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Great Things Happen Sometimes! Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by Allan Weatherall, Australia Dec 18, 2001
Culture   Opinions
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Great Things Happen Sometimes!

I had never been outside my own country before – much less ventured alone to ‘the Dark Continent’... and yet the conviction was undeniable – and wouldn’t go away!

God has His own ways of persuading you (and your family) when you have doubts about His leading. By 1995, God had been speaking to me about Africa for a number of years, but my wife Roslyn was still unconvinced when I finally said to her, “Honey, I think God wants me to go to Africa...”

I wasn’t a missionary! Even though I had done some Bible College, I hadn’t studied missiology or cultural anthropology and I had no links with any established mission organisations. I was inexperienced, untravelled, unprepared (or so I thought) - not to mention financially challenged (broke). You can imagine our reaction when a couple of days later we received a letter from a young lady telling us the story of how she’d been reading an article that I’d written in a magazine and God showed her a vision of me ministering among black people in Africa! This was about the first external confirmation that we had that God was actually leading us and that I wasn’t just going crazy. But what should we do now? Which part of Africa should I go to? Who should I meet? What would I do? With all these unanswered questions there was nothing I could do but continue to pray. Sometimes God takes His time – then suddenly everything happens at once. We received another letter – this time from Africa!

Francis Makoha was browsing through a second-hand bookstore in Kampala and found a Christian magazine all the way from Australia! It’s still a mystery how a magazine from Australia found its way into a bookstore in Kampala – but God has His ways! In it was a small article that I’d written, and Francis felt the Lord was telling him to contact me – and the Lord gave him no peace until he had written the letter and posted it. That was the beginning of our correspondence back and forth, and when I shared with him my sense of call to Africa, Francis responded with the challenge: “Please come to Africa – our church is fasting and praying that you’ll come!” I felt that this was the door that God was opening – to refuse would have been just plain disobedient! Roslyn and I asked some friends to pray – and then two significant things happened: People began to give us money (without us asking!), and convictions began to formulate in my heart about the state of the Church in Africa – God was giving me His prophetic perspective.

I set foot on African soil in March 1996 and was led on a whirlwind tour around Uganda where I was called upon to preach more times than I ever preached before. It appears that God’s strength came to perfection in my weakness, because He did some wonderful things. Many churches received a message on understanding the New Covenant model for Christian ministry and community (ie: house church – or the culturally adjusted equivalent: under-a-tree church!). By the amazing grace of God all this was attested to by signs and wonders – conversions, healings, and a remarkable incident where a lady heard me speak to her in her own language whilst I was praying in tongues! People came to the meetings because God told them in dreams to go and hear the white preacher. It was an exciting time!

I’ve now been to Africa four times - a veteran compared to that first trip – but perhaps the most amazing thing to come from the these trips is the partnership that has been formed by believers here in Australia and around the world with our needy brothers and sisters in Africa in the form of Friends of Uganda Worldwide.

Uganda, like many African countries, is being decimated by AIDS – the consequence of which is that there are now too many orphans to be effectively accommodated through institutional care alone. FOUWW identifies the most needy Christian families who are willing to care for additional children, and then supplies them with what they need to start a business, which then provides income for the whole family. Through assisting these families that have responded to the needs of orphans, we are helping them become self sufficient as they care for these children. In doing so we try to avoid cultivating aid dependency. Friends of Uganda owns no assets and employs no staff. All workers are volunteers. In the last five years we have been able to distribute approximately US$20,000, starting 80 family business ventures, caring for 272 orphans – as well as 214 other children in their host families. All this has been done with a small number of committed givers who have chosen to indirectly share the burden of care for these kids through this project.

In America tax-deductible
donations can be made to
Friends of Uganda Worldwide through Bibles for All,
33 Skyline Drive, Cartersville GA 30120 Phone/fax + 1 770-387-4330
or alternatively in Australia:
Friends of Uganda Worldwide,





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