Not A Coincidence

I remember the very first time I came to Burkina Faso. When I stepped off the airplane, the heat hit me like a blast in the face, and it instantly smelled like humidity and sweat. The sky was abnormally dark for the time of day, like the sun had decided to set an hour early, and the wind was blowing dust everywhere. We loaded our luggage into the car, and as soon as we hopped in and shut the door, the sky broke open, and it began to rain.

This was no ordinary rain. It was a rain like I had never seen before, with such forceful winds and heavy drops that I actually thought I might have gotten off at the wrong spot and was actually on the coast in the middle of a hurricane. The windsheild wipers were hustling at their highest speed, and we could still only crawl down the road, which had become more like a muddy river at this point, trying to see just a few feet in front of us.

I thought it wasn't supposed to rain in the desert of Burkina Faso. I had been warned that it would be unbelievably hot and dry, but here I was, only being in the country for five minutes, and what I least expected happened. It rained. 

"This never happens!" Suzanne announced astonishingly. She was so excited about the rain, that it began to rub off on me too. I began to realize that rain is a big event in Bukrina Faso, and I was getting to received this blessing and it's gifts as soon as I arrived in the country. 

It was like a promise. I remember thinking that the rain was a sign. A sign that God provides just what we need at the right time. A sign that God can do the unexpected. A sign that God is present and powerful. A sign that he can do more than we could ask or imagine. 

Flash forward almost two years to the date exactly. Two years ago on May 27, 2013, I went to this same city for the first time to stay for 5 days. Yesterday, May 18, 2015, I came to the same city again...only this time for five years. I can't believe everything that has happened in just two years to move me from there to here - from the time I came to Burkina for the first time until this moment right now. 

As I sat on the couch in my new home last night, I felt many of the same emotions that I felt two years ago, only on a grander scale. As five years is to five days, so was the intensity of my thoughts and feelings compared to what I felt the first time I came. Excitement, nervousness, uncertainty at the future, yet confidence in God's faithfulness. 

And just as I was thinking, praying, sorting through my emotions, and processing through the last four months...

The sky grew dark. The wind began to blow. The dust stirred up...

And it began to rain. 

So I remembered the promise. 

A promise that God provides just what we need at the right time. A promise that God can do the unexpected. A promise that God is present and powerful. A promise that he can do more than we could ask or imagine.