Back in March, we were praying for Joan Koskela as she set off on a mission to train church leaders in life and counselling skills in Uganda.  Joan was able to train for 7 days out of the scheduled 10 before COVID-19 regulations shut the class down. However, participants were sent home with a USB containing the full 2 weeks of training. Then the miracles for Joan began:

• All modes of transport in Uganda were banned (except for cargo haulage), with flights in and out of the country being the first to go. Mounting tension over the presence of foreigners who were seen to bring the virus to Uganda led the Australian Embassy to advise Joan to lay low and hunker down for between 4-8 months!
• Three flights Joan booked were cancelled until she managed to get one of the last 5 seats on a charter flight organised to ferry American citizens back to USA (Americans were given priority, naturally). This flight would get her to Qatar. But how to get to the airport (an hour’s drive away) to catch that flight with all travel banned unless emergency permission was granted?
• Friends in Samford who were praying for Joan just happened to know a man in Uganda who they contacted about Joan’s situation and he organised a police escort for Joan to the airport!  And the flight to Qatar went ahead despite warnings that it might not.
• After 20 hours of watching flights being continuously cancelled in Doha airport, Joan caught an almost empty plane (only 39 passengers) to Brisbane. The only reason this plane was flying was because there were 250 people that needed to be air-lifted from Brisbane back to Doha.

Joan testifies to feeling the prayers of God’s people carrying her home to safety and stands amazed at God’s miraculous power in orchestrating everything for her good. She thanks everyone for their prayers.