“Invisible Children”

Is this picture grabbing your attention??? It should. This is me at Traning Camp.(In the blue shirt)
I am here for the next two weeks to prepare to be on the field for the next two years. The story may seem harsh but it has a beautiful ending.

We started training by watching the movie “Invisible Children” a documentary of the children in
Africa. It ripped my heart out hearing the cries of these children and seeing the pain that they face EVERYDAY!! After watching this heart wrenching movie we were sent to bed. I awoke to people screaming and telling me to get up, go to the bus and don’t ask questions. I scrambled through the dark to get dressed and ran to the bus, we were told to put our heads down and close our eyes. We drove for a while and then were told to unload and stand in a single file line. At this point I was rescued by my leader Tim and then became a leader in this raid. The point of this was to let the participants experience a day in the life of a
“forgotten child”, a child who has been ripped from their homes and family in the middle of the night and forced to live in a compound.

Our desire was to force the participants into a reality of third world countries.

Okay back to the story… after marching to the compound (25 min. walk) up a steep terrain they found themselves at their new home. They were given a token and a piece of plastic. And then they sat… and sat… and sat, some finally began to build a house for themselves and others feeling defeated decided to sleep. Through out the day they were given a sort amount of time to go to the bathroom, get water and use their token to buy toilet paper or a rice cake. At any point during the day there could be raids (this is where I got to help) the rebels would run through with guns, (paintball) and stealing things that they bought, tearing down houses and then run back into the woods. For dinner they were served one rice cake or oatmeal. Then they were told to march… the march started at 10:00pm and ended with a piece of bread around 11:00pm. They were then sent to bed.

This seems harsh, and I bet you are thinking I would never put anyone through that. The beautiful thing was the hearts of these who were left out in the cold rain, with little food, forgotten for a day, They decided to “praise him in the storm” they built a fire and started singing praise songs. This shows a heart of praise and thankfulness. It gave them a sense of what these children suffer through each day and a new sense of how to pray.

We are praying that He will break our hearts for the things that break His…