In your life when you are hit by a smell and it reminds you of childhood – the smell that brings back memories of a special time in your life. I love it when smells do that! 10 years ago I stepped foot in a country I only dreamt of seeing when I was young – Kenya! Kenya has a smell that if you blindfolded me and put me there, I would know I was there just by the unique smell of that country. The smell of a dusty road, fresh food, burning plastic, roasted maize all rolled into one, the smell of ‘home’. Ten years ago I gave up life and a career to dedicate it to serving the poor in Kenya. God took me to a country I had dreamt about since I was 8 years old and placed me with one of the poorest people on the planet. I was shocked when I reached there and found so many people joyful in their state of nothingness. Today we run an orphanage with over 240 children that live with us, these kids have no mum or dad but yet joy fills their heart in every way.
Nine years ago this story changed the way I looked at life and I hope it touches you today. In 2009 there were only 45 children living at the orphanage with 8 kids living in one bed, mud walled house and malaria was rife. The kids hadn’t eaten for a few days because these times were the ‘hard days’ with no food. The children desired to eat rice and if you know anything about Kenya then rice is very expensive to buy especially when you have not a penny on you. The kids were told we have no money but we have a God that will provide our needs and hear our cry. Faith was the key here and the kids had this faith to believe God would provide.
We told them to start a fire and put a pan with water in it, and now pray! The kids made the fire and prayed around this pot where the water was slowing being burned up. After 30 minutes of praying the water had gone and still no rice was there. People thought we were mad, but we only had faith to believe God would provide rice. We filled the pot with more water and stoked the fire a little more and the kids continued to pray. Three hours went by and not a single sign of rice but there was an atmosphere of expectancy that God would answer the prayers of His children. God can answer in unique ways and ways we may not expect Him to but all we need is faith to believe HE WILL ANSWER! As the kids were sat around the fire singing and praying to God, there was the sound of movement coming from the distance in the dark bushes ahead of us. All you could hear was footsteps and the rustling of dust and we knew someone was heading towards where the children were. As this old grandmother came closer to the light of the fire you could see her carrying a sack on her head. She knelt down and opened the sack and it was full of rice!!! She told the kids that the Lord told her to come and bring rice for the children to eat tonight so she obeyed God with the little she had. After 4 hours of prayer the kids ate rice that night and were full!!
Since this time in Kenya in 2009 we now have to trust God with feeding over 500 people everyday. He trusted us with the small and now our faith and our prayers are bigger. God starts you on the journey for you to learn with the small things so He can see if He can trust you with the big. I learnt from this that God hears our every cry and it may take a while for Him to answer but we should never give up and always have faith that our Father in heaven hears our every cry. If you have a dream then believe by faith that God will answer those dreams! Dream BIG with God and He will dream big with you! Faith is the key – never give up!
Hebrews 11:1 ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’
Sophie McLachlan
Awaken Love For Africa
www.awakenlove.org.uk
