pipe HOWEVER...
the blessings didn't stop... an hour or so after the rain stopped, I heard water running. I ran to the shower where I had left the faucet open and saw water coming out!!! I could not believe my eyes! I collected about 15 gallons of water this morning from the rain and NOW I was getting clean water from the pipe!
At first I was making sure the water would hit my hand and not the bucket because if it was loud, the neighbors would come and turn theirs on which would turn mine off. But then I realized I wasn't getting my work done and it was silly for me to try to get all of the water for myself.
So I moved my hand and said aloud, "Jesus I trust you as provider of water. You don't need me."
Then another crazy thing happened. After running smoothly, there began to be air in the pipes where it sputtered out. At first I thought, "They will surely hear and I won't have water with which to wash dishes or cook. I said I trusted God though so I didn't go back. As I listened I realized, the sputtering made it sound like I was pouring water from a bucket rather than it running from the pipe.
The water ran enough for me to have about 15 gallons of piped water.
The morning was spent praising God for the rain. The way He provided was a miracle and a blessing in itself.
But the greatest thing of all is evidenced in an email I wrote to a friend...
"And guess what….OH PRAISE GOD!!! It has been raining for 12 hours now!!!! God has brought RAIN! Our thirsty hearts have been quenched, our dry ground is soaked and the water that has been cut off (haven't had any since we got back from Accra) is being replaced by rain water. People have been suffering for water and today God has brought more than we can contain…in every way!
I just had to share this with y'all. It is a confirmation of God's provision. And I just think how each time we went to the farm we prayed for rain. I questioned why God hadn't brought it. No one will ever convince me of anything other than the fact that when we were obedient/faithful to come before God with pure motives, just to know Him, be with Him, confess to Him…He answered the cry of our hearts for renewal with Him and then refreshment for our land and our needs. "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their lands." Its true. He has done it.
Mawu lolo nutc! God is great oh!"
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