Jacob, Africa Sunrise Communities’ Executive Director, has told this story before, but it is a good one to reflect upon again:
On January 22 I was walking along a road in the town of Bor, Jonglei State–my home state. I saw two boys selling water they had collected from the Nile River. I asked them how long they had been doing this business and if they went to school. They told me they didn’t go to school because they had no parents and nothing to eat. They were not working for money–just for food. When I asked how I can pray for them, they said, “Pray that the donkey doesn’t die. Pray that the owner of this donkey doesn’t fire us. If he does, we will have no food.” I did pray, not just that they would keep their meager job, but that God would provide them and others like them the opportunity to live a full and happy life.
Prayer is an important part of our Christian faith, but God has given us the ability to make our own decisions and with His help we find solutions to our problems in prayer. Mark (2:4 NIRV) tells us that one time some friends brought a crippled man to see Jesus, but so many people were there, “. . . they could not get him close to Jesus because of the crowd. So, they made a hole by digging through the roof above Jesus. Then they lowered the man through it on a mat.” The friends of the crippled man show us another way to not lose heart, and to know God through our creativity as well as our persistence. Consider the effort these men made for their crippled friend! They carried him to the meeting place. The lifted him to the roof. They dug through the straw and thatch on the roof. Then they lowered their friend the floor of the building. What rejoicing there must have been among these men, when Jesus healed their friend?The boys with the donkey are working hard to make a life for themselves even though they really should
be in school. They need some help finding other solutions to their life problems. We have prayed for them, but we can use your help to help them!You could say that Africa Sunrise Communities is like the cripple who needed friends to bring him to Jesus. We need friends to bring our mission to new generation of South Sudan. Help us with a prayer. But also help us by spreading the word of our work and making a donation to support our work._________________________________________________________Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@africa_sunrise).