The effects of the war in northern Uganda

All around us are the effects of the 20 year war with the LRA.
Burned out huts, uncultivated land, IDP camps.
On a more personal level, it seems each person we meet has a story of pain and lost loved ones in the war.
Rarely do we meet a child that has both parents still alive.

We meet people who have lost everything and are struggling to start over, now that there is peace.
We are falling in love with the 15 child mothers who have lost so much in being upducted and abused, but they are being renewed.

Signs of the KIngdom.
Yesterday we interviewed 4 former Child Voice students (formerly abducted and graduates of the Child Voice program)
They now had skills in parenting, vocation, relating to families and the community they did not have upon return from the bush.
More than skill, they now had confidence in God who leads and sustains them in the next steps.
They are light in a dark place.

The light of God in breaking in.
A women who had stolen some things from an NGO became a Christian on Tuesday and then later came to the NGO and confessed to them what see did!
Many we talk to who have trusted in destruction local rituals and practices have given them up to follow God.
The village of Lukodi, where we are living, has become more active and most have moved out of the camps and built homes on their lands. Fear of Kony and the LRA is less and less.
Joy is returning to this place.

We again made a trip to Kony's home town with the second team and Awari hill on Wednesday.
It was a time to say to people around we are no longer fearful of Kony and will go to his hill and pray.
It was a statement to local people.

The next post will be some quotes we are gathering from the students
Cheers
tom