I Hope the US Can Help Uganda Get Kony

I'm not sure why the US suddenly decided we should help Uganda track down and dispose of Joseph Kony. I fear it's motivated by politics, but it could be that President Obama has some information to which we are not privy which gives good reason to get involved at this time.

Well, better late than never. I hope we give our forces a mandate that will not tie their hands as the UN mandate did during the Rwandan genocide. I pray that our combined efforts will meet with success and that wicked man will be brought to justice.

How dare he blaspheme the name of God by using the name "The Lord's Resistance Army" as if he were under the command of the Lord? The Lord he serves is not my Lord Jesus Christ, that's for sure.

How inhuman and indecent can one become, to force young children to survive by turning them into child soldiers and forcing them to kill their own families, thus doing deep, deep damage to their souls? We are Every Child Ministries are working to bring healing to those deep, searing wounds, possible only through the power of Jesus Christ who rose from the dead.

I find no joy in the death of any sinner, but Africa and the world needs to be relieved of this ugly, devastating cancer called Joseph Kony. Go get him!

THIS IS THE REASON I CRY

I got a tear-jerking email this afternoon. I could barely keep my tears off the keyboard as I read it. Another mission organization working in southern Sudan has 300 kids they have rescued--former child soldiers, and they are overwhelmed. Could we give them a home? They have immediate contact with 1,000 on the streets of Juba. Some have been rescued agressively and others have escaped from the LRA.

At times like this I wish ECM was much bigger than it is. We, too, are so stretched. We're trying to do so much with so little. BUT HOW DO YOU SAY NO? HOW DO YOU TURN AWAY FROM SUCH A REQUEST? HOW DO I GET IT OUT OF MY MIND? OR DOES GOD EVEN WANT ME TO DO SO?

This kind of thing puts my heart in a visegrip. I can hardly think of anything else. Some things I can turn away from and say, "That's awful, but that's a responsibility God has given to someone else." I can't say any such thing in this case. This is the very exact kind of thing to which God has called me--us. It is very evident that my mind and heart are going to wrestle with this until God shows us a solution. Right now, my heart is breaking. Lord, help! What do You want us to do?

A Little Child Shall Lead Them--in the ABC's, too

I was incredibly encouraged by my visit to ECM's team of Americans and Ugandan nationals working in the Gulu District. I visited our sponsorship program in the Tegot village (formerly called an IDP camp, but the government now wants to call it a village in keeping with its policy of encouraging people to return to their home areas).



My job, besides seeing how the team was working together, was to visit with the guardians of the children in our sponsorship program. Only a very few have living parents. Most of the parents were killed in the war with the LRA or died of AIDS spread in the war. Many of the kids live with a very old grandmother.



I was supposed to encourage the parent figures in the kids' lives, but they did so much to encourage me! One of them was thrilled that her little grandchildren are coming home and showing her what they learned in school. She herself was never able to attend school at all because the war brought education to a standstill for two generations. Now her grandchildren come with their papers and say "Look, grandma. Today we learned the letter b. See, this is what it looks like. This is what it sounds like: bbbbb. This is how you write it. Look, Grandma."

Whose vision for Africa?

As I have thought and prayed about my BIG African family over the years, a recurring image has frequently come into my mind. I have seen a big map of the continent of Africa, as if shaped like a human heart. Down the left side a huge, horrifying dagger, dripping with blood, is tearing the continent apart.

Since God has given me a love for Africa, I have asked Him repeatedly what this meant. Why should He give me or allow me to have such a horrifying vision for a place and a people that are so much on my heart?

He showed me that this is not His vision for Africa. This is the enemy's vision. (I am a Christian. The enemy I am talking about is not any person or group of people. It is Satan, a spirit being who rebelled against God.) God was showing me what the enemy intended for Africa. It wasn't easy or pleasant, but as a mother of Africa, I needed to know and understand.

As I watched in my mind's eye, the dagger turned to a cross. It too, was dripping with blood, but this blood brought not death, but healing.

God was showing me that my beloved African children were going to suffer greatly. But He saw it. He had not forgotten them. He had already sent His Son to shed His blood to provide their healing.

When I first began to live and work in Africa 27 years ago, I could not have envisioned the sufferings that lay ahead for my African family. The terrible Congolese wars were yet ahead. I met only a warm, welcoming, peace-loving people. The Rwandan holocaust was unforeseen. The long war of northern Sudan against its southern regions was just brewing. The slaughter of Joseph Kony's LRA army in northern Uganda was not even thought of. The AIDS epidemic had not yet decimated countries. Millions of now orphaned children lived peacefully with the families. But God knew the sufferings ahead. He knew how wicked men would use the precious gift He had given them--freedom to choose. His heart ached.

Was it the heart of Africa I saw bleeding, or was it the heart of God Himself?