Crying for Rain: Adult Mission Story for July 26, 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Rain didn’t fall for months. The African ground grew dry and parched. Fields of maize and wheat withered and died. Gardens of tomatoes, onions, carrots, and potatoes also withered and died.

Speculation swirled that Solusi Adventist High School, where Sibongile was enrolled as a 22-year-old student, would be forced to close forever. Many of the school’s students depended on the fields and gardens for work to pay for their tuition. The fields and gardens also supplied the high school’s cafeteria with fresh produce. Food was running out.

Sibongile wondered what would happen next when the dam that supplied water to the high school and surrounding area ran low. Water rationing was introduced. In the morning, Sibongile and the teachers and other students were allowed to use tap water for one hour. At lunchtime, they were allowed one more hour of water. In the evening, they had one last hour of water.

Those three hours of water were used to cook food, wash dishes, take baths, and store water for the times when the faucets couldn’t be used.

Without water, life became very difficult. Without water, it was very difficult to survive.

As speculation peaked that the high school would be forced to close, students and teachers gathered for a Wednesday evening prayer meeting.

“The only way out of this is to pray,” a high school leader said.

He and other high school leaders made similar appeals for prayer was at vespers on Friday evening, at church on Sabbath morning, and at vespers as the sun set on Sabbath evening.

Sibongile prayed. All of the students and teachers prayed at the meetings. They divided into groups and asked the Lord to provide a way forward.

“Dear God, it will be so difficult for the work that You have assigned us to do to move forward without water,” one student prayed.

“We need to carry the three angels’ messages to the world,” prayed another. “Without water, it will be so difficult.”

Students also prayed alone and with relatives at home. Some combined prayer with fasting — fasting one meal a day or skipping two meals and eating a light supper. Others fasted for the whole day, once, twice, or three times a week.

As the students prayed, they remembered that the Lord had been with Solusi from the very beginning when it was established as the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s first mission station in Africa in 1894. They remembered that the Lord had been with Solusi when the high school established its campus near Solusi University with the help of a Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in 1994. They remembered that future pastors and other church workers were being taught and nurtured at the high school and university.

As Sibongile remembered how the Lord had led Solusi in the past, her faith grew by leaps and bounds. She understood that Solusi belonged to God. She believed that He cared for His children and that He was the only way forward.

Sibongile and the others prayed and fasted for two months. During that time, some people thought that the high school would close. But it didn’t. Despite the drought and difficult circumstances, it survived.

Sibongile said she will always remember how God answered their prayers by keeping the school open despite the lack of water.

“That little water that we had sustained us until we got rainfall,” she said.

When the rain finally came, people celebrated. Students and teachers crowded into the church to sing praises to the Lord. Everyone prayed and thanked the Lord for His mercy.

Then the high school was able to resume its farming program. With water, life began to return to normal.

Sibongile, who now works at Solusi University, said she has witnessed how God has blessed Solusi throughout the years.

“The Lord has blessed Solusi. I have seen that with my own eyes. The Lord has blessed Solusi in many ways.”

A 1994 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering helped Solusi Adventist High School establish a campus near Solusi University in Zimbabwe. Just as the blessing of the offering is still being felt by current and former students, your contribution to this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath projects can also, with God’s blessing, have a long-lasting impact in Zimbabwe and beyond. Thank you for planning a generous offering on September 27.