How do I teach hope and trust to children?

I live in Freetown, where the electricity goes and comes like someone testing a child's patience. Last week, my seven year old asked while we ate cassava and peanut stew by kerosene light, "Why did Allah not answer our dua for the rent?" I sat on the kitchen mat, smelled the same stew my mother used to make, and could not find words that felt true and gentle. I remember standing on a crowded bus to the market, watching a woman hum to her baby, and thinking maybe stories hold what sermons do not. How do you talk about hardship and trust to your children without making promises you do not have?