'Friday 5th August - The Home Team Prayer Support update reported from the COGS Home Team that 'This morning God called us to read Isaiah 40:31 as we were praying for energy for the team in Uganda';
'But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.'
Friday morning 5th August - James and I take a rest at our home stay. Mission in Uganda is very rewarding but exhausting work! We were unaware until the following day of the COGS prayer team being called to read Isaiah 40:31 to renew our strength.
Having nothing better to do, we decided to make paper aeroplanes, from a lovely colourful book '200 paper aeroplanes to make' which Tina had brought with her. Naively, we thought that some of street boys that we were to meet that afternoon would enjoy playing with the planes we had made. Wrong! So Wrong!!
That afternoon, I was mobbed by the street boys as I got out of the mini bus with the bag of paper aeroplanes and had to retreat to the safety of the minibus to launch the planes above the heads of the street boys for them to catch. The boys who picked the paper planes up hung on to them rather than fly them and possibly lose them to another street boy. I retained one plane which was decorated to look like an eagle.
The following morning 6th August, I went along to Kidodu church Kasese near Amaha We Uganda's offices. During a break between the two services there I made a further paper aeroplane. Caroline preached and I was asked (with no notice given) to go and speak to the Sunday school under the shade of a tree outside the church. On my previous visit to Uganda 30 years ago (1986) I had similarly been asked (without notice) at a church in Kampala to speak to the Sunday school children. The seeds of God calling me in the future to be a Lay Preacher were sown in Uganda.
With a local Sunday School Teacher translating my words (broken down into manageable chunks) into the local language, Lhukonzo, I showed and described to the Sunday school children the paper aeroplane decorated like an eagle and read the passage from Isaiah 40:31. I then launched the paper plane above the heads of the children and it 'soared like an eagle' (to be fair, not very high, but it soared). I asked the children to return the eagle like plane to me so at I could show it my churches congregation back home and share my experience of showing it to them, miraculously, the plane was returned to me.
Moments before speaking to the children I had read, with William from Amaha We Uganda translating my words into Lhukonzo, to the church congregation from 2 Timothy 4; ‘Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction'.
I told the congregation that 'More preachers are needed in Uganda, particularly women and asked anyone feeling called to be a lay reader to speak to their vicar'. So, I decided to launch the paper aeroplane that I had made earlier towards the Sunday school children and tell them that whoever caught the plane may be called by God in the future to be a preacher. An older girl caught the plane. I asked her name. It was Kevine. I told her maybe God would in the future call her to be a preacher.
Now I am back home, I will pray for Kevine and give thanks for the marvellous prayer support of the Home prayer Team (both at COGS and Ash Vale) during our teams 2016 mission in Uganda. I will give particular thanks for the prayer support updates and for the prophetic words passed on to the team bearing much good fruit.
'God's power is unleashed when people pray'
MIKE WIDDUP
Amaha We Uganda Mission Team Member July 2016
