On weeping, waiting, and hope

Read the following list of woes and guess where in earth it is referring to:  loss of land to foreigners, scarcity of drinking water and firewood, forced labor, bad government, famine, widespread rape, slavery, proliferation of orphans and widows, breakdown of community life. Sounds a bit like Africa, particularly the immediate areas around us in Eastern Congo, Sudan, Rwanda . . . But it is actually straight out of Lamentations chapter 5, a description of the fall of Jerusalem.  In the face of that destruction Jeremiah weeps and waits, for hope.

It’s been a weeping and waiting kind of week here, actually a weeping and waiting kind of life. And usually I think I’m waiting for solutions, for answers, for change.  But Lamentations says we are waiting for hope.  Waiting for a glimmer of God’s presence.  Because that is what we really need, even though I think we need much “more” which is actually much less.  Like food for the hungry and justice for the poor and rest for the missionaries . . .

Pray that in the spurts of relief and answers we would not be satisfied with less than God Himself.  Pray that hope would come.  Here are some glimpses of it this week:

• Right now Scott has a truck full of UNICEF supplies, heading back from Bundibugyo.  It was touch and go.  He went to their office in Kampala which seemed to trigger the release of the goods, but they were sent via a UNICEF driver to Bundibugyo and mistakenly off-loaded at a district store.  By the time we traced them we worried that we would never see them again . . .but all is well.  A major answer to prayer.  The most severely malnourished inpatients will be drinking this milk powder for months to come.
• Thanks to vision from Michael, persistence from David, and footwork from Kasereka, CSB was able to obtain three UNICEF water tanks that were donated to the district for school use.  These are worth many thousands of dollars, freeing other CSB funds for the many other needs of the school.  Amazing.
• A friend from UVA days is funding the salaries of the three nutrition extension workers for three years.  Wow.  This allows our ongoing donations to go for food, and allows the sustainable parts of the program (chickens producing eggs, goats producing milk and more goats, gardens producing food) to be built and secured.  We are so grateful.
  

Many days, like Jeremiah, I feel that this calling is too much, that we are “caught between a difficult God and the service of His impossible people” (loosely quoting from the Card book).  Then we get generous friends and amazing supplies from unexpected places, and it is a brief parting of the clouds to keep us moving forward.  Weeping we wait, and hope does arrive.