Waiting for redemption

This morning I read Romans 8:20-23, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.  Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body."

1

The United Nations has declared a famine in Somalia, East Africa.  Here's the official release:

Across the Horn of Africa, people are starving. A catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought has left more than 11 million people in desperate need. The United Nations has been sounding the alert for months. We have resisted using the “f-word”—famine —but on Wednesday we officially recognized the fast-evolving reality. There is famine in parts of Somalia. And it is spreading.

This is a wake-up call we cannot ignore. Everyday, I hear the most harrowing reports from our UN teams on the ground. Somali refugees, their cattle and goats dead from thirst, walking for weeks to find help in Kenya and Ethiopia. Orphans who arrive alone, their parents dead, terrified and malnourished, in a foreign land.

From within Somalia, we hear terrible stories of families who watched their children die, one by one. One woman recently arrived at a UN displacement camp 140 kilometres south of Mogadishu after a three-week trek. Halima Omar, from the region of Lower Shebelle, was once considered well off. Today, after three years of drought, she barely survives. Four of her six children are dead. “There is nothing in the world worse than watching your own child die in front of your eyes because you cannot feed him,”she said of her ordeal. “I am losing hope.”2

The refugee camp in Kenya is only 500 miles from where we will be living in Tanzania.

The extreme drought is also affecting Tanzania, although to a lesser degree.  Most of Tanzania's electric power supply is generated by hydro-electric dams, which are at a critically low level.  Therefore the government has mandated power outages for 5 hours every day.3  {Our missionary friends on the ground say it's more like 8-12 hours of outage everyday.}

This is creation groaning under the bondage of corruption. This is not the way it's supposed to be. Drought is a result of the Fall. Famine is a result of the Fall. Disease is a result of the Fall.  Death is a result of the Fall.  Hopelessness is a result of the Fall.

One Somali woman said: "Maybe this is our fate —or maybe a miracle will happen and we will be saved from this nightmare."

Let's pray for a miracle:

Pray for rain in East Africa.
Pray that the Islamic extremists ruling Somalia will repent of their sins and turn to Jesus as Savior and King.
Pray that governments around the world would open their eyes and hands to help those in crisis.
Pray that Christians in these nations would abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that they would be strengthened by Jesus their treasure.
Pray that missionaries would take opportunities to rescue bodies and souls.
Pray that the work of Bible translation would not be hindered but accelerated by this crisis as people see their desperate need for the gospel.

1  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14249733
2  http://www.un.org/sg/articleFull.asp?TID=125&Type=Article
3  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14192896