-On the topic of boda boda's, Catharine told us tonight why, in fact, they're called boda boda's. When people used to travel from Uganda to Kenya, they had to go through two checkpoints, one on the Ugandan side and one on the Kenyan. The only way to get from each side was to take a motorcycle over, going from border to border. "Border to border" got shortened over the years to what we have now.
-Today at church, the power went out during the worship time. They went on as though nothing happened and I swear the worship improved with it. It was just an incredible time of worship. I've always loved the sound of Africans singing and to be a part of it each week is incredible. I thought about the churches I know in America and what would happen if the power went out. We obviously have such a greater dependence on electricity that I wasn't sure if a service there would be able to continue (this obviously depends on the auditorium, time of year, etc). There was obviously no AC in the church this morning (I haven't experienced AC once in my time here and will be surprised if I ever do) and there were lots of windows. I prayed as the speaker spoke that their voice would be projected.
-I bought two books at a bookstore in Garden City this past weekend and I finished the first one today. "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" was written by Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier in Sierra Leone. It details his life before the war, survival during the war and his eventual being forced to fight on one side of the war at age 15. The most interesting part for me was his rehabilitation time. One would think, ah, you are rescued! You no longer have to kill people! You can be a child again! The process that him and his fellow army boys had to go through afterwards was...incredible. It taught me so much. There are some former child soldiers with Hope Alive! and I needed this to help me understand them. I would recommend this for all of you who have been burdened for these hundreds of thousands of child soldiers throughout the world today. The second book I bought it on the Rwanda genocide entitled, "We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch. I just started it and am so interested to learn more.
Now that I'm here, all of this seems much more real. I am in and near places where atrocities have occurred. Today, two of the big prayer requests that people gave at church were for the situation in the north with the LRA and the inhumane mess that they have left behind. I'm HERE. I'm meeting people that were there. Hearing their stories of fleeing for their lives. The fear that they lived in. Missing those that have been killed. This is right where I've been praying to be and it's still unreal that all of this has happened and is still happening today, only now elsewhere. It makes me hungry for more; more knowledge of the situation, more understanding of how to help people, more of a realization of the insanity that is often a blib on the news. I'm really excited to get to Gulu. We should be going in about two weeks and I'm so anxious to get there as well as the other sites.
I want to see, touch and feel. I want to do more than pray at a distance but get my hands dirty in showing Christ.
I am SO excited to be HERE.
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