Trip to Northern Uganda

Northern Uganda just recently became safely accessible according to the UN after years of being a war zone terrified by the army of Joseph Kony. Because of the recent peace, our IMME group was able to travel to Gulu for the purpose of studying the civil war and seeing what Christians are presently doing to help with rehabilitation. We saw three different groups presently working with the Acholi; ChildVoice International, Sankofa Café, and the Recreation Project.

        Fri. evening, as we approached Gulu, my group got into a really intense conversation about the war with the LRA and about spiritual warfare. As we bumped along a dark dirt road toward ChildVoice with tall brush surrounding our bus and heat lightning in the distance, the terrors of that civil war became more real to me. I had heard the stories of the LRA attacking from the bush and of children walking for hours in order to sleep in the cities for protection, and there I was along some of the same almost impassible roads. Let’s just say I was relieved to make it to the ChildVoice center and to be welcomed by the directors, the chaplain and the girls. This center is a rehabilitation program for child mothers who were in the bush with Kony’s army or became extremely vulnerable and abused in the IDP camps. The girls usually average from 13 to 18 and most have them have experienced at least a couple of the atrocities of the war. But they welcomed us so warmly with songs, and shrill, high pitched calls (which are actually signs of absolute joy) and an excellent chapatti dinner. You could just tell that that place was prayed over constantly and I could feel the power of the name of Christ every time the chaplain spoke it.

           That night I slept in a hammock strapped up in a mud hut with a thatched roof!! I actually slept very well until the rooster right outside my door woke me up at 6am the next morning. It was a beautiful and sunny and the landscape was bursting with green vitality under a bright blue sky. After breakfast, we got to meet the director of the program and hear more about the ministry and their joys and struggles. We also got a very helpful, informative session on political and social aspects of the war and the hopeful future of the Acholi tribe. They gave us a tour of where the girls and their little children (and in some cases little siblings) live, the school and the bakery. The program is about 1 and a half years and the girls go from being wild, hurt, uncontrollable individuals to capable, self-sufficient citizens who are trained to style hair, run a bakery or tailor. It is an amazing, intense ministry and I think I would love going back to live there as an intern sometime.

               After farewells at ChildVoice, we moved back to the town of Gulu for an American lunch at Sankofa cafe. True American pizza in the middle of Northern Uganda is heaven! The couple that run this café are graduates from Wheaton who worked with Samaritan’s Purse for a while and then decided to open a café in order to serve the expat community and give good work to local Ugandans. They are not supported from the States and have just recently been able to make a fair living from the café. They hope to eventually hand the business off to a national or someone who can manage their work better. I think their approach to development is very intriguing and, of course, the food was absolutely amazing!

        Our last stop was a ministry called the Recreation Project. They are a group of counselors and outdoor enthusiasts who are partnered with a group of Catholic nuns in Gulu to bring healing to children through fun. They currently have a small “forest” of obstacle courses and group building activities such as the impossible wall and trust fall. The hope is to give Acholi children a safe environment to play and learn about trust and community. The ministry will eventually run a kind of outdoor camp for local schools and a community building center for NGO groups. Again, it was a really great ministry and just another way of demonstration Christ’s hope and love in Northern Uganda. I was really blessed to observe all of these very different and important ministries. It reminded me about how significant it is that the body of Christ is so diversified and able to meet a great need in unique, effective ways. Though the Gulu area is so torn by this past war and thousands of people have become destitute and broken, God is still at work and there absolutely hope for the Acholi future. The hope is not in the presence of missionaries or NGOs in Uganda, but it is in Spirit of God over that land, over that people and over the earth. I pray that the Spirit will crush the very real powers of darkness and will put compassion and love into the hearts of the Ugandans and the International community for the poor and oppressed among us.