I don’t want to be buried at Lang’ata Cemetery

Dear God,

For starters, this year, grant me health and wisdom. I have many needs and wants, and I know because You don’t run out of stock, You will answer me and act accordingly.

Remember You said I’m Your child, and whenever I knock, You will open. And no way Father would I ask for fish and get a snake instead, or bread and get stones. I know there has been global recession, but I know that in heaven, recession is non-existent.

Fuel has gone up, Father. I’m blessed, dear God, to have a car. Yet what I pray for now is not for fuel price adjustment, but Lord, that You will upgrade my income so that I am able to fuel my car comfortably. I have faith that you will grant me this.

Lord, this year I need good money because I need to purchase a piece of land. For some reason, I don’t want my final resting place to be Lang’ata Cemetery. I need to start working on this now, even though I’m not coming home right away.

In Kenya, without a piece of land, you are almost useless. Lord, I want to be like the Proverbs 31 wife who “considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard”.

I remember how You gave Abraham land and told him You would bless him. Lord, I want You to take me to a place and instruct me just as You did Abraham, and I’ll call myself a true descendant of his.

Lord, I remember how the Israelites carried the bones of Jacob and Joseph to the Promised Land. Same applies here, Father. I would love to leave behind land for my children, where my grandchildren can point, “There lies our grandma”.

I’m not done, dear Lord. On the land that You will give me, please grant me resources to put up a big house, just like the mansions in the leafy suburbs I admire.

I want to keep my doors open to sojourners, like Your word instructs. And I don’t want to worry needlessly about how long they’ll be in my house, since there will be space and enough food until they’re ready to leave.

You have said in the Lord’s Prayer that; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As I wait to have a good time in heaven, I also want to have a good time here, because, how can I confess of a heaven I don’t know unless I’ve tasted the heaven here, first?

Lord, I pray for a big house where – because I know my time here’s not up - I will be hosting my old-age support group meetings. I know it’s possible because You have all I am asking.

And where I will settle down, because it will be one of the richest counties in the country, I pray that I be elected the chairperson of the county and, later, Senator, even if it’s only for one term. Have You not said that we shall be the head and not the tail?

Lord, because I know You are going to bless me financially, I plan to go on vacations with my family at least twice a year. And not only to Mombasa, but to places like the Seychelles and Hawaii, to savour the wonders of Your creation.

Finally, give me the faith and determination to have faith in You, to know that it’s possible as I wait for my old age and look forward to loving my grandchildren.

And please help me to make an effort in investing in their education, character and spiritual development. I know You are able and that You don’t run short of these things. In return, I promise to serve You whole heartedly.

And like Reinhold Niebuhr, I pray that “You grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference”.

Also Lord, help me to “live one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next”.