As we’re entering into our third month in Africa, I have to admit there are some things I’m growing a little tired of. I’m tired of being called “muzungu” everywhere I go, and I’m getting sick of the fact that everywhere we go…everyone expects us to be rich because we’re “muzungus” (whites). It’s also very discouraging when in every country, we meet amazing people who have no education, no job and no money. Our team thinks of ways to meet people’s needs through sustainability and microeconomic plans so we aren’t just giving “hand outs” but it’s so hard to start anything like that up when you’re only with a ministry for a month. There have been times in the last two months of Africa that I have felt overwhelmed with the great need that God’s people here have and I am depressed and weary. I refuse to let the Enemy get a foothold, though, and I refuse to have all the problems of Africa get me down and keep me down. While I face discouragement, exhaustion and depression every day on this continent, I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is at work here and is moving mountains and changing hearts. One miraculous story I have heard this month is a testimony our Ugandan contact, Pastor Joseph told me in regards to the ongoing conflict with a rebel group in this country and the Kingdom of God overtaking it all.
Since 1987, Joseph Kony has been destroying the country of Uganda, plundering villages, killing the men, raping the women, and forcing the children of Uganda to become soldiers in his war. Organizations like “Invisible Children” have been fighting this injustice by creating an awareness and allowing people all over the world to get involved financially and politically to end the suffering. To be honest, the first time I heard of the LRA and the child soldiers in Uganda was in 2006 when I saw a showing of the “Invisible Children” documentary at my school, Biola University. There has been a tremendous amount of peace recently in Uganda, PRAISE THE LORD, and more movements standing against the LRA have come to pass. In the last year, the leader Joseph Kony has fled the country and gone into hiding in Sudan because of his severe defeat of power in Uganda. Now that it’s 2011, the conflict has severly decreased, and in May 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarment and Northern Uganda Recovery Act legislation with aimed at stopping Joseph Kony and the LRA altogether. The bill was passed unanimously in the Senate on March of 2010.
All these facts I can read in the news, hear through NGOs, and read in memoirs of former child soldiers including, “Beasts of No Nation”. If you would like to read more information about the history of LRA, Joseph Kony and the civil war in Uganda, or want to help in the fight to end the conflict, go to www.invisiblechildren.com. To be in Uganda, standing foot on this red soil, makes things very different for me, and experiencing riots and political conflict first hand 
changes my perspective about this country a lot. I see the corruption, the pain and the suffering right in front of my eyes. While I experience all the negative here, I also get to see and hear the stories of victory that Christ is claiming during this time of atrocities. When Joseph Kony had more authoratative power, he and his army had their base camp in the deep jungles of a mountain in the north. People living in the villages of the mountain jungle were constantly terrorized by the LRA. While Joseph Kony is a self proclaimed “spokesman” for God and primarily the Holy Spirit, Kony and his men were very much into mysticism, witchcraft and demonic power and that Kony would fast for 40 days, drinking only blood and partaking in all kinds of occult rituals from witchdoctors and such. I can only imagine the terrors that the people of Uganda have experienced by Joseph Kony and the LRA.
changes my perspective about this country a lot. I see the corruption, the pain and the suffering right in front of my eyes. While I experience all the negative here, I also get to see and hear the stories of victory that Christ is claiming during this time of atrocities. When Joseph Kony had more authoratative power, he and his army had their base camp in the deep jungles of a mountain in the north. People living in the villages of the mountain jungle were constantly terrorized by the LRA. While Joseph Kony is a self proclaimed “spokesman” for God and primarily the Holy Spirit, Kony and his men were very much into mysticism, witchcraft and demonic power and that Kony would fast for 40 days, drinking only blood and partaking in all kinds of occult rituals from witchdoctors and such. I can only imagine the terrors that the people of Uganda have experienced by Joseph Kony and the LRA. The villagers living on the mountain were getting sick and dying because of a certain water well that was near the LRA’s base camp. The water had become contaminated and poisonous but there was no other well in the area so the villagers had no other option of getting water. That’s when the believers of Uganda did something incredible…they prayed. Our team understands what it means to have a Ugandan pray for you. From seeing the way the members of Pastor’s church “Ambassadors of Life” pray for us and for the nation, to the fact that Uganda has it’s own official “African Prayer Mountain” where people are constantly praying and fasting and tenting their…they take prayer seriously. The believers of Uganda prayed for a miracle…and only a miracle God could bring. They prayed for healing of the water well, and that whatever curse or evil that was harming the people in the water would leave in Jesus’ name. They prayed that the LRA would crumble and be defeated. They prayed and fasted for countless days over that mountain, crying out to God for the people of Uganda and that God would avenge the Lord’s Resistance Army. People from every denomination, tribe and economic class were coming to this mountain and praying for deliverance, including the President of Uganda and his family. The best part of the story? God heard them…and answered every single one of their prayers. People soon stopped getting sick and dying from the water in the village and steadily the LRA’s power and momentum was demolished and Kony was defeated and fled the country. Joseph Kony and a great deal of his highest officers had warrants out for their arrest by the ICC (International Criminal Court) and most of the men are in hiding currently.
This is when beautiful Pastor Joseph Nsanga comes into the story. A while back Pastor decided God was calling him for a season of his life to the northern part of Uganda to minister to the men, women and children affected by the horrific rebel group, known as “the LRA” (which is the Lord’s Resistance Army) founded and lead by a man named, Joseph Kony. He was preaching to the people in the north of Uganda very affected by the LRA, at a crusade with hundreds of people and the anointing of God on Pastor Joseph was extremely prevelant. There was a man at the crusade that was very touched by Pastor’s message and this man could tell that Pastor Joseph was different, and that he had something that he hadn’t seen before. After the crusade, the man approached Pastor Joseph and said he wanted to give his life to Christ. He said that he felt God touch his heart while Pastor was preaching and that his message was meant directly for him. When Pastor asked the man about himself he came to find out that the man was once apart of the infamous LRA and was one of Joseph Kony’s officers in the rebel group. Society would have completely given up on this man, throwing away any possibility of a redeeming qualities or morality in his heart.
In all honesty, before hearing this story, I have thought of LRA officials as complete monsters and to think that one of them would ever come to a Christian crusade and actually listen to what the preacher was saying would be ludacris in my mind. Our God works like that though, because when He does the impossible with the hopeless, we truly get to see His glory and majesty. While I was listening to Pastor Joseph tell me about this Ugandan version of a Saul to Paul conversion, I couldn’t help but marvel at the miraculous nature of God and the fact that God never gives up on ANY of His children. It’s easy for us to write people off as “good” or “evil” but the Lord isn’t like that. His nature is love, and unconditional love, and He is constantly yearning to love on us and take us into the inheritance He has for us.
Pastor Joseph’s phenomenal story of the power of God reminded me of all the Truths about God that I so desperately needed to believe in. The fact is, God is just as crazy in love with one of the top leaders of the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda as He is with any devoted believer. He loves us all with a radical, furious love and all we have to do is choose Him and our lives will be transformed. Pastor Joseph is still in contact with the man who came to Christ that day, and Pastor’s working hard to disciple and encourage the man as much as possible. I am encouraged to never give up on people, especially leaders in a rebel group in Africa, and to remember that God has the ability to change anyone from a Saul to a Paul. It’s in those moments, loved ones, that His light shines the brightest…and that is the God that we serve.
