By Brent Duncan, Ministry Partner and Missionary Kid
July-September 2012
Uganda is traditionally known as a luscious green land with abundant food, which is part of the reason it has the nickname “Pearl of Africa.” But this country has recently experienced something quite different. Even though it borders the great Lake Victoria, is dissected by the White Nile, and contains many other lakes and swamps, it has suffered from drought. One may be skeptical as to how a place with such great sources of water could ever suffer from a shortage of it.
The truth is that Uganda is blessed with many great water sources. However, they do not service the whole country, leaving people who are too distant to reach such blessings to rely on the two rainy seasons.
Pastor Mugisha, Pastor Gabriel, and I traveled about six hours northeast of Kampala to a region called Soroti. This area with fertile land that normally receives an abundance of water was suffering from a lack of rain and, therefore, had sent a request for help. WGM acted through Africa Gospel Church to relieve some of those who live in the area. We wanted to not only give them food but also to provide seeds for planting, as the rains were expected to come soon.
He explained that food can come from the eastern part of Uganda bordering with Kenya, an area that had received rain. Yes, it was true that food was available, he said, but the people who lived in the village had no money to buy it. They are subsistence farmers who survive on the food they grow and sell their excess food in order to have some money for buying “luxuries” such as salt, sugar, onions, etc. If there is no rain and their crops fail, they do not have any food to eat and they have no food to sell. Therefore, even though food was available in the town market, it was out of reach for those in the village.
I am delighted to tell you that there are communities of people who have food to feed their children tonight. Due to your gracious heart, they also have seeds to plant for the expected rains this month. I write this as we are being blessed with a slow and steady shower from heaven. The rains are coming!
PRAY: Pray that all the areas in Uganda that suffered from drought will receive the necessary amount of rain this season.
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