Lira

A couple weeks ago Bro. and Sis. Groves flew in from Kenya to go with us to the district conference in Lira.  They are from Jamaica and they are missionaries to Kenya and Sudan.  They're really good people and a lot of fun to travel with, but sometimes no matter how hard I paid attention, I could not for the life of me understand their accents, haha.  It was a long drive to Lira, but not as long as it was to Adjumani because a.) Lira is not as far as Adjumani, and b.) the entire road was paved.  There is a lot of development in Lira because there is a huge UN presence there.  Even the children speak very good English, which is unusual for the villages, and everywhere I kept seeing UN and WFP vehicles and tents.  I was curious about this until Bro. Tolstad explained that the Lira/Gulu districts were like a stronghold for the LRA until only a couple years ago.  I rememer reading in Time magazine some years ago that in Uganda there was a certain town where young boys would walk for protection under government troops.  They had to walk for dozens of kilometers every night to get to this town to sleep in the streets or under tents or anywhere they could find a place, and then walk back to their villages every morning.  They had to do this because if they stayed in their village then they would be abducted when the LRA raided their homes every night, and they would be commissioned into the Lord's Resistance Army as child soldiers.  Bro. Tolstad said that that town where they walked to was Lira.  I was amazed to be in this place that I had cried over when I read of it before.  I have always loved going to the villages, but I felt more drawn to Lira than to any place else in Uganda because of what they have been through.  During the services when we were praying for the people, I prayed with special fervency because I kept thinking, "What has this boy seen?  What is going on inside this man's head that is making him cry so much?  This woman has likely lost a son or nephew or cousin to the LRA and yet here she is worshipping God with all sincerity."  I was completely humbled by the love for God that I could see in all the people that I met there.  Bro. Tonney said that there are still places in the bush that are full of active land mines, reminders of the all too recent genocide. 

When I first arrived in Uganda, Sis. Tolstad had me read a book called Aboke Girls about some school girls here in Uganda that were abducted from their bording school by the LRA.  They were taken in to the bush and marched into Souther Sudan to become wives of the LRA commanders.  Their headmistress was so upset by the action that she followed the soldiers in to the bush and retreived over 100 of the girls herself.  The remaining 30 spent many months in the LRA while their headmistress petitioned leaders all over the world, including the pope himself, for their release.  Some of the girls managed an escape and the book is their story.  The things that they went through were beyond horrifying.  The last girl was finally returned only about a year ago.  When we were driving through Lira, Bro. Tolstad turned to me and asked, "Did you read the story about the Aboke girls?"  "Yes, sir."  "Their school is up here on the right."  I was stunned that the place of such slaughter and horror was actually before my eyes.  I didn't even know how or what to pray as I stood looking out my hotel window at the town that night.  All I could do was weep like I have never wept in my life, and ask God to show his people here that he loves them, and to bless the work of the church, so that the name of Jesus Christ can be glorified in the midst of the pain that can still be read in people's eyes.