The thing about waiting is that, eventually, you have to decide what to do with all the time in between. 

Paul Ekale has had a lot of it. 

He has been married since 2002. They have been waiting for a child since. There have been health challenges. Prayers. There was the ugly arithmetic of hope: another year, another prayer, another morning. 

But life does not stop because you are waiting for something. 

So Paul kept building. 

He joined Securex in 2003 and stayed. Twenty-three years later, he has land. Cattle. A life he can point to and say: I made something of this time. 

But, most importantly, he became a preacher. It is the foundation on which he has built his life and his beliefs. And perhaps this is what faith asks of a person: not that you know when the thing you want will arrive, but that you refuse to let its absence empty out the days before it does. 

“To be given a child, it is a journey,” Paul says. “It is a journey of being resilient and also having confidence and faith in God and trust…” 

He talks about faith almost like a contract he has made with himself. 

“It is a decision that I made. So I have to adhere to my decision without wavering. That’s my faith.” 

So he worked. He preached. He bought land. He kept cattle. He built a future around the possibility that one day there would be more people to share it with. 

Now, after all those years, there is a child coming. 

“I’m not giving up, but the time has come. I’m happy about that.” 

Maybe that is the story. 

Not that Paul waited. 

But that he learned how to live while he waited.