We are halfway through this adventure of a lifetime. So much has happened since I left home on May 12th, so much of me has changed. We have been all over Kenya and Uganda, and I can truly say that I have met some of the most amazing people in the world. Right now, I find myself sitting at a coffee shop in Gulu, Uganda. This is the town where the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) originated. I have wanted to come to this place since I was 13, and it’s absolutely surreal that I am here. Ten years ago, I could easily have died walking these streets. But now I walk them with hope and confidence in what the Lord has done here.
Some days here I have really been able to see the lingering effects of war on this town. At Mass on Sunday there was a woman with scars and disfigurement on her face from what I assume to be a machete wound. There are people walking through town with limps and wounds that never healed. There are street children all through town. Four or five out of every ten people here are infected with HIV. There is physical poverty everywhere. Families have been torn apart.
But oh, the joy. The healing. The spiritual richness.
I’ve worked with Invisible Children for so many years, but it wasn’t until I came to Gulu that I finally got it. I will never know what it’s like to grow up without a childhood, or go to sleep wondering when the rebels will take me to be a sex slave or child soldier. But I have heard the stories from people who lived through it. Every time I talk to someone about what Kony and the rebels did, they get a distant look on their faces as if they are reliving the nightmare. They say that the violence was completely unimaginable, inhumane. Entire generations were lost to war.
But I sit here in this coffee shop, and I think to myself that even though Satan planted his demons in this town 25 years ago, the Lord fought back. God did not abandon this place. He never took his hand away. This town was so dark for so many years, but now it is one of the most vibrant places I have ever been. There is life here that has come up out of the ashes. Gulu is falling in love with Jesus, and Jesus has forever been in love with Gulu.
The Acholi people are the most hospitable, joyful and life-filled people I have ever had the honor to meet. I have never been loved so well by complete strangers. I have never been called daughter by people who truly consider me so, even though I am not their own flesh and blood. I have never fallen in love so fast. I have never been so moved…
If God can turn mourning into dancing here, he can do it for you. There is nothing too big for God. There is no night too dark, no spirit too broken, no life too asleep that can’t be woken up to true and everlasting life. Miracles are real, I am walking down the streets of one today.
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Matthew 28:20 - And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Some days here I have really been able to see the lingering effects of war on this town. At Mass on Sunday there was a woman with scars and disfigurement on her face from what I assume to be a machete wound. There are people walking through town with limps and wounds that never healed. There are street children all through town. Four or five out of every ten people here are infected with HIV. There is physical poverty everywhere. Families have been torn apart.
But oh, the joy. The healing. The spiritual richness.
I’ve worked with Invisible Children for so many years, but it wasn’t until I came to Gulu that I finally got it. I will never know what it’s like to grow up without a childhood, or go to sleep wondering when the rebels will take me to be a sex slave or child soldier. But I have heard the stories from people who lived through it. Every time I talk to someone about what Kony and the rebels did, they get a distant look on their faces as if they are reliving the nightmare. They say that the violence was completely unimaginable, inhumane. Entire generations were lost to war.
But I sit here in this coffee shop, and I think to myself that even though Satan planted his demons in this town 25 years ago, the Lord fought back. God did not abandon this place. He never took his hand away. This town was so dark for so many years, but now it is one of the most vibrant places I have ever been. There is life here that has come up out of the ashes. Gulu is falling in love with Jesus, and Jesus has forever been in love with Gulu.
The Acholi people are the most hospitable, joyful and life-filled people I have ever had the honor to meet. I have never been loved so well by complete strangers. I have never been called daughter by people who truly consider me so, even though I am not their own flesh and blood. I have never fallen in love so fast. I have never been so moved…
If God can turn mourning into dancing here, he can do it for you. There is nothing too big for God. There is no night too dark, no spirit too broken, no life too asleep that can’t be woken up to true and everlasting life. Miracles are real, I am walking down the streets of one today.
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Matthew 28:20 - And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
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