Rainfall

It had to be at least 115 degrees because it felt like it was 130 inside the church building, with windows wide open and fans going full blast. Still, that didn't stop the church service from happening or the people from worshipping like they always do - with their whole bodies. It was my last time at French church with my host family, so I embraced the heat and clapped and danced along with them, even as the sweat rolled down my neck and back. 

I left a few minutes early so that I could also spend my last Sunday at our English speaking church called International Bible Fellowship (or IBF) where we have members from Belgium, France, United States, Germany, Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Denmark, and Netherlands. (Thanks to the Brills for doing that math for me.) IBF has been a huge blessing in my life these past four months, giving me a place to meet amazing people and worship our global God side by side. 

An added bonus is that IBF is air-conditioned, which I was happily looking forward to this particular day. 

Except I arrived to find tha the power was out. 

Unlike African churches, which I think were designed to have maximum air flow during hot season, I think the room where we meet was designed to be air conditioned. The windows were small, and without air conditioning, it was even hotter than hot. 

For lunch after church, we tried to find a place with air conditioning, but the power was out there, too. So it just kept getting hotter. 

Normally! I play frisbee on Sunday afternoons. With the heat climbing, I almost backed out, but I decided to tough it out since it was my last Sunday in Ouaga for a while and thus my last opportunity to play. 

And it's a good thing I did, because that's when the rain came. 

The sky turned a hazy gray with a tint of orange and purple, a color only God could create that tells the world a storm is coming. Then the wind began to blow, and we watched the clouds roll in. Sometimes a rain begins with a few small drops. Not this one. We were hit with a wall of water that soaked us all within 30 seconds. And then the real fun began! The wind blew the frisbee in every direction except where we intended it to go, but we didn't mind. We just laughed. We wiped our eyes and shielded our faces to continue the game. We kicked up mud and slid across the grass, and we laughed every second. 

When it rains in the United States, people do everything they can to stay out of it. When it rains here, we go out and play in it. 

When the rain began to fall so hard that it felt like rocks hitting our skin, we gathered and huddled under the imperfection protection of a nearby hangar. We watched the rain storm like it was the Olympics or the Super Bowl. It hasn't rained since I got here almost four months ago, except for one small sprinkle. So this really was better than a fireworks show! And as the wind blew on my wet skin, I got chill bumps on my arms, and all my little hairs were standing on end. The hottest heat and the coldest cold - from one extreme to the other - all in one day. 

Life here in Burkina Faso revolves around the rain. The timing of the planting and the gathering depends on the rain. The size of the harvest depends on the rain, thus every family's supply of food depends on the rain. Livelihood depends on the rain. 

That's why I love the scripture that says...

"He covers the heavens with clouds and prepares rain for the earth." (Psalm 157:8) 

And...

"For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water." (Isaiah 35:6-7)

It's no wonder the Lord compares the movement of his kingdom to rains in the wilderness and streams in the dessert. Just like livelihood depends on the rain, so our spiritual livelihood depends on the rain - the coming kingdom of God and the presence of his Holy Spirit. Just like the rain falls to refresh the earth, so the Holy Spirit  falls to refresh the hearts of his preople. And just like streams rise after a great big rain, so we must pray for the kingdom of God to wash across our world and reach every people group with this life-giving water. 

Don't take cover. Let's get out and play in the rain.