In 2006, I was in East Africa for the second time in 9 months. I didn’t know what dreams were about to be borne. I didn’t even know I was in the seedling stage of mine, and others, transformation.
We were completing a film called Africa Sing Me Your Song, filming stories of AIDS-impacted children in central Tanzania. We had filmed some amazing footage with Masai warriors, in local schools, and even in hospitals and mud-hut villages. But, as a storyteller I knew we had not yet found a story for our film that really resonated at a deep, heart (or spirit) level.
So we prayed.
There were four members on that team, and on the final night in a small town called Tabora, two of us hit our knees. We prayed for about half an hour, asking Yahweh to reveal His plans, even if our time clock was winding down to zero. It was a Hail Mary, a last-ditch-effort-kind-of-prayer. We were all in.
“God, you made the Earth and made us to inhabit it. If You want, You can even change our circumstances and timeline.”
We were supposed to fly at 6am. And then catch an international flight the day after that. But something happened, that we did not expect.
A flash flood washed out the runway at the local airport, a red-dirt runway. The only airport within 300 miles. We were grounded indefinitely.
I’ll never forget the feeling at breakfast that morning. Two of our team members were discombobulated, grumbling as any of us likely would to have our plans so suddenly changed. But the two members of our team that were praying the night before were grinning ear to ear. We knew that of all the washed-out runways, this flood was from the Lord.
Fast forward to 3 hours later. As the cinematographer and director of the film, I suggested that we go downtown to see what we might find. And the split second I hit record on the camera, two young boys, street orphans named Juma and Haruna, walked into the frame. They were 10 and 8 years old.
I didn’t speak a word of Swahili back then. I hardly knew how to say, “Jambo.” But when I looked into those boys’ eyes, I knew that we had found our story.
Fast forward to 3 years later. Our film had touched the lives of quite a few people when we shared it in Canada. In particular, there were a pair of 10 year old boys from a private school who saw the same look in Juma and Haruna’s eyes, that I had seen through my tiny field monitor on the streets of East Africa.
We presented a new vision when screening our short documentary from Tanzania: build a home for Juma’s family, 12 kids under 12, and their grandmother. With the passion of two grade schoolers, $16,000 was raised in an international dinner at the school I had attended as a young boy and teenager, Red Deer (Gateway) Christian. And with those seed funds, we built this precious family a new home, lovingly named the Gateway House.
Fast forward another 15 years. Juma is not only healthy, well, wise and of good reputation with his family and peers. He is a bright, whipsmart, talented, baptized, Spirit-filled follower of Jesus, and he changed his name to Moses, a reflection of his pursuit of the promised land he now longs for.
This week I land in Tanzania once again.
Mark it, trip 15 (or is it 16?!) in the last 18 years! And Juma Moses, as we now call him, is the co-leader of our mission. I will land in his nation, and he will meet our team and provide support and translation as we walk through villages and sit with local Tanzanians, Swahili Bibles in hand.
It’s incredible as a witness to the transformation over the last 18 years, to see how far Juma Moses and his siblings have come. Some are (or will soon be) teachers, nurses, doctors and business owners. But it would have never come to pass, had it not been for that washed out runway in 2006.
A disastrous interruption was a miraculous answer to prayer. What prayers are you praying? I pray they are answered, planting seedlings that one day grow into stories of divine transformation. For God’s glory.
Keep Breathing,
Daniel Kooman
P.S. take 2 minutes to watch the video on this post to learn about Juma Moses and Milka’s stories! Look into their eyes, and please say a prayer for our team on the ground, as the Spirit leads.
Planting Seeds of Transformation