i don’t want to know.

I didn’t really think I could be surprised anymore.  I didn’t think there was a picture or a story that would shock me.  I didn’t know there could be more darkness or hopelessness than what I’ve seen.  I’ve stared into a child’s eyes while he fought for his life.  I’ve sat literally in the dumps with women who call piles of trash home.  I’ve seen the scars on bodies that have been beaten into submission over and over again.

 

But this story has destroyed me.  It’s almost made worse by the fact that I’m reading it from my comfortable chair, behind my very own desk, looking out my big, bright window–so far removed from it that I have to force myself to imagine it to believe that it’s real.

 

We have a team of 24 college students in Uganda right now.  They’ve gotten malaria, made it through the bombings in Kampala (they’re fine!), and all the other realities that come with life in a third world country.  And last week they worked with Kyampisi village an hour or so outside of Kampala.

 

That’s where they met Allan.  A precocious seven year old boy who immediately stole their hearts.  And then they learned his story.  A year ago, this then six year old child was kidnapped on his way home from school.  His kidnappers had been to a witchdoctor who told them they needed to make a child sacrifice before he could help them.  So they found Allan.  They stabbed him in the neck.  They castrated him.  They put an axe in his skull.  And then they left him.  Hours later, he was found whimpering in a pool of his own blood.  If I didn’t believe in a God who redeems all things, it would almost seem cruel that he was left alive.  But he is alive.  And he’s been healing well over the past year.  Tomorrow he has surgery to rebuild his skull that’s just been closed with skin and tissue for the past year.

 

I don’t want to imagine this story.  I don’t want to believe that it’s
true and I don’t want to know that these things are going on.   But
since they are going on, I definitely don’t want to sit behind my desk
and not do anything about it.  

 

Would you join me in praying for him?  On Wednesday, July 14th, he’ll get one step closer to being healed.  We’re praying for complete healing physically, emotionally and spiritually.  2 of our Real Life girls in Uganda are committed to sponsoring him so that he can stay at the Kyampisi home.

 

It is unbelievable to me that these things happen in our world.  Unbelievable that such darkness exists that one human being could do this to another.  And, yet, even more unbelievable that God can redeem even situations like these.  And that he can use Allan’s story to change the world.  Kyampisi is launching the ‘End Child Sacrifice’ Campaign.  Check them out at www.kyampisi.com.

 

What is unbelievable to you?  What realities are you determined to change?  And how is God redeeming even the worst situations?  I need to be reminded of those things today.