Ministry of Margaret Nelson
Uganda, Africa


September 24, 2003

Answered prayer!

Once again, God has been so faithful to answer our prayers. And I want to thank all of you who have prayed about our village land/development project situation. It has had a very surprising conclusion!

You will recall in my first prayer request newsletter, I mentioned that we had prayed over the stretch of road which was in the area now being apparently considered for development. Since our prayers over that road there have been no further traffic accidents and no deaths. I thought it was very strange then, that this investor or whoever would now come and want to buy up this area and displace the people there. The prayer of my own heart was that if this was a plan from the enemy to bring further death and destruction to the area, that God would put a stop to it.

Well, on Sunday (9/21) there was another village meeting with the Ugandan representative of this American company planning the purchase and development of the 80 acres of Kyevunze village. Apparently, many questions were asked that this man was unable to answer satisfactorily, and finally the whole project was exposed for what it was: a very large fraud attempt!

It seems that this man, along with a man from Kyevunze village, had plotted to somehow obtain this 80 acres fraudulently. That by pretending to represent an American concern, and sending out their surveyors, they could somehow talk their way into obtaining title to the land. Then they were planning to apply for a loan against that land with the World Bank, I suppose to "develop" the land -- which you can be sure would never have happened.

So truly the enemy had destructive plans for this area, through the greed of unscrupulous, criminal minds. And God has exposed and prevented it, hallelujah!

Please continue to pray for a peaceful settlement of the whole problem. In the way things often happen in Uganda, these men will not be arrested nor tried nor punished for what they have attempted. Because our legal system is both poor and corrupt, the solution to many problems is vigilante law, or as it is called here, "Mob justice." This local man is already known as a highly greedy, politically (and otherwise) motivated man. I've had experience with him myself, as he tried for 3 years after my arrival in Uganda to find a way into either my pockets or into an American money source though me. He threatened to sue me when I refused to give him a certificate as a trained community health worker because he did not complete the course I taught. He is highly disliked in the village. He has already received a death threat. Some old men got a school boy to write a letter for them, telling this man that they'd bought gasoline and were planning to burn him.

In some of our neighboring, more aggressive, villages, these men would never have made it alive out of that meeting on Sunday. But this is not to say that violence could not still happen. Tempers are pretty high right now after emotions have surged all week with people thinking they would have to vacate their homesteads, or dreaming of all the money they would be getting from their land.

So please continue uphold us this week, that peace will reign. Pray also for this man to be convicted of his sins and to repent before God for all his evil ways. He has a wife and small children who are suffering greatly because of him and his ways.

Thanks again for praying.

Margaret