One of my favorite things to do is plan. Plan events, plan trips, plan for my future, even just plan out my week. While this love of planning can be a helpful habit in some situations, it can also be a symptom of a lack of trust in God. I often won’t move forward unless I feel like I have it all figured out. I don’t leave room for trust.
Trusting in God is something many of us struggle with. It can be easy to think we don’t need God when our basic needs are met. In the struggle to fight against this lack of trust, I have learned much from the example of 127 Worldwide partner Rose Bugusu. Rose directs a children’s home and school in Malava, Kenya called Tumaini Miles of Smiles Centre. She excels in trusting God, both in little things and in big things. In episode 7 of the Simply 127 podcast, Rose tells a story that exemplifies her trust in God.
Early on in the days of Tumaini, the community’s access to water was limited. While the school did have a well on the property, it didn’t provide nearly enough water for all the students’ needs. Children at Tumaini spent hours every day carrying contaminated water from a nearby creek back to the school property. This water then had to be boiled before it could be used.
So Rose prayed to God for more clean water. And as she prayed, she began to build a water tower. She believed that God would provide water for the children at Tumaini and knew that when he did, she needed to be prepared to store it. During construction of the water tower, Rose remembers people cynically doubting her trust. Why would she spend money on a water tower when there was no forecast for rain?
What came next would not fit into most definitions of success. We expect a massive rainstorm the same day Rose finishes building the tower. But that is not what happened. Rose finished the water tower, and it didn’t rain. And it didn’t rain. And it didn’t rain. For a year, it didn’t rain. But Rose continued to trust God. She knew that he works in his own timing and that sometimes his faithfulness does not look the way we envision.
Rose looks back on that year of drought as a time of blessing. Through that season of waiting, God gave her an opportunity to increase her trust in him. Instead of resorting to bitterness that God did not act quickly, she praised him for his faithfulness to work in his own timing.
Then, after an entire year of waiting, it rained. God provided for his children at Tumaini, and Rose used the watertower to store the water he sent them. Since then, God has continued to bless Tumaini with clean water through the water tower. While God may not have answered Rose’s prayer in the timing that we would expect, his timing was perfect. From Rose’s example, we can learn how to trust God even when we don’t know the future and even when God’s timing does not align with ours. May we, like Rose, proclaim:
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23
