Wa Pako Rwot (Praise the Lord!)

Hello again! We are having a great week here in Lukodi. Let me catch you up on where we are and what we’ve been doing:

As I mentioned before, our combined FOCUS/InterVarsity team is being hosted by Child Voice International (CVI). We are staying just outside the CVI compound, which houses 30 child mothers and their 42 children. CVI’s mission is to help reintegrate these young girls into society, many of whom were taken captive by the Lord’s Resistance Army and forced to be the child brides of rebel soldiers. CVI provides counseling services, education, and job training for the girls, as well as primary school education for their children. (For more info, please visit: www.childvoiceintl.org.) Here are some pictures from the compound:


The last picture is of Sam, FOCUS Uganda’s Training Secretary and a third tri-director of this portion of the project. We love Sam!

When we arrived at CVI, the girls welcomed us with a short program that included traditional Acholi songs and dance. These girls can sing! It was beautiful and, again, I wish I could upload sound files but you'll have to settle for a visual:


The CVI compound is on the edge of an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp—our huts are between the compound and the camp. There are IDP camps scattered literally everywhere in the Gulu area—people moved in when the war began, the government provided “temporary” housing, the UN and various NGOs provided aid, and most people never left. For one thing, the “temporary” structures that were provided are traditional Acholi huts—no more “temporary” than what people lived in at home. Additionally, even though the weakened LRA has fallen back from Uganda to the Central African Republic and the region is peaceful now, many people fear that it is still unsafe to return to their villages.

Here are some photos of the Lukodi IDP camp, adjacent to the CVI compound. The last shot is of a church inside the camp.


In terms of our work here, some of us have been staying at the CVI compound, getting to know the girls, assisting with childcare, slashing the land (intense yard-work with machetes), and eventually helping with chicken-coop construction. ☺ It has been deeply meaningful--and a lot of fun!--for the team to spend time with the girls and to watch them play and laugh together. Here are a couple of shots from the compound, including a hilarious relay race. The yellow cans are "jerry cans," the means of transporting water from the bore hole to the compound.


The rest of us have been traveling to the IDP camps and nearby colleges to meet people, engage them in spiritual conversations, talk to them about Jesus, and pray with them for healing and deliverance. Ministering cross-culturally with a bi-cultural team has been fascinating, challenging, and incredibly growth-producing. The vast majority of the FOCUS Uganda team members are as unfamiliar with the Acholi language and culture as the American team members are, and we have found that we bring very different evangelistic methodology and styles to the table. For many of us, however, talking through these differences and learning from one another has been an extremely fruitful process. The conversations are challenging at times, but it is clear that God is using this experience to stretch and widen our view of Himself. We have been deeply encouraged and blessed by Ugandan partners who are patient, loving, and willing to engage in a mutual learning process with us. We give thanks to God for our new friends and partners! Here are a few pictures from our outreaches in the camps:

Tina praying with a woman who wanted to know how to begin a relationship with Jesus.

The woman's family, including several orphans she took in during the war, and lots of kids living nearby.

Some members of our team.

I think that's all for today -- thanks again for journeying with us! On behalf of the entire team, I send lots of love from Lukodi!