Oh, I have so much to tell you all. We are in Gulu, and have been placed just right outside an IDP camp in a village called Lukodi. Lukodi was one of the last villages to be completely massacred by the war, their village is known as the one that suffered the most.
Here, they call where we are living, the “bush” and I would believe them. I wish I had pictures to share but to download one picture takes about an hour. We are living in mud huts in a field where the cows have no problem strolling through our camp. My hut has so many spiders it feels like a scary movie. We get to carry our water from a spring that is about a thirty minute walk and the kids laugh at us because we can’t carry the cans on our heads like they do, they make it look easy but it’s not. January is the hot hot season here so it is so very dusty. You should see me try and scrub the dirt off every night, it is in everything. I am loving it though as you could have guessed.
The most amazing thing that we have stumbled across here in Gulu is an organization called Child Voice. They are actually the ones letting us live in the huts. They take in child mothers who have been abducted from the bush and forced to join the LRA and commit atrocities against their own families. This organization hits right at the heart of the need in Gulu. Their focus is on counseling and educating these young girls who have been traumatized by Kony’s war.
I have been able to be a part of their everyday lives, play with their children, speak in chapel and now I am helping them make their own paper that they sell. I also get to lead a Bible study every morning with these Ladies. Being apart of their lives is what speaks the loudest here. Because of the girls traumatic backgrounds we do not inquire about their stories. But every day as I pass them and see them working so hard for a better life, I know they will have better stories to tell than the ones of their past. They now have a solid future and the stories of God’s faithfulness.
Check out the website for more info and the girls’ stories www.childvoiceintl.org
Child Voice from what I have experienced is also a powerful provider in the community. I close my eyes and try to picture what Lukodi would look like without its presence and it would be a very different place. They employ the community and have provided a clinic and primary school. One of the things that I have come to admire the most about Child Voice is they have an incredible respect and love for the community in what they have experienced. It is a compassion that is very deep and that compassion has brought Lukodi back to life.
Every night when I get into my hut I feel so grateful to get to see the transformation and provision that is being brought here. Thank you Jesus for letting me be a part of this!
P.S. Last night that cow gave birth right under my window it kept me up all night, but that little guy was so cute.
