Several years ago when New Life Centre Church was holding overnight prayer meetings in several different villages, a lady named Mama Tim was prayed for. Like the woman in the Bible whom Jesus healed of a bleeding problem she’d had for 12 years (Matthew 9:20-22), Mama Tim was likewise healed. There was a church split in her village and she suffered much spiritual abuse as people tried to pull her in two directions. She sought God for where she should attend church, and He pointed her to New Life Centre Church… 6 miles away. So she began to walk to both our Bible study in Butuntumula and to church services on Sundays.

As soon as Pastor David was called, he and another man from our church drove out to Kyambogo village where they prayed and ministered to a number of people, in a house where all the men were drinking. Pastors in Uganda usually demand payment for praying for people, and the fact the guys were driving my old Land Cruiser made these people fearful at how much money they’d have to pay for fuel for them having come to pray. They were amazed when David told them that we only trust God to provide, we don't charge for visiting or praying. As a result, about 6 people have begun attending at New Life Centre Church.

In my previous newsletter I mentioned a man who was too ill to sit up in church. He was one of these people, his life totally wasted by alcoholism and witchcraft. The day I picked them up for church, men had come to his home to build a shrine, but they slunk away as we waited in the truck for the ones coming to church. We prayed for that ill man that day, and the change in him has been remarkable.

As a result of the transformation in this man, a lady with complications from AIDS came to counseling, asking Pastor’s advice on a pending surgery. He prayed for her, and her cell count went from 4 to 6, after more prayer, it jumped to 40, and now is over 400! Her cell counts have never done anything but go down, and the doctors are telling her this will correct the problems she was having, so she won’t need the surgery.

Just before Christmas, Mama Tim met a Luweero businesswoman at another burial in her village. The woman has a restaurant in Luweero but business was poor and life tough. She came for counsel at New Life Centre Church at the advice of Mama Tim, needing a breakthrough. She had invested some money and needed to recover it, but it was an ungodly situation. Pastor David told her no. She argued because she really needed that money, and he still said no. Finally he told her, “Let’s pray about it for a week and see what God does.” She was worried about Christmas coming, but David told her God would provide.

That very week she got word that a certain man from South Africa was looking for her. He was looking for a relative of hers with whom he’d had a child before going to South Africa to find a better living. She helped him find the woman and child, and the man was so grateful, he gave this lady money – so she was able to buy a Christmas dress! After the man had visited his child, he was so happy that he told this lady he was going to take her to South Africa for work! He has since got her a passport, is working on her visa, and then will buy her a plane ticket. He will take care of all her needs for up to 3 months until she gets work and on her feet. He also bought a house in Kampala for his wife and son, and put the boy in school.

So this lady testified in church on Sunday, sharing how she never went to a witchdoctor, she went to God, and this is what He has done for her! And she has totally committed her life to Jesus.

Just this week, Mama Tim witnessed a woman trying to control her violent daughter, to get her to a local medical clinic. The girl was about 20, had been “sick” since about age 7, with violence and convulsions. But the problem was intensifying; the girl was ferocious, manifesting demons. She had even tried to commit suicide by drinking poison. Mama Tim called Pastor David, who went with another brother, to the clinic. The second they walked into the room, the girl flopped and went limp, and everyone began wailing that she had just died. The other pastor took courage and began praying for her, rebuking the devil, commanding life to come back to her. She again became violent, but after prayer, she relaxed, and her vital signs were normal. Even a nurse in the clinic said this was a spiritual problem, not a physical one. The girl was discharged that evening, totally normal. She and her grandmother came to New Life Centre Church for counseling the following Thursday and she has accepted Jesus and is now full of joy!

Another mother at New Life Centre Church, a former Muslim lady, testified Sunday how God has granted her daughter a scholarship to study in Australia! She brought her passport, and we prayed for her.

And Mama Tim? God has blessed her faithfulness. He opened the way for her to move closer to New Life Centre Church and gave her a job with a Catholic ministry, where her children are being given free boarding school. And now it appears that God is opening an even better job for her, caretaking the house of a local Member of Parliament – next-door neighbors with New Life Centre Church!

MARGARET NELSON

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