the beginning

It all started with a deep sorrow over the Holocaust in Germany. I have always felt such a deep pang of anger, sorrow, and helplessness when confronted with the atrocities committed against God's people there. It galvanized within me a desire to see evil confronted, and the innocent liberated. The horrors of what humans were capable of doing to each other, it still astounds me that we can depersonalize others to such a degree as that. Lord, please forgive us for every level of this we are each responsible for, because we have still not fully understood what it leads to.

Then I found out about Darfur and Sudan. I found out in very accidental ways about what was being perpetrated against people there, and I felt the same sorrow, rage, and desire to do something, but what? I prayed. I wrote the president (I reminded him of his words in a public address, when asked by Elie Wiessel what he would do, President Bush responded, "Not on my watch") I tried to find out what I could. I wanted to go. I still wouldn't mind, but Someone Else had another plan for me.

Summer of '07 I was attending Pierced Chapel, and there was an invitation to view a documentary about the Invisible Children in Uganda. I watched a video detailing the 20 years of war in Northern Uganda. I saw the very spiritual beginnings of this war, with the demon possession of a person named Alice Auma and a another man by the name of Joseph Kony. I saw millions of people displaced from their homes. I saw children commuting to safer places to sleep on a concrete floor shoulder to shoulder,to avoid being abducted as child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army. I saw an interview of a young boy named Jacob who reluctantly told his story of how he and his brother were abducted, and how his brother was killed. It was a pain that was so close to his little heart, that it was obviously excruciating to speak of, at all, let alone in detail. But he bravely went on, knowing that his tears would roll hotly down his cheeks, with no way to gain comfort from any external person, for no one could see what he was reliving, and no one could bring back his brother, his heart, or his childhood. My heart was broken. My heart was already so broken for all of the kids I have worked with in my career as a child abuse investigator, so I had a small taste of what he was feeling, but more than that, my heart was broken for the thousands like Jacob, and broken for the hundreth time over this world that is so dark, so broken, and so lonely, and so in need of the salvation of Jesus Christ. Only He can heal this, for Jacob, and for me, and the countless others trying to recover from this nightmare.

At first I believed that I would be heading to Sudan "someday" to work with the refugees there, but the more I thought and prayed over that, God kept bringing me back to the children of Northern Uganda, and what they were living on a daily basis. I now know that God has called me to go to Northern Uganda and live and work there for a period of 2-5 years. I have been studying Uganda's history, the history of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army), the amazing Christian martyr's that have sacrificed so much for the true Lord of all in Uganda, and the depth of the issues confronting the people there. I look forward to the day when God will send me there, and I look forward to that day with a joy that only the seriousness of the mission and the God who calls me can produce. So this blog is for all those that want to follow this journey, who want to know how to pray for Northern Uganda, and for me.

Please pray for the children and families of Nothern Uganda, pray that their children would heal, that they would be able to safely return to their homes, that the wounds of war would heal, that they would find that in Jesus, and they would know peace Pray for the AIDS epidemic that is killing so many as well at this same time this war is going on. Pray that Joseph Kony would come to know the real Lord of all, of the salvation and forgiveness that is available to him and his soldiers for all that has been committed. Pray that the peace talks would continue, and that justice would come for all that has happened, whatever God wants that to look like. Pray that God will lead me specifically through the things that will prepare me for this service and pray that He will show me which doors He wants me to walk through and when. Lord, let my heart be only Yours, and Your name praised through this. Lord, let Your love be known, let us all be healed. I'm Yours, please use me.