I want to shift gears from Cloverdale for a minute and tell you about another group of people that are very close to my heart… the children of Northern Uganda. For those of you not too familiar with the situation, for over 20 years the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, have been terrorizing the people of Northern Uganda in what has become the longest war in Africa. This conflict has become best known through the “Night Commuters”, thousands of children who would leave their homes in the village every night and walk to sleep in the streets of cities to avoid being abducted from the LRA. Since the war began an estimated 30,000 children have been abducted by the LRA and another 1.8 million individuals have been displaced, forced to flee their homes and take up residence in impoverished, over-crowded Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. Peace talks over the last few years have put an end to night commuting and allowed approximately 900,000 displaced people to return to their homes. However, peace talks have since collapsed. Approximately 90% of the LRA is made up of abducted children and while others are slowly regaining their freedom, these children are still out in the bush under the control of Joseph Kony.
This weekend I will be joining about 200 individuals here in Montreal along with approximately 100,000 people in 100 cities worldwide in an event organized by Invisible Children called “The Rescue”
This weekend I will be joining about 200 individuals here in Montreal along with approximately 100,000 people in 100 cities worldwide in an event organized by Invisible Children called “The Rescue”
(http://therescue.invisiblechildren.com/). We will be ‘abducting ourselves’ on behalf of the abducted, walking to an ‘LRA camp’ and spending the night there waiting to be ‘rescued’ by local political leaders, celebrities, etc. who will take a stand and make a commitment to take action to rescue Joseph Kony’s child soldiers.
I have not yet had the opportunity to visit Northern Uganda and meet the children there yet when I look into the eyes of the children I have come to love in Jinja, Kampala and Luwero I am struck by the realization that if they lived just a few hours North they too might have been abducted into an army where they were forced to kill even their own families.
Proverbs 31:8-9 says: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." I have committed myself to being a ‘world-class Christian’, to advocate justice for the oppressed and defend the cause of those who have no voice with which to speak for themselves. That is why when I heard about what was happening this weekend I knew this was something I had to be a part of.
If you think of it over the next few days, would you pray about this event that is happening all around the world this weekend? Pray that as people of all different nationalities come together that awareness would be raised, that government would indeed ‘come to the rescue’ and that the day of freedom for Joseph Kony’s child soldiers would not be far off.
I have not yet had the opportunity to visit Northern Uganda and meet the children there yet when I look into the eyes of the children I have come to love in Jinja, Kampala and Luwero I am struck by the realization that if they lived just a few hours North they too might have been abducted into an army where they were forced to kill even their own families.
Proverbs 31:8-9 says: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." I have committed myself to being a ‘world-class Christian’, to advocate justice for the oppressed and defend the cause of those who have no voice with which to speak for themselves. That is why when I heard about what was happening this weekend I knew this was something I had to be a part of.
If you think of it over the next few days, would you pray about this event that is happening all around the world this weekend? Pray that as people of all different nationalities come together that awareness would be raised, that government would indeed ‘come to the rescue’ and that the day of freedom for Joseph Kony’s child soldiers would not be far off.
