Update on Gulu Trip- An Intense Week...

“Once one has been to these challenging, terrible places, they’re always strangely drawn back… because there’s nothing that can compare to seeing the raw reality of the basic need for survival. It disgusts and inspires.” ~ Dan Eldon

Where do I even begin??? This week has been extremely intense for us… as we started this week with a 3 day trip to Gulu, Uganda, the home of the Acholi Tribe, the “Invisible Children,” the “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA), Joseph Kony, war, hundreds of thousands of child abductions, child soldiers, child mothers, internally displaced people camps (IDP camps) with up to 50,000 people living in huts practically on top of each other, and all just a 3 hour drive from our doorstep. It is almost impossible to describe what we have witnessed this past week in a blog entry. For the past 21 years, the people of northern Uganda have suffered from this war of the rebels, the LRA, who have tried to overtake the government of Uganda by taking children captive as their soldiers, since no adult in their right mind would fight for them.

It is just recently, since we have been in Uganda, within the last year, that Joseph Kony has left this country, that the LRA has stopped abducting the children here, that peace, hope, and a future are finally a part of the people of northern Uganda’s life. But the affects of this war are still so extremely visible still today.

Perhaps the most shocking thing you would see if you were to come here are the IDP camps (the internally displaced people camps)~ (pictured right). It was about 10 years ago that HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Acholi people were given 48 hours to pack up all of their belongings and forced to move from their villages to these camps to be protected from the LRA. It was not a choice; they were forced to move to these camps, or as some Acholi would call them, “prisons” or “zoos,” where they are “living like animals.” Can you imagine… being “displaced” in your own country, your own home?... And not for just months, but for over a decade now. We were able to visit one of these camps during our time there, and it was one of the saddest things we have ever seen. The camp we visited had 10,000 PEOPLE living in it, and that is considered a SMALL camp in Gulu!!!!!!! Larger camps have up to 50,000 PEOPLE living in closer quarters than most of our bathrooms are from our bedrooms.

Now that the LRA is gone, it would be safe for the people to move back “home” to their villages… EXCEPT for the fact that the LRA planted over 3,000 landmines all over northern Uganda, of which ONLY 300 have been found and removed. Needless to say, people are still very fearful of going back into the “bush,” or the villages that they once called home. Also, their villages are now overgrown with grass and no longer have homes or gardens. One man told us that it will take about 10 years from now for things to go back to “normal”… for everyone to move out of these IDP camps and back into their villages. In addition to losing their homes, these people have lost their jobs, their sense of purpose in life, their identity, and hope for their future. They don’t even have land to farm, so they have no way of getting food. All of their food comes from the UN World Food Program. We passed their warehouses which were at least 10 tents about the size of 3 tractor trailers each, filled with food.

Although this is extremely sad to us of course, we also saw it as a huge opportunity to fill a need. WGM has a vision and a dream of working in Gulu one day. There is a university there, and a HUGE need for work with these children, and training, of any kind, but mainly of pastors. This is a huge reason we went on this trip~ to network and survey the town for possible ministry there in the future (for WGM, not necessarily for us). We met with Pastor Chris, who has a church in Gulu and is friends with Kennedy, an AGC pastor in Kampala. When we asked Pastor Chris what the greatest need in Gulu was, he said that it was churches. These people have lost all hope and have no reason to live really. This is where the opportunity comes in… We thought, while the people are living in these IDP camps, with no work, and absolutely nothing to do all day, it would be the perfect opportunity to invest in these people and train them. They need training in community health, agriculture, literacy, children’s ministry, and WGM’s main passion, pastoral training. Pastor Chris said that the Acholi people need the message of hope, the message of Jesus, more than anything, in order to keep on living and actually do something with their lives. And if WGM were able to train up a number of pastors in each camp while they are living there, then that means there could be hundreds of churches out of that training, once they move out of the camps and back into their villages! What an amazing thing to dream about!

We were also able to visit 2 up and coming organizations while we were there… “Invisible Children” and “HEALS.” Many of you may have heard about “Invisible Children” or seen the “Rough Cut” video made about the children who used to walk at night to the nearest hospitals, bus parks, or verandas and sleep literally piled on top of each other, to stay protected from the LRA rebels. Well, we were able to witness this AMAZING ministry first hand, and we were so incredibly impressed. In just 2 years, they have started an education program, where they are sponsoring about 550 children to go to school. They also give each child a mentor, all of which have experienced the war themselves and all of which are Christian, so the children have someone to open up to, to be held accountable to, to be challenged by, to be influenced by, and to be loved by. They also have the “Bracelet Campaign,” where they provide about 140 Acholi with jobs making these bracelets, so that they can have income for their families. And then the bracelets are sold in the US with stories of a few of these children. (You may recognize Emmy from one of the videos~ pictured above in the "IC" shirt) We also met a girl named Vanessa, who has just started a new program with child mothers. These are young girls (ages 5-18) who are abducted at night from their village homes or boarding school dorm rooms and taken to the rebel camps to be raped by the soldiers. This new program allows them to get back on their feet, making bags, which will be sold in the States soon! If you are interested in learning more about “Invisible Children,” you could check out their website: www.invisiblechildren.com And if you are wondering why they are called “invisible,” here is a quote from their DVD~

“Invisible because they roam distant battlefields, away from public scrutiny. Invisible because no records are kept of their numbers or age. Invisible because their own armies deny they exist.” ~ “Invisible Children Rough Cut Video”

Finally, we were able to visit an organization called “HEALS,” which stands for “Health, Education, Arts, Literacy, & Sports.” This center has been created to give the children of Gulu a chance to start over, to begin to heal the scars of war, and to be educated and learn life skills. A woman named Jolly, who is also the country director of the “Invisible Children,” began the project by renting a four bedroom house in Gulu with a large front yard and started a series of evening classes for children ages 6-18. Taught by local volunteers, these classes include Math, English, Art, Photography, Music and Dance.. We were able to see some of the dancing, and it is just AMAZING how different these children are from the children in the IDP camps. They are filled with joy, laughter, and HOPE. In the music, they sing about the war; in the dancing, they incorporate the war; in their art, they draw pictures of visions in their heads from the war; and they even act out being abducted or other terrible things they have seen from this war. At first, I though it seemed so horrible for these children to have to relive those awful things all of the time. But I was reminded how recently this all occurred, and how well this therapy is working to help them process all they’ve seen and help them heal.

Just like I didn’t know how to begin this entry, I also don’t know how to end it. We are still processing all that we have witnessed, and we are carrying these children in our hearts, minds, thoughts, and prayers, as we hope you will as well. Please pray for the WGM Uganda field, as we seek our role in all of this and also that these children come to know the HOPE and the JOY and the PEACE that can ONLY come from Jesus.