Answered Prayers After a Long Wait

Uhaju has been around more lately.  He and his wife opened a stall on the main street where they sell clothes, shoes and various other goods.  A few times, when I’ve been passing I’ve found him there and been able to stop, take off my sandals and come inside the stall, sit next to him and chat.  I’ve known Uhaju for so long and seen his interest in things of truth rise and fall like a very slow tide.  Years ago, we would read together every week, but then he would lose interest, only to have him return a year later, ready to read again, only to have another year go by where he would stop coming and I would hardly see him.  But I know that when I do see him, he’s usually interested to sit and talk.  He loves to hear a story.  So the last few times I’ve seen him I’ve shared with him whatever story I had been reading that day.

Prayer walk for cholera

This week it happened to be about a man who found that his wife was pregnant and planned to divorce her in secret, only to have a dream in which he was told not to divorce her, but to trust God in this.  I told the story in my own words, and then I read it to him.  He enjoyed the story a lot.  In fact, he had some good news for me.  His wife is pregnant—3 months along!  Another story involving a pregnancy and the possibility of divorce.

Uhaju has been married for nearly six years but he and his wife were not able to get pregnant during that time.  In island culture it is quite shameful to not have children.  For some it is even seen as a sin or a judgment from God.  So as the years go by, the pressure mounts for a man to leave his barren wife, divorce her and/or take another wife in the hope that a new wife will be able to bear the wanted offspring.  Does it sound Old Testament?  Yes.  People here can relate well to the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar or Jacob, Leah and Rachel.  Uhaju had no desire to take a second wife.  Nor did he want to divorce his first wife, but as time passes, pressure mounts.

Former teammate visited for couple days

In those times when Uhaju was interested in reading together, it was a regular prayer request.  And when we would read the stories of God providing barren women with children, he would take hope.  And when we stopped reading together, prayers continued for his wife to become pregnant, and that he would not give into the temptation to leave her and find another.  So when he told me that his wife was pregnant, it was no small thing.

“It’s a miracle,”  he said to me.  “God has answered your prayers.  Five and a half years—It’s a miracle.”

I take heart in the fact that Uhaju sees it as our prayers that have brought about this good news.  I hope, in the coming days to remind him, that it has nothing to do with us, but it is rather the one in whom we put our trust that makes all the difference.  Will this finally be the catalyst that brings an end to the ebb and flow of Uhaju’s long, slow, journey toward the truth?  Who is to say?  We can only pray.  Five and a half years and we have the expectation of a new birth. May this new child catalyze birth into new life for Uhaju and his wife as well!

Our 16 year old!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
In other answered prayers, another island couple for whom we have been praying for years that they’d have a child, just had a baby boy. The rains have abated near our kids’ school bringing much needed relief to the flooded areas. Our teammate made it home safely and has already been able to be a help. We were able to have a nice visit with our medical teammates on the plateau this past week. Our daughter had a nice dinner and dessert with her dorm for her 16th birthday this past week. Our timeline in the US during this coming summer is finally coming together.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
The number of daily cholera cases on Clove Island continues to be high— keep praying with us for an end to the epidemic. Pray for wisdom for our landlord as he evaluates our sagging roof and for us as we consider having to move out of most of our house. Our daughter has injured her shoulder— pray that it would respond to PT and that she would get pain relief. Pray for complete healing as both Tom and Megan have been sick in the past couple weeks. Muki is back on Clove Island— pray that he and Tom would get back into a good pattern of studying together and that Muki would be sharing with others.