At Canopy Life, Sunday mornings are for church. Every other week, our students attend a local church nearby where many of our staff members are involved. The other weeks, church is held at home, led by Canopy’s house parents Stephen and Linah.
Last Sunday, our team joined the children for church at home. It was a really sweet time. We sang in a mixture of Swahili and English (with lots of dancing, of course!), and Stephen invited us to share testimonies of answered prayer. One of the Class 4 students told about how, after he auditioned for a spot at Canopy Life, he prayed that God would give him the opportunity to attend the school. He said he was so happy when he heard that he had been accepted.
During this time of testimony, God revealed to Christi (Canopy’s founder and director) something she had not previously realized. She asked Mercy, one of our Class 5 students, if she knew what year she was born. Mercy responded,
“2006.”
“In what month?”
“September.”
Christi continued to explain how in August of 2006, she was at a worship event in Atlanta, and God gave her a vision of a school in Kenya that was also a home. She didn’t know all the details, but she knew it was a place that felt like family where Kenyan children could grow in character and faith. In the year Canopy’s first class of students was being born, Christi began to pray. She prayed and she worked toward fulfilling this vision, following God’s leading, until 2015 when the school opened to Mercy and her classmates.
During our time in Kenya, my husband Tim and I were acutely aware of God’s provision over the long haul. We’re wired to expect immediate results, and it has been powerful to hear stories about and see the ways God has worked over time in the lives of those in the Canopy family. The other day, Christi reminded all of us that while we are waiting, God is working—just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean He isn’t present in our circumstances. The kids at Canopy Life are a perfect picture of this truth. God is actively working in their lives, but there is so much in their futures yet to be seen.
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Christi and her husband Joe, who she married in May of this year, with Classes 4 and 5. During our time at the school, we had the opportunity to celebrate their marriage as a testament of God’s faithfulness over time.