Dr. James Magara tells his amazing story about how he got his doctorate of dentistry and could have followed a pass as an employee but realized that God was calling to be a business owner. Uganda Africa #000218

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Dr James Magara-How Started

By Dr. James Magara

        My name is Dr. James Megara I practice as a dentist in Kampala Uganda. I’ve been practicing in private practice for the last 24 years now my call the way I got into dentistry was interesting, I did not actually apply to be a dentist I was aiming to be a doctor and it so happened that the year that I entered University the government sponsored for university causes, the government made a decision to start looking for the people who had shown some interest in the application because then this was not being offered in Uganda and I remember when I was in my high school my dad got me a job at this Research Institute and I’d never heard of dentistry never seen a dentist in my life but I believe it was made for me in that virus research institute. In Interbrain had sent dental magazines from the US where dentists wrote to their patients and there’s a whole box of them so during the breaks am going to the library I nothing to read but these magazines and that’s how I got know about dentistry.

So in my application for university I just made the second choice and I didn’t expect to go there at all. I qualified for medicine but I had to decide whether I really wanted to do this or to go into mainstream medicine and I prayed, my parents thought this dentistry thing is a small area you better do the general medical thing and I had this conviction that this is where I was supposed to be so I made the decision against my parents’ wishes, I stuck with the course eventually finished in the first class of dentists and over the years I have also learnt that God is very interested in everything we do, it’s interested not just in our spirituality as we know He is interested in very practical things like walk. So while  I did not intend to practice the dentist I thought I’d work as a university lecturer I would  do that as well, through experience it became clear that God was pushing me in this direction I had grown up with a very strong job mentality and even living my investor job was difficult , it’s really strange by the time I left the university I was earning more from the practiced and from the university but I vividly remember the day after I resigned when I left insecure, and just I remember it was my dad train me about having a job you know and for the first time I didn’t have a job. okay I had a business I didn’t have it was a very weird feeling about feeling insecure that I did not have this job you know but I realized this was a programming that had come into my mind from a very young age we’ve made a number of moves.

The starting of the clinic was a difficult one, I didn’t have money and I had given up, I got an opportunity but I couldn’t get resources, now the Lord opened the door through a friend who I shared the burden with and they decided to find us the beginning of the practice so I did have to go through a bank loan it was interest-free that’s how I started and when he came to the next move after paying off that loan I just didn’t take another loan, I was terrified of loans then it became clear that place I had was too small I had a lot of patients the reception was small sometimes for waiting outside, another friend came and told me look you have to expand, you just have to expand to do business but I was scared of expansion because it meant more commitment, more  investment .once again it was more like a reluctant businessman in the sense because I was not  at the art out there trying to make things but that God is pushing me. Now the move here was very powerful story behind it when we eventually made the decision that we wanted these houses were being sold by the person who owned the house who was selling through the government agents initially government house, when they hear I was interested they blocked everyone else, this is one of my clients they just said if you are interested I’m not dealing with anyone else I told if don’t have money they say no you’ll get the money for six months. Other people were knocking on the door she refused she kept calling me Dr. Megara so it was like one morning it was God was saying, can’t you see are you blind so we took the chance that meant again we got into a financial situation I had to get some money to make the down payment and at the same time the terms were that I could not pay fully I can’t do any renovations until I get a decent amount of money, it was a very tight time very tight financially and I couldn’t move as well because we had to renovate the place so something very happy interesting happened in 2000 we came to a point where we failed to pay and because there are so many people were interested, I found a letter they influenced the people who like it then I forget the term they used so we got notice because we had defaulted, we had to pay everything within three months and instead of getting along one we’re given a very tight time. I remember taking off time to pray, to fast, to talk to Lord what happens, I believe you guided me here but I stuck what I do now. One morning I took off a week of just praying and fasting and then one Sunday morning I was going to church but I just felt I shouldn’t go so I told my wife go to church with the children. I stayed home I’ll just pray and saying Lord I spent a week praying I don’t have any idea if I don’t get this money within the month which was just like four weeks away I ‘will  lost everything. I began to get ideas to write them down and what I ended up by the time my wife came back from church I had a business plan basic business plan, I had done the calculation she said look if I presented this to someone to show the value of the property this is a good financial proposal I talked to some British friends who also came to my mind. I looked at it was quite a bit of money ,they said look we don’t have money but I knew they had money in the bank, they said like the Sun we don’t have money in the bank but give us time to pray so in a week’s time they got back and said look we have prayed about this matter we believe God wants us to help you but we don’t have money so what we’re going to do we’re going to sell stocks, within two weeks they sent the whole amount of money I walked into that office and made the full payment the guy was in shock it was an absolute shock now the story gets better this was June to November my friends contact me and they say you know what we are so glad we had God because we sold quite a bit of a stocks to help you. September 11th everything that stayed behind we lost more than half the value so what we preserved in value was what we sent to you so I said Wow so this is miracle story. behind this place it’s a very prime property in Kampala City and it’s just amazing when I look back at how God helped us through a time of stress and hearing him to be able to provide a solution because the time was too short even without a mortgage and at that time it was the banks were taking too long but the problem got salved just like that. So I’ve seen the hand of God and I know for sure God is interested in the things that we do, is interested if we serve Him and  if we seek the kingdom of God.