It’s a dusty, jaw-rattling, two-hour drive over rough Ugandan roads to get to the Kiryandongo Refugee Camp in northern Uganda. SAMS Missionary Cathy Clevenger and her team make the drive once or twice a month to minister to groups of refugees living there, but wisely, not during the weekly food distribution. The camp is a city in its own right. A sprawling sea of homes spread out for miles, which include schools, churches, make-shift shops, U.N. health clinics, and the requisite food distribution points. It’s comprised of nearly 100,000 people, who represent just a portion of the fallout in terms of the real human cost caused by the carnage of civil war and continuing tribal conflict in South Sudan and Sudan.

One of the stark realities, besides the sheer size of the humanitarian dilemma here, is the excruciating trauma. “The majority of the population in the camp is women and children” says Cathy. “Most of the Sudanese men have either been killed or remained behind in their tribal areas to fight. The stories are real, yet always heartbreaking. So much violence, displacement, killing, and loss of loved ones has taken place.”

It could be overwhelming to confront such a human tragedy, but Cathy’s well-trained team faces it head-on in the hope and the power of the Gospel. Cathy draws on decades of experience treating trauma as a licensed social worker in the U.S. before the Lord called her to East Africa. In her current role as Counseling Coordinator for the Diocese of Masindi-Kitara, Cathy had been treating Ugandan teenagers at a local remand home for incarcerated young boys awaiting court dates. Cathy still carries out that important work, while ministering to the burgeoning refugee population and their dilemma that God had placed in front of her in late 2023.

With the scale of suffering that exists at the Kiryandongo Camp, one question arises: How can this many people possibly be treated who have experienced such terrible things? Much of the answer lies in the power of the Gospel, not only to open up people to understand their own response to trauma and begin to heal, but then to also trust that those same people will take what they’ve learned to others. It’s a replicative model of treatment that by God’s grace makes use of Scripture, small groups and guided teaching.

Cathy and her team typically speak to an assembled group from churches within the camp about trauma and teach them what trauma looks like, what the responses to it typically are, and why people respond the way they do. They use the story of Elijah and the dramatic showdown on Mount Carmel where Elijah successfully demonstrates the power of God over Baal, which prompts Queen Jezebel to threaten to kill him, creating intense fear and a desperate flight for his life (one of the four main responses to trauma). God intervenes with the appearance of an angel who provides for him. Elijah reaches Horeb where he encounters the still small voice of God which reassures him of his purpose and gives him new instructions.

Not only does the story reveal the vulnerability of God’s own prophet, but it shows the reality of living as a Christian; that strong belief can be severely tested by acute suffering, and that turning to God for renewal again and again is vital, especially in times of crisis. The teaching is designed to show camp participants how they can also use this teaching with others within the camp. This ‘teaching plus training’ approach is designed so that the refugees can use it within their own churches inside the camp as they recognize those who have symptoms of trauma. After the group teaching, small group work is done where one-on-one therapy is held.

Cathy says, “We offer hope and we see real deliverance from the loss of it. We don’t have food, or clothes, or other assistance to give them. We offer something far better. We offer them Jesus, his healing, and his transforming love. The Gospel promise of real and lasting restoration through healing is at work here among a people who have lost everything.”