Rain...

July 30, 2011 – Saturday

We woke up Saturday morning to cool temperatures and cloudy skies. It had rained the night before. This is the end of the dry season in Kenya – the rainy season will start in the next few weeks. Rain has so many implications here in Kenya.

For us, rain means complications. Obunga is a dirty place to begin with – with dirt roads and sewer running in ditches along the sides of the roads. Rain makes the sewage overflow it’s banks and makes the paths a thick, muddy mess. Our tuk tuks, our primary means of transportation cannot maneuver through the muddy roads. So rain limits our movements, our plans for the day.

But rain is also a good thing. Rain is desperately needed in Northern Kenya (as well as Ethiopia and Somalia). They are having their worst drought of the past 30 years – just like at home. But here that means temps to 120 and no water ANYWHERE. All has dried up and they have no pipes or water transport system available. The north is less densely populated and the roads are poor to transport water and food from other parts of the country. So many, many Kenyans are dying. There are horrible pictures of people starving all over their papers; it is always the big story on the news. There was also a sadly ironic story in the paper our first day about how there is surplus food rotting on the fields in the central part of the country while people die in the north. With poor road infrastructure, it’s impossible to ship the food up to the North where people are dying. So we welcome the rain if it will help those to the north. Please join us in praying for rain to come again to Northern Kenya (as well as Somalia and Ethiopia). Everyday that you hear of the drought in US on the news, please pray for the people here trying to survive.

Allison told us a touching story when we arrived. The drought and famine in the North has weighed heavily upon her and she is trying to find ways that we can help. She said that Michael Omondi, one of the older boys in the program, is studying to be a pastor. During one of his school breaks, he and others from his school went on a mission trip up to Northern Kenya. 14 hour travel by bus. 120 degree temps, so they risked an encounter with a scorpion and slept in the sand to keep cool. They spent their days walking from remote hut to remote hut – offering the only water they had to offer – the LIVING WATER, praying for families, and helping where they could. He came back changed. He is getting ready to do his equivalent of a vicarage or “student pasturing” type time this year – and is seriously thinking about going back to help the people there. He told Allison, “It was so good for me to go and help those who have less than I do. It showed me how much I have in Obunga, how blessed and rich I really am.” This comes from a 22 year old college student that lives in one of the toughest slums of Kisumu – without running water, sanitation, electricity, whose family often fights to put food on the table.

Wow. Perspective. That is what it is all about.

Lord, please bring rain to Kenya. Rain down your blessings as you bring water to these people who so desperately need it.