Challenge on the Zambezi River

Yuka Adventist Hospital (Kalabo, Zambia) owns an eighty-horsepower small speedboat and a twenty-five-horsepower longboat that can accommodate thirty passengers. During the rainy season, the usual travel time for the longboat is eight hours downstream and twelve hours upstream. One day Harville, who was the hospital’s maintenance manager, together with Dr. Conception, a volunteer medical intern from Argentina, and Harrington, the longboat’s cockswain, left for Mongu, forty-eight miles (seventy-eight kilometers) away, to purchase some needed materials. Early the next day, the heavily loaded boat started the slow journey upstream expecting to be back in Yuka late in the afternoon. After smooth sailing for the first ten hours, suddenly the propeller quit.

They managed to fix the propeller shaft and continued on their way. Three more times the engine quit before finally stopping for good.

They had to cling to the grasses along the crocodile-infested riverbank to keep the boat from being carried downstream by the strong current.

It was getting late, so they decided that Harrington would take a passenger boat back to the hospital while Harville and Dr. Conception waited in a village along the river. Finally, Harrington returned with a speedboat to tow the longboat back to Yuka. Unfortunately, the longboat with its cargo was too heavy for the small speedboat to drag against the strong current of the Zambezi River. Harville prayed, “Lord, please help us. I know You are in control.” After several attempts, someone suggested, “Let us tie the speedboat to the side of the longboat.” The brilliant idea worked! Slowly, the small speedboat and the longboat traveled upstream together... side-by-side.

After twenty-four hours on the river, they finally made it back home. Serving at Yuka Adventist Hospital was challenging yet filled with evidence of God’s guidance and protection.

Ellen Porteza Valenciano