"Don’t worry about
your life; God will provide for all your needs." ~ Matthew
6:25-34
Some people make lemonade from
lemons. William felt wind and imagined a
windmill.
He wasn't naturally an over-achiever. Denied public schooling at age 14 in 2001 because
his family couldn't afford the $80 tuition, his life seemed destined for the farm
and back-breaking labor of his father, a poor maize and tobacco grower.
With plenty of idle time, William began visiting a rural library
where he studied a textbook called Using Energy that detailed the miracle
of electricity. He planned to build a
windmill by attaching blades to the back axle of a bicycle and generate
electricity through a bike light generator.
He hunted for the needed items (used PVC pipe, flip flops, discarded
bicycle parts including a dynamo, and other salvage parts); all of which were
obtainable in their poor African hamlet.
“If successful,” he urged, “we could irrigate… and grow twice as much
food.”
The villagers in his native Malawi, a small country in
southeastern Africa, ridiculed his designs as “crazy,” even sorcery. They
didn’t understand what he was doing even when he tried to explain.
But the curious, energetic, (some
said) “nutty” boy persisted in his attempt at building an electric wind
turbine. Malawi is among the world's
least-developed countries; famine and drought persistently crippled its
agricultural economy.
One windmill soon grew to three. To the amazement of his family and naysayers
it generated enough electricity to light several bulbs in the family's home, power
radios and a TV, charge his neighbors' cellphones and pump water for their farm
and household use. It couldn’t have come
too soon.
The drought and famine of 2006 killed dozens of Malawians;
none from William’s family of 9.
Soon local farmers and journalists investigated the “weird, spinning
device” and William’s fame among international news outlets skyrocketed. Venture capitalists stepped forward pledging
funds to expand his project.
William was able to put his cousin and several friends back
into school, pay for some family medical bills, and dig a deep public well from
which local farmers could irrigate their crops.
This all begs the question: “Why God didn’t provide for
these people in Malawi. Why did God
allow so many of these people to starve in a famine?” It’s one of the areas of my faith where I
struggle the most in trusting that God will take care of us.
But of course, He did!
He provided the salvage tools in Malawi to create
electricity, the books needed for the required knowledge, and a creative problem-solving
idealist with vision and energy. God’s
provision was readily and abundantly available, as always.
Heavenly Father, give us today our daily
bread. And forgive us our failings, as
we forgive others’. Help me resist life’s
temptations and to acknowledge my total dependence on You, especially in times
of trials and testings. Amen
