NelsonNews July 2013 THE UNKNOWN STORM As I head down the home stretch of my furlough time, with just 2 weeks left until I board my flight back to

NelsonNews

July 2013

THE UNKNOWN STORM

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As I head down the home stretch of my furlough time, with just 2 weeks left until I board my flight back to Uganda on August 2, I am full of wonder at what God has done. In addition to the usual furlough travel and speaking, it has been 3 months like no other furlough I’ve experienced.

Before I left Uganda, I felt God impressing me with the last two chapters of Acts, 27 & 28. In brief, they tell the stories of Paul’s trip to Rome, which God had told him in chapter 23 that he would have to make. He experienced a terrible 2-week storm on the Mediterranean, which threatened to sink the ship and kill all aboard. However, they were able to run the ship aground at the island of Malta, near Sicily, and all were saved. Due to that, then being snake bitten without dying, and his praying for the sick and seeing many healed, Paul was then able to share the Gospel with an unreached people group for 3 months, until he was able to travel on to Rome on another ship.

What these chapters spoke to me was that while God may indicate to us a plan of action, He doesn’t always give us all the details. I wonder if Paul would’ve made that trip had he known what lay ahead? Yet he also had little choice in the matter, since he was being transported to Rome as a prisoner.

Part of my storm has been that I left Uganda knowing that when I return in August I will enter the country as a mere visitor, after having lived there over 14 years. There have been struggles this past year for me to remain long term in Uganda, and I did not know exactly how that would work out when I return. And yet God has never indicated to me that I would leave Uganda as my place of ministry. So I felt that between leaving there in April, and my return in August, God would do something that I could not yet visualize.

To begin with there was a breakdown of all plans with the Uganda ministry for both communication and transfer of ministry funds. There was a hack job on a computer and wire fraud. Due to my inability to get budgeted ministry money there, children and orphans were kicked out of school due to lack of school fees. Church functions slowed down due to inability to use my old Land Cruiser. My house cats nearly starved due to lack of funds to buy them food, and their dislike of the substitute food. My watchdog was killed.

On this side of the ocean, it seemed every time I traveled a new leg of my furlough schedule, there were difficulties with transportation. I missed one flight due to no fault of my own. One destination became nearly impossible because the Greyhound bus route had been terminated. A replacement shuttle did not run on the day I had scheduled to travel. God mercifully directed me to fly through Buffalo, NY, instead of Toronto the very week of the terrible storm and flooding there. Luggage got left behind at one airport and I found much of it to be wet when it did arrive.

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God's power surrounds us in our storms

During my storm, God was quietly at work in the background. Due to many prayer partners holding us up before the throne of God, communications opened back up with Uganda, a different way was found to safely send funds. Children are back in school. A door has opened for a means for me to continue living long term in Uganda. My cats are happily eating again (without them, I would go home to find the house full of rats and worse!). God has restored several relationships on both sides of the ocean, given me divine appointments with individuals and ministries, and new prayer partners.

Even as I was composing this newsletter, I received an email that contained these very fitting scriptures, and the concluding prayer:

GOD REVEALS SOME THINGS AND CONCEALS OTHERS

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29
New International Version (NIV)

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8:28 The Message (MSG) 26-28

GOD IS IN CONTROL. The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all. (PS 103:19)

THE LORD LOVES PEOPLE AND WANTS THEM TO BE SAVED. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)

GOD ORDAINS OR PERMITS EVENTS FOR HIS GOOD PURPOSE. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ (Isaiah 46:10)

Lord, help us to understand your ways. Give us the strength and faith to trust even though we may not fully understand. There are times when we simply do not understand the suffering and heart ache in the world. Help us in our unbelief. Give us the faith to accept what you have concealed.

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Africa map

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MARGARET NELSON

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First two pictures are from Niagara Falls

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