A Terrible Situation Gives Me a Fresh Start
This past Friday I started a new job, though it's hardly a job in the ordinary sense. It's more of a pursuit, or a mission. I began working with Invisible Children, an organization working to help a whole generation of besieged youth in the northern part of the country of Uganda (find Sudan on a map of Africa and look south).
Let me give you a quick summary of the problem. A rebel army called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been opperating in the northern region of Uganda for the last 19 years. Led by a man named Joseph Kony who claims the Holy Spirit as his prime supporter, the army abducts children and forces them to commit heinous acts against villagers, friends, and even family members, not to mention fighting against the government military. In the almost 20 years of the LRA's activities it is estimated that more than 50,000 children have been forcibly conscripted.
Children in a large region of northern Uganda live in constant fear of such a fate. To avoid it kids began a practice that has since been termed 'night commuting.' Their greatest risk exhists at night and in smaller villages that are more easily overrun by the LRA soldiers. So kids walk every evening from their villages, some for hours, to larger towns where they sleep communally in hospitals or churches, with little or no supervision. Along with the danger of children walking alone through a war-torn territory, the practicalities of hundreds of kids of various ages sleeping almost on top of each other night after night - well, they aren't good.
So that's the problem. Invisible Children is working on the solution. And I get to be a part of it.
For which reason I want to take a moment to thank God, and to praise Him for the work that He has done to bring me to this mission. But concurrently, I cry out to Him to save these kids, many of whom love Him dearly.
For more on the problems in Uganda, please read this article in Christianity Today. Be careful, though, the reality of the situation there is not for the faint of heart.
Let me give you a quick summary of the problem. A rebel army called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been opperating in the northern region of Uganda for the last 19 years. Led by a man named Joseph Kony who claims the Holy Spirit as his prime supporter, the army abducts children and forces them to commit heinous acts against villagers, friends, and even family members, not to mention fighting against the government military. In the almost 20 years of the LRA's activities it is estimated that more than 50,000 children have been forcibly conscripted.
Children in a large region of northern Uganda live in constant fear of such a fate. To avoid it kids began a practice that has since been termed 'night commuting.' Their greatest risk exhists at night and in smaller villages that are more easily overrun by the LRA soldiers. So kids walk every evening from their villages, some for hours, to larger towns where they sleep communally in hospitals or churches, with little or no supervision. Along with the danger of children walking alone through a war-torn territory, the practicalities of hundreds of kids of various ages sleeping almost on top of each other night after night - well, they aren't good.
So that's the problem. Invisible Children is working on the solution. And I get to be a part of it.
For which reason I want to take a moment to thank God, and to praise Him for the work that He has done to bring me to this mission. But concurrently, I cry out to Him to save these kids, many of whom love Him dearly.
For more on the problems in Uganda, please read this article in Christianity Today. Be careful, though, the reality of the situation there is not for the faint of heart.
posted by James at 19:31
1 Comments:
wow... that's so cool you are working with invisible children.... my friend is also working in uganda and actually i know he has met them before (ok actually my friend is like my second father :) )... a few weeks ago he offered to PAY for me to come there... but alas... I am a slave to studies.... but maybe...in a year.... who knows.
okay that's it and i hope you are good.
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