On My Knees

 

You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior.
You are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas.

Psalm 65:5 (NLT)

 

Usually I find my visits to the market a bit stressful, but yesterday was different.  As I strolled down the aisle with a grocery list in one hand and attempting to maneuver my cart with the other, I suddenly found myself swaying and singing along with the music that blared over the sound system.  It was a country rendition of "Take It to the Lord in Prayer," complete with steel guitar twang.  Not quite what you’d expect for western Kenya.

But as surreal as that moment was, it was also quite fitting, since you never quite know what will be on the shelves here.  A good portion of the staples on my list are usually not in stock, and so I’ve resorted to creating a “wish list.”  Well, actually, it’s more of a “Desperate Prayer List.”  I feel a bit silly knowing that other people pray for world peace while I pray for coffee creamer, but I think God understands. 

The cadets are praying now that the Lord will provide them with a Training College. The land that was originally purchased for that purpose five years ago is tied up in a legal dispute between two other parties, but Ken recently found a large plot of land that is perfect.  And the Army already owns it!  The cadets and Training College staff were so excited with this news that they piled into a bus and made the one-hour trip out to see the land and hold a prayer walk around its boundaries, claiming it as their Promised Land. Every time I think of those wonderful young people, who live every day without running water in the cramped little cubicles we’ve pieced together in the old bakery warehouse, I beg the Lord to answer their prayers.



Cadets praying for a Training College

Of course, we’ve also been praying for a lot of other thing. We prayed for the long rains to come so that the crops would grow.  The rains came.  We then prayed that the rains would stop, since all that rain was destroying the maize. The rains stopped.  Now, believe it or not, we’re praying that the rains will return before the harvest.  It’s exhausting.  Until I moved to Kakamega, I took corn and fresh produce for granted.  But seeing what our people go through to plant, nurture, and harvest their crops, and then get them safely to market for sale, has changed my thinking forever.  Above all, I’ve learned that it takes a lot of prayer!

 

The other day, a young mother came to Territorial Headquarters hoping that the Lord would answer her prayers.  Her husband died of AIDS, and now she is dying.  Totally disgraced, her family has disowned her.  Yet despite this, she is doing all she can in the midst of her illness to ensure that her children are cared for before she dies.  When she heard the woman’s story, our Social and Sponsorship Secretary, who had to fight back her own tears, quickly found some funds to pay for pain killer and school fees. She’s also started the hunt for a long-term sponsor, and Ken and I are joining her in prayer for that.

 

All those things I so easily take for granted are precisely the things that others pray for.  Their needs are so great, and I have so little to offer.  I now understand what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”

I’m right there with you, Abe.  O Lord, hear our prayers.