A Brokenhearted Request from Uganda

Earlier this week our ministry partner in Uganda, Rev. Kule Joram, sent me this message and pictures:

"It is bad news here as families and children are suffering without food. There is severe hunger and famine in Nabilatuk District. The most vulnerable are the children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and child-headed households.

With a broken heart, I request you and CRI to help feed some families and children." 

Good grief.
The pictures.
The plea.

We've worked together for years, and I honestly can't remember hearing this level of desperation in his voice.

Thanks to the generosity of CRI's friends, we have an emergency relief fund. I was able to send $2,000 that same day.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to learn more.

So I wrote Kule back:

"How many families are we talking about?"

He replied:

"We have 1,200 households in five villages whose situation is so lamentable and impoverished. Whereas we want to feed all of them, resources may not allow. So we will feed what we can. However, the ideal would be to feed all these families and save their lives. The life of many, especially children, is at stake."

I didn't wake up that morning thinking about how to help 1,200 starving families. One of the hardest parts of this work is knowing there are always more needs than we can meet. 

Why these 1,200 families? 

If not us... then who?

This is the hill country CRI is called to.
These are the giants we exist to face.
These are the poor we are called to love in both Word and deed.

Our trusted partner has asked us to help these starving kids. 
How can we not try?

Here is the Plan

To provide approximately two months of emergency food for all 1,200 families will cost about$50,000.

That works out to just under $42 per family.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking.

How can $42 possibly feed a family for two months?

The answer is that it doesn't buy abundance.

It buys survival.

We're providing the basics: flour, beans, cooking oil, dried fish, and baby formula for infants. These families know how to stretch those staples much farther than my family ever could.

Will they eat three meals a day?
Probably not.
But they will eat.

And if my family were in their shoes, I'd be deeply grateful for even that.

Thanks to several generous friends of CRI, the first $25,000 given toward this effort will be matched dollar for dollar.

That means every gift you give will provide twice the food until the match has been met.

Lord willing, I'll travel to Uganda on August 17 to join Rev. Kule as we purchase and distribute the food. I'll walk these villages, pray with these families, and share pictures and stories so you can see exactly what God does through your generosity.

The hill country, this time, is rural Uganda.
The giants are hunger, death, suffering, and despair.

Would you climb this hill with us?

If the Lord leads you, would you help feed one family or five, or ten?

More than anything, would you pray?

Pray for rain.
Pray for Rev. Kule.
Pray for these families.
Pray that every bag of food would remind someone that Christ has not forgotten them.

And pray that, through His people, the light of Christ would shine brightly in the lives of the little ones and those who love them. 

Thank you for helping us share the light of Christ in both Word and deed.

— Jason Pieratt
President, Children's Relief International