‘It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by You.”
On June 19, 2024 at 8 am, we stood gathered in our worship center. It was a Wednesday, so we were prepared for our weekly, corporate prayer set. Our Intensive Training was drawing to a close, and before us stood guest worship leaders, Noah + Rozie Reagh, ready to guide us into the Lord’s presence and lead us in prayer.
Yet outside these worship center walls, we were surrounded by a crisis. The worst drought in 100 years in Zambia was closing in – wrought with water shortages, and power cuts – and was ramping up and threatening every nod towards normalcy.
I’ve heard stories of God making it rain when people prayed. Of course through the bible story of Elijah. But there are other testimonies too— of friends praying for rain, and then this glorious response from a real God in water falling from the sky. So as we prayed that Wednesday morning, there was a faith rising in our hearts that God would do it again. Standing in the middle of this plight, like the dry ground, we cried out in prayer, contending for the Lord to make. it. rain.
After a beautiful, expectant hour of believing God for His mercy, we left the worship center, feet crunching over the dry, wasted remains of grass on the base. Despite what our eyes were looking at, there was a hope battling disappointment to make its home in our hearts.
It’s the rainy season now, but it did not rain early that year— not from the sky anyway.
Water rose up from the deep as support poured out onto this parched land.
On June 19, 2024, at 3 pm we sent out an email appealing to our entire Poetice community to help us respond to this crisis. And in 3 hours, $60,000 had poured into our account.
Through a drought, God is bringing revolutionary change to the water crisis in this corner of Choma. For decades, maybe even centuries, people who have dwelled in this area of the city have depended heavily on shallow wells as a source of water. Because of this drought, five new deep water sources have been installed in Mwapona. These water sources are not a temporary response to a drought. This is not a momentary shower. This is permanent infrastructure that will source clean, pure, accessible water for decades to come. In 6 short months, over 1,000,000 gallons of clean water have already been distributed. This drought has gotten us started. And we don’t plan on stopping here. Our minds fill with gratitude and beauty as we imagine what is to come.
I am astounded by this moment in God’s redemptive story unfolding over Choma. I too, experience formation within my own soul, as a witness to this narrative. I would not have imagined a rainless drought would be God’s reparative response to an age-old water crisis.
To the God who created something out of nothing, who sings a new song over something old, may you continue to remind us that no matter what we see, we remember to see you, with possibility forever on your mind.
