The rains are starting their slow return. The people are breathing a sigh of relief. While they are not "starving" many people do loose weight during this season, because they simply aren't able to consume enough calories for the manual labor that they do. But praise be to the God of heaven and earth, who sends the rain on both the godly and the ungodly. Soon the planting will come, and then, Lord willing, the harvesting. As evidenced by this picture we see a few tractors here and there, but most fields are prepared by the women with their hoes.
For others the rain and storms can sometimes cause trouble. One of the pastors of the OPCU had his kitchen (usually a separate building from the rest of the house) destroyed and the tin roof blown off part of his house in a storm a couple days ago. The bricks that he had made to build his house, had never been fired (due to lack of funds at the time), so once the tin flew off, a vast portion of the mud bricks disintegrated in the rain. He will now need to make all new bricks (and Lord willing, get them fired this time) and patch up the tin roof. For the time being, his roof is being held on by twine and is full of nail holes that let the rain in. He and his family...the youngest of which is 4 years old...were heavy on my heart as I listened to the rain pour down again last night.
A widow in a nearby OPCU church shares his story - her home was also severely damaged in the same storm...
...and I don't think that they suffer any less than first world people who loose their houses in tornadoes, hurricanes or a tsunami...
...except that you will never hear about them on the 5 o'clock news...
But God knows their troubles. He doesn't forget his people. Please pray.
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