Answered Prayer

We flew back from Dubai to Cape Town last Saturday after a very interesting few days in Dubai. With the change of leadership soon to take place there, the Friday meeting (not Sunday in Dubai) was a really important one. Steve Oliver told the story of his call to Dubai to the congregation; which seemed to be very well received and then I preached a message on God’s purpose for  the Church. We were so glad to have been in Dubai at such a crucial phase of the churches’ history and Clive and Heather Cernic will be very much missed as they leave shortly before Christmas, but we believe that Steve and Heather Oliver are going to be very well received as Steve takes on the leadership of the team there. One of the the issues that was very much on the mind of people while we were there was the terrible flooding in Manila. A number of the congregation come from the Philippines and have family in Manila and we also have a church in Manila which was planted by Eden who used to be in the Dubai Church. So the contacts are very close and in fact Clive was due to fly to Manila just after we left to minister to the church there. However it seemed best for Clive to postpone this visit until things have returned to a more normal state so that he will have a better opportunity to minister and speak to the church then. So in Dubai we stood and prayed together for the saints in Manila during our Friday morning meeting.

Back in Cape Town for Sunday morning I was taken  into one of the townships to preach at our church there. The journey proved to be interesting. The splendid young man who was driving me assured me that he knew the way until we hit a traffic jam shortly after we’d started out. From then on the nature of the journey can be judged from a number of his remarks which I quote as accurately as I remember:  ’Well John I think I can work my way around this jam - John I am going to give you a bit of an adventure today - Lets pray; Lord may we have a great meeting, please Lord let us arrive safely and please keep us alive - we are now driving through one of the more dangerous areas, this is where a lot of the gangs are functioning - I am keeping my distance from the car in front at the traffic lights so if anyone jumps on us I should be able to accelerate and get away - I’m glad we’re not doing this in your (newer) car, but in my (older) car as it helps us to keep a lower profile - I think the building is along here somewhere - it must be a bit further on - I think we may have missed it - I think it must be down a road futher back - I’ll ask the way - I decided to ask that guy in the truck because I thought with his wife and kid in the car he probably wouldn’t attack us - here we are and only 45 minutes late, but they tend to have a long time of worship.’ Safely in the building I’m giving thanks that the prayer had been answered!

Great time preaching in the church - the only time I’ve ever preached to a congregation to have them on their feet and clapping during the message - or were they trying to suggest it was time I stopped, by dropping a gentle hint? But no, poor as probably many of them were, they were wonderfully responsive to the Word of God.

Got it right on the way back. Straight out of the township and onto the motorway. We weren’t shot, mugged or attacked. Back at Jubilee in the evening Terry was there to preach at a great regional Celebration. Super time and Terry very relaxed, but then he’d only driven 2 miles through the suburbs!

Tweet This