It’s a sandstorm, it’s a biblical plaque, its…LAKEFLIES!!!
Actual cloud of Lake flies rising off the lake in our front yard
Today my readers, I want to write about something that is
the bane of every Kenyan near the lake, Lake Flies. Any of you who have ever lived near a lake
know what these are. They are tiny
little creatures that fly up out of the lake to annoy everything in their
path. However the lake flies in America
and Canada are nothing to the monstrosity that is the Kenyan Lake Fly. These are like regular lake flies on
steroids.
Let me paint a picture for you. We live on Lake Victoria here in Kenya, our
front lawn ends at the lake. So once a
month, you’ll be going about your business working outside when all of a sudden
you look over to the lake and this enormous, dark cloud is rising up out of the
lake. This cloud is so big it’s almost
blocking out the sun. If you have ever
seen one of those desert sandstorms in a movie or on TV? That’s what it looks like. I’m talking Cecil B. DeMille, The Ten
Commandments style plague of flies. Once
you see the cloud you have only a few minutes to get inside and close all your
windows before they arrive.
I was actually caught in one of these storms of lake
flies. I was in the guest house painting
the back door so I missed seeing the cloud.
Here in Kenya there is no air conditioning, we open doors and windows to
let the breeze come in and cool everything off.
So I had the front door open while I was painting the back door. All of a sudden from the front of the house
came hundreds of lake flies… right into my WET, painted door. Yes, you guessed it, many lake flies stuck to
the door.
These lake flies get up your nose, in your mouth (yes I have
swallowed my share), in your ears, in your eyes, everywhere. Funny story, we were worshiping at church
one night. Tracy went to the front of
the church to sing a song. As she was
singing she swallowed a few lake flies because they were thick around the
light bulb where she was standing. She
couldn't stop mid song so she had to continue as if nothing happened. The flies stay around for about a two
weeks. A week either side of the full
moon we have a reprieve.
At night they are attracted to any light source, so what we
do is leave the kitchen light on so we can play games in the dining area
without being attacked. However we have
to stop and turn the lights out when we look at the kitchen ceiling and can no
longer see the white tiles. There is a
law of nature that what goes up must come down.
Soooooo the next morning you wake up, go to the kitchen and all those
flies that were on your ceiling the night before are now dead all over every
surface of your kitchen. So you have to
clean up the mess before you can cook breakfast.
I know it sounds like a real problem, but there is a silver
lining. Ezekiel, who works on the farm
here, told Tracy and I that the birds eat the lake flies and so do the
fish. A dear friend of the family
donated money for us to put up a solar light above the water pump house. It reminded me of what Jesus said in Matthew
chapter 5. “…look at the birds of the air, they neither toil nor reap, nor
gather into barns yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than these?” Seeing those lake flies reminds us that God
feeds the birds and the fish. If He
takes care of them, can you not trust Him to take care of you as well?
When I look at it this way I guess the flies are little less
annoying. They are not a curse from God
but a sign that He loves me and will take care of me. Is there something in your life that is bothering
you and giving you a real problem? James
1:3 says trials come into our lives sometimes to build our character. 1 Pet 1:7 says that trials will prove our
faith is genuine. Job 23:10 says that
trials can rid our lives of unrefined qualities, can remove sinful attitudes in
us. Finally Job 1:8 says that God was
well pleased with Job, and yet he still sent him trials in his life.
So the next time something is bothering you, go outside and
watch the birds for a while. Remember
that if God takes care of them then He’ll take care of you as well. Be blessed!
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