Family Care Uganda

Uganda’s North East has been experiencing the worst floods in over 10 years. Hundreds of thousands of people are either isolated, or have needed to leave their villages to stay in Internally Displaced Persons refugee camps on drier ground.  

Working with our local friends, we gathered 3 tons of cassava flour, beans & malaria medicine, and a further 3 tons of brand new jackets, shirts, trousers & cute children’s clothes. The Minister for Disaster Preparedness arranged a truck and the moment we brought it to Soroti, the last area approachable by land, we were to proceed straight to a helicopter which had been pre-arranged to take us the last leg of the journey over the expanses of water to a camp in Katakwi that hadn’t received any aid since the floods started. Right before we arrived though, President Museveni arrived on a surprise visit, surveying the damage to the flood areas. Unexpectedly, the large military helicopter that had been arranged for us to use to fly in the goods, was suddenly needed to fly to Kampala.

 What a challenge! A truck with 6 tons of food, clothing and medical items, very needy & in fact desperate people only 50km away—but the road between us & them was broken with collapsed bridges in 8 places! It was time for a miracle. The UN were very gracious & would have allowed us to fly the goods in by their chopper, however it had been on loan from southern Sudan, so needed to return that very afternoon. We clearly needed God’s answers to our prayers!
The Lord showed us that He wouldn’t fail, and we found a boat, which didn’t look very big—wooden, long & narrow—that was run by a local NGO, the Pilgrims. We unloaded what filled the large truck into this unlikely long, very narrow deep boat & believe it or not—it all not only fit, it floated! Ha! We hopped on the top & traveled across the very broad expanse that passed along side where the road had collapsed in so many places.

The Katakwi District head administrator kindly arranged a large tip-truck to meet us on the other side of the boat trip to take the items all the way to Omoro camp, in Ngariam, Katakwi district–much to the extreme enthusiasm of the dear stranded ones there.

We were able to encourage them and pray with them to trust God’s hand in all that had happened, knowing that He would not fail to care for His own children. It was extremely touching to experience their total joy & almost unbelief that the food, medicine & brand new clothing items came right to their door in their hour of greatest need.