I have a new favorite thing about my Thursday morning routine. It’s the day I have my scheduled Skype call with our Zimbabwe Director, Bekithemba. And while I admittedly always come away refreshed and encouraged by my conversation with my colleague, he’s recently been upstaged by another gentleman I get to talk to on Thursday – his 3 year old son.

Bekithemba’s little boy has started making a habit of shyly saying hello whenever I’m on Skype. Our conversations get a little longer each week as his boldness, his attention span and his English vocabulary increase. It makes my day and I shamelessly put the agenda of our meeting aside for a few minutes to chat with my little Zimbabwean buddy.

This week my little friend asked, “Is it raining where you are?”

Child development fascinates me and I know that, in part, his question is a way of piecing together who and where I am in relation to his understanding of the world as he views my blurry face and hears my voice on the computer. But I found the specifics of his question very telling. He asked me if it was raining. Even at 3, I wonder if he’s already understanding how significant rain is?

He’s experienced the recent water rationing in his city, which has left his home without running water for 4 or more days in a row. He’s experienced standing in line for hours with his parents as they wait to get water from a community borehole. He’s likely seen the extra effort going into boiling and purifying water so it can be used for drinking and cooking. And later on in the day, an hour or so after he asked me if it was raining where I was, I do know that it began to lightly drizzle where he was. I wonder if he recognized the hope, the waiting expectation, on the faces of adults around him who have been praying for rain, watching and hoping and even preparing gardens in faith for the rain to come?

Southern Zimbabwe, where Forgotten Voices’ partnerships are located, is in desperate need of rain. They need it so that water to homes in the city can be restored, so that creeks and riverbeds and wells and dams can be replenished. They also need it for the farms and gardens which are just weeks away from being planted for the start of the growing season.

Please pray for rain – for the right amount and at the right time. Pray for the families, like Bekithemba’s and so many others, who have had to drastically change the way they spend their day just to ensure they have enough water.

Next time I talk to Bekithemba and his sweet little boy, I plan to ask,

“Is it raining where you are?”

Let’s pray that the answer will be yes.

Tags: faith, farming, prayer, rain
Filed under: General Blog