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This blog was posted by my teammate Laura Meyers but she did such a great job I thought I’d share with you:
This month we are in Northern Uganda partnering with an orgazation called Child Voice International. We have only been here for a week and I have fallen in love with the ministry! Child Voice was establised to help restore children effected by the war in Northern Uganda. Here is some background information (taken from the Child Voice website):
 

It is difficult to imagine a nightmare worse than the reality that has been endured by the children and families of northern Uganda. For the Acholi people in that part of the country, simple agrarian life was lost to fear and bloodshed more than 20 years ago when a rebellion led by Joseph Kony began wreaking havoc on the land. What started as an attempt to overthrow the national government in Kampala morphed into a decades-long reign of terror with indeterminate intent and devastating effect. Over the years, the group has abducted more than 65,000 children from their homes and forced them to be the mules, foot soldiers and sex slaves for Kony’s cult-like group of increasingly depraved commanders.

Very few families in northern Uganda have been spared; nearly everyone has lost a relative to death or abduction. Over 80% of the people in northern Uganda are interned in camps (Internally Displaced Person camps, or IDP) by the government, living in atrociously squalid conditions.

The imperative of the ChildVoice village is to renew Uganda’s hope for a bright future. In restoring children broken by war, ChildVoice will be developing the leaders and workers of tomorrow. A country shaken by a long-running rebel war cannot emerge from its dark past free of scars; yet those scars need not be debilitating. Investment in the healing and teaching of children damaged by war will produce a foundation of young adults equipped with the skills and competencies to lead Uganda toward a new era of peace and economic stability.

 

So, as you read you can tell that the need is great here. There are many people who are hurting. RIght now, people in the the IDP camps, about 80% of the population in Northern Uganda, are expected to move back to their villages by March. People are afraid to move back to their homes. People are afraid of the pain from the war; they lost everything. For most of the people here all they have known has been war. 
 
We have been going into the IDP camps to meet with people and pray with people. The Lord is at work here in so many ways and His light is shining through the darkness. Continue to pray for Northern Uganda and the Acholi people. Please pray for us as we interact with them; that we would have discernment and that we would listen to the Lord’s voice.