This month, dream with us about creating slave free communities, starting in our own backyard and extending around the globe.
What if you...? |
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GLOBAL
Childhood for Child "Soldiers"
One boy tried to escape, but he was caught. His hands were tied, and then they made us, the other new captives, kill him with a stick. I felt sick. I knew this boy from before. We were from the same village. I refused to kill him, and they told me they would shoot me. They pointed a gun at me, so I had to do it. The boy was asking me, "Why are you doing this?" I said I had no choice. After we killed him, they made us smear blood on our arms. I felt dizzy. They said we had to do this so we would not fear death, and so we would not try to escape."
- Susan, 16, abducted by the LRA in Uganda
For more than 20 years, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has forced children in northern Uganda to be "soldiers." That's a euphemism really: They are forced to murder, rape and pillage or, in the case of girls, to be raped and forced to marry soldiers. In this country full of squalid displacement camps and mass graves, children suffer the most.
The Sliedrechts | Tim and Angie Sliedrecht lead our team in Soroti, Uganda, where they are part of the healing process for these traumatized youth. Recently, Tim was invited to speak to the Heads of State at the International Criminal Court (ICC) meetings in Kampala where he shared stories of former LRA abductees & what ITeams is doing to help. Twelve ICC delegates spent 3 hours at a mass grave site with the team, and 150 escaped LRA victims, to hear their stories.
WHAT IF:
You prayed for the Sliedrechts, for the right people to join them to expand the work, for children whose childhoods have been stolen and for an end to the conflict?
You joined the team and were the answer to this prayer?
You partnered with this team, as a church, home group or Sunday School, sharing skills, expertise, encouragement and resources.
You provided travel expenses for me to go assess the needs and strategize how best to help these front-line workers and expand their ministry to more children?
Free to be children! |
Then we'd make progress towards a region where children can play and love, not maim and kill.
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