A Delay is not a Denial

I woke this morning to the familiar blue skies of equatorial Africa. Black kites circled overhead and a fish eagle settled into the branches of the tall tree by the Lake shore.

Outside my fourth floor window the lilac flowers of the jacaranda trees attracted sunbirds, bulbuls and vireo’s, eager for a sweet breakfast of nectar. The cool breeze of last night had given way to stillness and a warm peace.

Paul James had arranged for me to picked up at 10:00, to go down to church in Kibos.

Sure enough, on the dot of 10:45, Paul James arrived to collect me.

Kisumu’s streets were busy this morning. The largest outdoor market in East Africa happens every Sunday afternoon on the road to Kondele. The streets are lined with sheets, pillowcases and towels, pegged on makeshift washing lines, strung between the tall trees to show them off to potential sellers (they must get so dusty it’s a wonder anyone ever buys them!). In front of the cotton backdrop are lines of roadside sellers. A woman with her young son sorts through piles of shoes looking for the right size. Next to her hang Arsenal and Man Utd shirts, bright and red in the sun (authentic the stall holder swears - though probably not!). The next stall sells furniture, three piece suites, large wooden sofas and chairs. Next a coffin maker, a welder and a barber working side by side.

The roads by the market were bursting with matatu’s, beeping heir horns, their drivers shouting and slowly edging their vans into the best position before unloading their sweaty payload into the greedy jaws of the market stalls. “Do not wash”, it said on the side of one of the dustiest matatu “Scientific dirt experiment in progress”. I am sure it physically impossible for a matatu to go in a straight line, or indeed for a regular car ever to get past one.

The journey to church this morning was slower than usual!

It is 10 years since we founded the church on the two and a half acre plot by the side of the dusty mud road in Kibos. I love to go, and look forward to Sundays there with my church family.

Moses is away at the moment, back at his home, attending the funeral of his sister who died of breast cancer last month. This morning’s service was taken by the church Pastor, Hesbon, with a guest preacher from Migosi Church, who has been helping all week with a church revival outreach.

Pastor Paul Otieno was a lovely man, with a powerful voice and a passion for God. He preached from his heart on Hebrews 11. He talked of patience, of waiting, of faithfulness and righteousness. A delay is not a denial he said, of prayer and faithfulness. Sometimes God gives you a picture of what he is going to do, but it might take some time for it to happen.

While we wait, we are to be faithful and worship.

Pastor Paul really spoke to me in his message.

Ever since we first came to Kenya we have had a vision for a children’s village. Not a big orphanage, not an institution, but somewhere where our family can live and grow together. We have laid the foundations, dug the drainage on the land, brought in power and connected the electricity to the church and the rehabilitation centre which we rent..

But we have not yet had the capital funds available to start our own building.

We have a passion and a faith in our hearts. But, so far, we have no bricks.

But a delay is not a denial.

I found myself believing with some certainty this morning, as we sang and worshipped together, that this will all be here one day.

After church I walked around the land. I stopped and looked, seeing in my heart the houses and the village that are already here in faith, but not yet in practice.

And I am more sure that one day we will build.

On my way out of church I stopped to talk with Isaiah. Isaiah is one of the boys we work with. In December he completed his KCSE, graduating from high school.

I asked him what he was hoping to do next.

“I want to do a college course in ICT” he told me. He had been down to the college to ask about entry and enrolment for the first year certificate course starting in April

We do not have the funds for his college, but if I believe for a village, then I have faith enough for college fees too. My time here has taught me to trust and believe, to seek in order to find.

A delay is not a denial.

Because with faith, you and I can move mountains.