Justice to a Child is Justice to a Nation

Saturday, March 15

Day 5

The day was finally here when we would visit Restore Leadership Academy. Yet, once again, Deborah had something else in store for the morning and we would have to wait a few more hours. Little did we know that the next few hours would hold some of the most sobering and heart-changing moments of our whole trip. From what we were told, we were about to go zip-lining and rock climbing. Well...we're from Colorado and so we were feeling like, "Been there, done that." (And how can you beat zip-lining over the canopy of Costa Rica?) But we knew that Deborah knows best, so we dressed in the appropriate attire for the events.

Deborah took us to a little patch of forest with a sign over the entrance gate that said "The Recreation Project". We saw as we entered that we were in the middle of a ropes course. If you have never done a ropes course before imagine an obstacle course of sorts. Ropes courses are designed to be used with a group of people, all working together as a team to accomplish both a physical and mental challenge presented by the course. For example, you have to get everyone over a small ravine using only 2 wooden platforms and 2 planks of wood. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong!...Or, getting each of your team members through a giant spider web without using any of the web openings for more than two people and without any part of your body or clothing touching the rope.  It takes a lot of teamwork, clear communication, and a huge amount of trust in your teammates to navigate through these challenges.

Interesting tidbit: The Recreation Project was started by a Denver man and his wife. They believed that it would "inspire the resilience of young people in post-conflict communities by providing active healing experiences through outdoor adventure and sport" -- another young couple who've left the life of ease behind to go love on the people of Uganda with the love of Christ.

Already engaged in a team event was a circle of women dressed in bright blue t-shirts and red athletic shorts. When our group arrived they immediately stopped what they were doing and started and singing and dancing their way up to greet us. Some had whistles they were blowing non-stop but most were singing. Pretty quickly behind us another bus of ladies pulled in and out jumped another group of women dressed in the same blue t-shirts and red shorts. The two groups merged and while we made a human tunnel with our hands, these women danced through the tunnel singing "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back...no turning back!"

My new friends: Florence with the red necklace and Annette in the blue pants.

After the chaos and excitement of everyone's grand entrances settled down we learned that we were spending the morning working through the ropes course with these women. Who happened to be witch doctors.  Um, yes. You heard me correctly.  Witch Doctors. (The prefer to call themselves "traditional healers".)

Okay, wait....what? 

After playing a large group game of  passing two hula hoops around the circle without breaking hands, we split into three teams, dividing our group up amongst the witchdoctors. The rest of the morning was spent working our way through the course. Mike and Michael ended up on the same team together. You should've seen those ladies trying to coach these two giant men through the spider web! It was hilarious!

Over lunch, Mike and I sat with a woman and her son that I had held hands with during the first group game. Her name was Florence. (Pictured in the photo above.) She didn't speak any English but her 11 year old son did and so he quietly translated for us. We talked all kinds of small talk: how old he was, if he had any siblings, does he like school, what does he want to be when he grows up....you know the drill. He was sweet and friendly, but very timid.

Florence and her son.

After lunch Bob asked Mike to video an interview he needed to do. He was preparing to try a witch doctor in the area and needed to get a testimony on tape. Mike didn't think anything of it as he grabbed the camera and began filming. His stomach started turning when Florence and her son sat down and began describing their story. Her teenage daughter had been kidnapped and murdered some time before and her genitals had been cut off and returned to the village. (In Uganda, the genitals of a child are believed by many witch doctors to hold special powers, so children are frequently kidnapped and murdered for their genitalia. They also believe that if a child is buried in the foundation of a new building, that building will be blessed and all inside will prosper.) As Mike's heart is being broken by Florence's pain, she continues. Her son, the one we had lunch with, had been abducted along with his best friend. He was made to watch as the witch doctors beheaded his best friend and his blood was collected in a cup...which he was then made to drink. At some point he managed to get away and run back to safety, taking days to make his way back to his mother and home village. We can only imagine the horrific trauma he has experienced and how those memories will haunt his life forever. On top of that, now he has HIV due to drinking the blood of his friend.

As soon as he could, Mike came over to share his heartache with me. Only I had just learned that Josiah's little buddy had also been recently abducted and yet, somehow he too had been rescued before he was hurt. This little boy woke up in captivity surrounded by heads and body parts. He too ran away from his captors and Bob was in the process of trying his case. Witch doctors haven't been tried in court because people are afraid of them. If Bob is successful in getting the death penalty against this witch doctor, it will set precedent and likely change Ugandan history. Please pray fervently regarding this!

Neither of us could comprehend the fears that these people have to live with. We can't imagine the horror of knowing that your children are always at risk. Many parents will mar their kids in some way at birth, scarring them in some way because they believe that makes them less desirable as a child sacrifice. As we stood there trying to process the things we had just learned, our hearts were heavy beyond bearing. We looked around at our 5 children playing carefree and innocent, knowing that their little Ugandan friends would never have the luxury of enjoying such a naive and protected childhood. We felt blessed and deeply, profoundly sad all at the same time. We've returned home with a desire to help, to love these beautiful children of Uganda who know so much pain.

Because of this morning, a morning we initially thought we'd rather have spent hanging out at the Academy with the Restore students, we were changed by being confronted with the darkness and horror of sin. As we tried to wrap our brains around the tremendous wickedness of this particular community, we couldn't help but be reminded that these women, these witch doctor women, were turning to Christ and changing their ways. They wanted child sacrifice to stop, too. These were their babies that were being abducted and mutilated. They have now united to form a group with the motto they wore proudly on their blue t-shirts: "Justice to a child is justice to a nation." Amen and amen. Our own nation needs to decide to follow Jesus. Our own nation needs to realize her desperate need for justice for her children. Abortion, sexual abuse, physical abuse, etc. -- all are prevalent in our home culture. It may look and feel different - maybe not sound as horrific? - than decapitation or dismemberment, but is it?  May God bring justice to the children of the world. And may God bring about justice in both Uganda and the United States of America.

Please pray that the male witch doctors will be reached soon through the power of Jesus Christ. This transformation amongst the female witch doctors began when Bob invited himself to dinner at one of their homes. He just started loving them, which led to relationship, which opened the door for the love of Christ. And now there is a community of believers who are changing their ways, changing their communities, changing the culture. But the men need reached and so far, they want nothing to with this man Bob Goff, or those who've been influenced by his teachings. Please pray.

Bragging rights of the day: Bob Goff, for doing love like Jesus did with Zacchaeus. 

Be Brave with Your Life

Thursday, March 14

The end of Day 4 

We arrived in Gulu around 1:30 pm and stopped first at Sankofa Cafe for pizza and cokes. (Have you ever had green apples and bacon on your pizza? It's actually delicious!) As we ate, some of the young people who are working with Restore arrived to join us. We met Beau Milliken who is helping with the construction of buildings at the school, and Quinn & Brittney Neely who are there building the soccer field. John Pfeil also met us at the cafe. John works for Restore at the school. He's been there for 2 years and just re-upped for 2 more.  John and I had an interesting connection we discovered when we first met: Bangla. He was so excited to learn that I grew up in Bangladesh and knew Bangla. John had interned for a year with IJM in Calcutta where they happen to speak Bangla. It was fun to chat together and laugh about our weak Bangla skills.

Lunch at Sankofa

After lunch John first took us to visit an NGO called Remnant. A beautiful young woman named Yvette started a ministry to Congolese refugee women. The story of this ministry is best summarized on her website:

Imagine you’re a woman taken from your home to a foreign country by your husband, a soldier from a foreign army. Your husband is all that you have – no identification papers, and no way to communicate because you speak another language. Upon arriving to this new place, you discover the man you married already has a family. The people you encounter shun you. You are alienated and treated as an outcast.  

An outcast with two children. Homeless. Without papers and without a job. 

Out of desperation to survive, you sell your body to provide food and shelter for your children. It is your only option. This is the reality of the lives of Congolese women in Uganda. 

Since 2010, Remnant International has been a source of hope for the Congolese women in Gulu, Uganda. Through our program, we provide four women with an alternative source of income through screen printing and sewing. Aside from vocational training, we also tend to the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of the women through mentorships, financial training, health seminars, and many  other programs. 

Two of the Congolese women who work at Remnant.

Patrick works for Remnant.

We also visited another NGO that was started by a few young women from the United States. This for-profit company empowers Ugandan women by giving them a trade. 31 Bits has successfully built a global market in the fashion industry by making beads out of paper. It's really beautiful stuff but even better than the product they are putting out is the beautiful lives they are touching and reshaping through their hearts for ministry:

Our model is to empower people by selling their products in the fashion industry...but that's only the beginning. We believe true empowerment begins with caring for a person holistically and occurs when a person is completely self sustainable. Our model is based on a five-year program built to empower each beneficiary and her/his family while exposing them to the love of Christ. After five years in our program, a beneficiary is ready to graduate. She/he is educated, healthy, and confident while managing a business with a sustainable income. 

A sample of the beautiful beading that the women of 31 Bits create. (Photo taken from their Facebook page. We weren't allowed to photograph the jewelry we saw because it was part of their Spring line and hadn't been released yet.)

Posted at Remnant

After touring these two companies and meeting the women behind the stories, we were so impressed with this next generation of young adults who have caught the vision of loving others with their lives. They had left behind family and creature comforts to minister to the men and women of Uganda who had been through extreme hardships. These young people had taken the message of "Love Does" to heart and were living it out. We were honored to meet them and were inspired by their testimonies of love and faith.

We finally called it a day and checked in to our hotel. It had been a very long day. It seemed impossible that that morning had been our safari trip. We were worn out. After dinner and hot showers we crawled into bed eagerly anticipating the next day when we would finally visit Restore Leadership Academy.

On the Banks of the Nile

Thursday & Friday morning, March 13-14

Days 3 & 4

Our team with Maggie and her team (Maggie is 5th in from the right, standing).

We said goodbye to Maggie and her team and boarded our bus for another long, dusty, bumpy ride. Our destination this time was to Murchison Falls National Park where we were headed to enjoy a safari trip.

After 4-5 hours of bumpy, rough roads and driving at a rate of speed no bus was designed to travel (on those roads anyway)...we finally arrived at the ferry that would take us across the Nile River to Paara Lodge, our destination for the night. We got out of the bus to wait for the ferry's departure and it felt so good to stretch our legs. We took this opportunity to get some family pictures on the banks of the Nile. Funny how a song from way back in my childhood came to mind as I was standing there. Anyone remember this one? -  "Oh she sailed away on a sunny, summer day on the back of a crocodile..." It was fun to sing this song as we stood there watching the real, live hippos and crocs on the banks of the gorgeous (yet dangerous!) Nile River.

While we were eager to check into our rooms, get settled and cleaned up, our faithful Restore leader Deborah had other things planned for us. She had arranged for our group to board a riverboat for a three hour tour of the Nile. We climbed aboard and pulled away from shore and immediately ran into herd after herd of hippos every few yards or so. Josiah was our master "spotter". He was the first to spot a crocodile -- and these crocodiles were camouflaged amazingly well in the tall grasses. He also spotted the first elephant. We saw a variety of birds - kingfishers, cormorants, cattle egrets, etc. We even saw a couple crowned cranes! Warthogs, hippos, crocs, and elephants were all present during our afternoon riverboat ride.

The falls were beautiful and the water was so powerful we couldn't come very close to them. We saw a man fishing with a guide and he caught a huge Nile perch while we were passing by. That was fun but stirred a hunger in Mike to be out fishing that he wasn't able to satisfy. He learned that the only way to fish on the Nile was with a guide for $200 and that's after you paid the $50 license fee! Needless to say, the rod & reel he brought from home stayed packed away in his suitcase.

Just as the sun was going down we pulled back up to the dock and were finally led to the Paara Lodge and given our room assignments. This lodge looked like something out of an old movie...think Out of Africa. It was stunning, beautifully rustic, and so charming! We ate a delicious buffet dinner on the balcony and enjoyed getting to know those in our group even better. The most delicious item on the buffet was the orange glazed Nile perch....so delicious that Michael went back for 4-5 more pieces and I ate a second piece in place of dessert. We felt badly for Mike who had to miss out on trying the fish (due to his food allergies) so we made sure that we ate his portion for him.

Walking back to our rooms we were being dive-bombed by bats. I'm not even kidding. I shielded myself behind Mike & Michael trying to let the bats hit them before they hit me! I was kind of creeped out by the bats. It's one thing to see them flying around in the night sky, but to have them attacking you?  No thanks! At one point in the night I couldn't sleep and wanted to go to the lobby to email my parents (I hadn't had an opportunity to communicate with them yet) and yet I was terrified of going out in the dark with those bats flying around and no one to shield me. I finally did venture out and only saw one bat at that point. I think it must've been close enough to morning that they were starting to go off to bed (maybe?). YUCK!

Early the next morning the gang all met at 5:45 for our morning safari. We all had big hopes of seeing a lion and we heard exciting stories about a previous group that witnessed a lion kill an antelope and devour it for breakfast. We were all very hopeful that we would see something equally as awesome. We did see a lot of cape buffalo, bushbacks, chimpanzees, baboons, antelopes, and warthogs (man are those little guys ugly!). We also saw some pretty magnificent giraffes! Lots and lots of giraffes!

We had a fun tour guide named George who provided lots of comic relief...especially when we were greatly disappointed at the absence of lions. At one point George stopped the driver so he could focus his binoculars on a herd of antelope way off in the distance.  With my handy dandy camera lens I was able to look with him and didn't see anything too exciting. But George was just sure there was a lion there about to attack. We waited 5-8 minutes and nothing happened, the antelope not even budging from where they were grazing.  We moved on and found some really great photo ops with a couple elephant herds as we drove back to the lodge for breakfast. True story: the van behind us waited a little longer to return and they were able to be present when that lion George sensed sprung and had a delicious meal of antelope for breakfast. We all groaned with regret when we heard that.

After a lovely buffet breakfast (we continued the tradition of eating very well on this trip), we left Murchison Falls National Park and the Paara Lodge and began our 4 hour journey up to the city of Gulu.  (The bus was becoming a very familiar friend to each of us.) Gulu is the second biggest city in Uganda. It's not very big and is located way out in the bush. It also happens to be home to Restore Leadership Academy. We could hardly contain our excitement as we anticipated finally getting to meet the children.


Bragging rights of the day: Josiah for spotting the animals from afar, sometimes even before George did!

Bear Witness to My Story

Wednesday, March 12

Day 2

After an excellent night's sleep under the mosquito nets while listening to the pouring rain, we expected to find a muddy mess when we went outside in the morning. To the contrary, the roads were as dry and dusty as the day before, that's how badly this bush area has been affected by the drought. We enjoyed a hot breakfast in the dining hall and were then given our job assignments for the day: mud a schoolhouse, give 350+ kids de-worming medication, and repair a well for a nearby village. Maggie Josiah from AHI had relationships built with the local village people and when groups like ours come through they team up with her to serve the poor communities surrounding her. (When I say poor, I mean poorer than many of the villages I experienced during my childhood in Bangladesh. With Bangladesh being one of the poorest nations in the world, I couldn't before imagine poverty like I saw in this war-ravaged Ugandan community.)

We started by getting the kids paired up with a good, sturdy bicycle. Well, paired up with a bicycle anyway. Some of us had to bike to the village and the kids were eager to volunteer. It ended up being several miles away and we were impressed with their stamina on these 50's era bicycles. (Truth be told, this ended up being one of their highlights at the end of the week.)

Off to the school house we go! We arrived to see a termite hill that had been broken apart. Termite hills in Africa can be several feet tall -- as in 6-7 feet tall. They are quite impressive! (And quite perfect for giving one nightmares of creepy crawlies...even without the help of malaria medication!) This one had been dug into and broken down, all ready for us to add water and stomp around in. Breaking down the mud in this way gets it to the appropriate consistency for mudding the building. Thankfully, many of the men were willing volunteers and most of the ladies got to opt out. The kids got into it and Denise, always up for a new adventure (and to be sure her friends back home would be sufficiently impressed by her missional heart for service), was the first woman to climb in. All of us other ladies were adequately appreciative of her efforts on our behalf.

Once the mud was sufficiently mixed, an assembly line was formed to pass handfuls of mud down to the wall that needed finished. Everyone jumped in line (well, except for me because I was...ahem...the designated photographer....thank you, Lord!) and began passing huge clumps of mud down the line where it a new pile of mud was created.  Finally, after enough mud had accumulated, everyone gathered for the mud-slinging. To properly mud a wall you must throw it at the wall!  You can imagine the fun everyone had throwing mud.

During this time, a couple other ladies had sat down with the students to begin the distribution of worm medication. They opened each package up and gave each child a dry caplet of medication which they then put into their mouths and began chewing! I felt so badly that they didn't have the ability to drink it down with fresh water. A few children spat it out, but most chewed it right up and swallowed it. I caught a couple of kids taking theirs out of their mouths, passing it along to their friend who thought it tasted just fine. Yuck! After we figured out that we needed to be sure each of them swallowed it, we started putting the tablet directly into their mouths and watched as they chewed it up. We figured at that point it was too hard to pass along to their neighbor.

When the mudding was done our children began running around the schoolyard playing tag with the kids. It was so fun to see them reaching out to one another in friendship even though they couldn't communicate with words. These village children were from deep in the bush and hadn't had the luxury of learning English yet. They had to rely on hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate with our children. No matter, they got their messages of joy and happiness across.

We stopped by another school to de-worm some more children on our way back to Maggie's for lunch. At this site we simply dispensed the medication and played, played played! This school had a fun little playground and our kids pushed them on the swings, climbed the monkey bars with the Ugandan children and played tag. Michael swung kids around and carried them on his shoulders. We sang and played song games (sort of like Ring-Around-A-Rosey) and sat in the dirt and played with matchbox cars. It was a delightful time and became a highlight of the week for a few of our kids.

After a delicious lunch of taco soup and cornbread back at Maggie's (Can you tell she's trained some really great cooks? We loved the food!), we departed for another village where we were going to help repair their well. Maggie's philosophy of ministry is that the villagers have to come up with the money for their own supplies and then she will help provide the labor through teams like ours. While the men worked in close quarters on the well job, the women stood under a fruit tree for shade, held babies and talked to the village women.

Our children, naturally, ran around again playing games with the village children. One little girl was completely taken with Morgan's long blonde hair and kept "trying it on" her own head. It was quite hysterical! A few girls eventually talked Morgan into letting them braid her hair. Kenlee & Allison had a group of kids dancing around the courtyard with them whileWyatt played hide and go seek and tag with a large crowd. We were quite impressed with the kids ability to have fun and not grow weary in the heat.

It was something to see the water come rushing out of the well when the men were finished. The villagers had been without water for close to 9 months and had been hauling their water from a nearby village that was about 5 miles away. They were both relieved and elated to have their own water supply repaired and we were delighted to be even a tiny part of that huge blessing in their lives!

After another delicious meal we gathered around to watch a video telling us more about the ministry of AHI. It was Maggie's story of how she was sexually abused by both her mother and her father. Her childhood abuse pushed her into a life of prostitution as an adult before finding Christ. I've linked her story here for you to watch. (Click on "Maggie's Story" in the left column...I can't recommend a better way of spending the next 15 minutes.) Hers is an amazing story of the grace of God and the beauty He delights in restoring to wounded souls. The ministry of AHI was a blessing to us already but even more so when knowing the backstory of the beautiful Maggie Josiah. One thing Maggie said to me that really penetrated my heart was, "Here in Uganda my story is every woman's story. In Uganda, a story like mine is nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary. It just is." For those who have been touched by sexual abuse you can relate to how profound that statement is on so many levels.

After dinner, as the adults sat around getting to know one another better, a few village friends the kids had met earlier at the well site showed up to play hide and seek in the dark with the kids. It doesn't take much for these kids of ours to make new friends, especially not here in the bush of Africa when their peers are so eager. How fun to hear their laughter ring out as they "found" each other (with flashlights) hiding behind banyan trees and termite hills. (True story: the Ugandan kids were always the hardest to find. They won every round!)

Bragging rights for the day: Denise who gave the mudding experience her best efforts and Russ for taking a bike to the village and then sticking it out even when he got a bum bicycle.