Let it rain!

The sky with its promising rain clouds on Tuesday

Since arriving in Kenya seven weeks ago, people have been talking about the dry weather. Apparently it should rain by mid-March but the naysayers, including some very  high up in the media forecast severe draught and El Nino this year. They said the rain would not come.  

I've lived through a three-year drought in the seventies in Zululand; an El Nino in the Free State in the turnover from 1994-95 which extended for another year. In 2003  and again in 2006, we experienced harsh dry conditions in our home country. In those years I also panicked and stressed. Today I turn to the Word of God where Christian believers are urged to be patient in suffering.

Even though we've surrendered our lives to God, there will times and circumstances that test our patience. We must never forget there will come a day when we will no longer have to wait for Christ to return, for He will have arrived. In the meantime we are to bear any suffering patiently and be patient with each other also.

Dear brothers and sisters, you must be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who eagerly look for the rains in the fall and the spring. They patiently wait for the precious harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. James 5:7-8a

Now what does all this have to do with the lack of rain in Kenya?

Nothing. Except that I never doubt what my Lord tells me in His Word.

Listen to this...

The weather and welcome rain on Wednesday. See how the mountain is completely invisible.

On Monday night as dusk was setting in,  we heard a bird call outside our lounge window. One call only, loud and strident.  It was a Red-chested Cuckoo. In South Africa the call is: "Piet-my-vrou" which is Afrikaans for "Pete-my-wife". However, Afrikaans is not a language spoken in Kenya, (lol!) so the Red-chested Cuckoo here calls: "It will rain" As we heard this, (information courtesy of our Birds of East Africa book), Grant looked at me and said: "It's going to rain." Within twenty minutes it began to drizzle and then we had a good shower of rain.

The next morning, the sun rose and then disappeared behind heavy clouds for the rest of the day. The skies were overcast and grey. On Tuesday night the heavens opened and it rained steadily all night and half of the next day.

Tuesday's date? 15 March. Why was I not surprised? My God is never early, He's never late, He's always on time. Amen!

I spoke to my vet in El Doret this morning and he told me that it had rained all night there too. So the catchment areas are filling up,  and the streams and rivers here in the valley  flowing strongly. I believe that we who are sharing this bit of paradise, will use this precious resource wisely and sparingly.

All the time the worship song by Michael W Smith rang through my head:

We want to see Your Glory, God!
Do you want to see His Glory?
Lift your voices, lift your hands!

Let it rain, let it rain.
Open the floodgates of Heaven
(Repeat)

 The Swahili word for rain is mvua.