Water. It’s pretty important, isn’t it? But I bet most of us take it for granted. We turn on our faucets, and out it comes—simple as that.

But at our home in Mali, every drop of water we use has to be hauled to our house by our two very special, very hairy, at times very noisy donkeys. Our male donkey Zarco is our main water hauler, and Zinnia, our female donkey, is the backup.

We are very thankful for our donkeys and appreciate the important job they do for us. So one day recently when Zinnia disappeared, we were worried. Dry season had begun, and grass had gotten scarcer due to fires and lack of rain. We had let Zinnia forage off her tether for several days since we hadn’t yet laid in our store of peanut-plant fodder. We knew Zinnia had been grazing in the valley behind our house, and we hoped she hadn’t wandered so far that she couldn’t find her way back again. Neil went into the valley and looked around but didn’t see her. Nobody he asked had seen her either. What to do? Well, we knew God knew her whereabouts, so our whole family prayed and asked Him to bring Zinnia back if it was His will.

We were thrilled to receive our answer to prayer that very evening. A child from one of the families we know in the valley came running breathlessly to our house to tell us that Zinnia was grazing next to their house. Neil quickly went and brought our prodigal donkey home. We are thankful that our Heavenly Father cares about everything, including wandering donkeys!

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