Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Today I watched the Last King of Scotland for the first time. I knew what to expect, but still.. I wasn't prepared for what I saw. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. The movie seems pretty happy-go-lucky there for a while, and you start to think maybe he's not as insane as supposed... hm. I'm a very visual person, so it might take me a few days to get some of those last images out of my mind. I even put the subtitles on and fastforwarded so I wouldn't have to sit there and watch it. The thing that really got me though was at the end when they were telling the year that his reign ended.. I think it was '79.. and then having seen the Invisible Children documentary and having participated in Displace Me.. I realized that there were only 7 years between the end of his reign and the start of the war in Northern Uganda.
My mind can't even try to wrap itself around it all, what those people lived through day by day, the horrors that they faced. My heart can't even pretend to understand the pain that they've endured. Then I started thinking about being gone for 5 months. I know that I'll get homesick, and I know that I'll miss spending Wendesdays with my little niece. I know I'll miss being there on my brother's birthday and on Emma's 1st birthday. Thanksgiving, my birthday, etc... I started to get sad last night when I left my cousin's because we realized that I would be missing a lot while I was gone, and that Emma wouldn't remember me when I came back. I made her promise to show pictures of me to Emma so that she would still know me. But after watching that movie and realizing that terror is all that some Ugandans have ever known, I felt convicted.. almost as if I didn't have a right to feel sad about being gone. I have been so blessed to have my family so close during my life, to see Emma Kate grow up and change week by week, to have friends and relatives so nearby... I have been so blessed! And I forget every day how special that is. I don't want to take them for granted anymore. I don't want to take our freedoms here for granted. Even though I don't like a lot of things about my culture, I don't want to take it for granted.
If you haven't watched the Invisible Children documentary, please do. The war there is not over yet. Even though peace talks are in process and the government officials are meeting with the LRA, there's still a long way to go to repair the damage done. Thousands have been abducted and brutally murdered, families destroyed. Take a look at their website and see what you can do to help end the war. And in the meantime, don't take our liberties and freedoms for granted...
My mind can't even try to wrap itself around it all, what those people lived through day by day, the horrors that they faced. My heart can't even pretend to understand the pain that they've endured. Then I started thinking about being gone for 5 months. I know that I'll get homesick, and I know that I'll miss spending Wendesdays with my little niece. I know I'll miss being there on my brother's birthday and on Emma's 1st birthday. Thanksgiving, my birthday, etc... I started to get sad last night when I left my cousin's because we realized that I would be missing a lot while I was gone, and that Emma wouldn't remember me when I came back. I made her promise to show pictures of me to Emma so that she would still know me. But after watching that movie and realizing that terror is all that some Ugandans have ever known, I felt convicted.. almost as if I didn't have a right to feel sad about being gone. I have been so blessed to have my family so close during my life, to see Emma Kate grow up and change week by week, to have friends and relatives so nearby... I have been so blessed! And I forget every day how special that is. I don't want to take them for granted anymore. I don't want to take our freedoms here for granted. Even though I don't like a lot of things about my culture, I don't want to take it for granted.
If you haven't watched the Invisible Children documentary, please do. The war there is not over yet. Even though peace talks are in process and the government officials are meeting with the LRA, there's still a long way to go to repair the damage done. Thousands have been abducted and brutally murdered, families destroyed. Take a look at their website and see what you can do to help end the war. And in the meantime, don't take our liberties and freedoms for granted...
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Build a Library for the Kids
Library for Mariann Church of Christ Primary School:
One of the things we want to do while in Sang'alo is start a library for the school. If you have any books that you aren't using or won't read anymore, please send them down our way. If you can figure out the value of the books you are sending, you may count it as a tax deduction! Please send them soon, because they will take months to arrive... I think maybe 5? So if you send them asap, they can arrive while we are there!
Send books to:
Mariann Church of Christ Primary School
P. O. Box 847 Kapsabet, KENYA.
***Donors will want to mark each package “Donated library books.”
One of the things we want to do while in Sang'alo is start a library for the school. If you have any books that you aren't using or won't read anymore, please send them down our way. If you can figure out the value of the books you are sending, you may count it as a tax deduction! Please send them soon, because they will take months to arrive... I think maybe 5? So if you send them asap, they can arrive while we are there!
Send books to:
Mariann Church of Christ Primary School
P. O. Box 847 Kapsabet, KENYA.
***Donors will want to mark each package “Donated library books.”
Thursday, May 17, 2007
And So It Begins...
I've always wanted to go to Africa. I spent a year and a half in Latin America, which still has the European influence and has many cultural similarities to ours. But Africa... so far removed from where and how we live.. she intrigued me. Probably at first because I've always been a fan of animals... zebras, giraffes, lions, tigers, bears... (I will refrain..) Are there even bears in Africa? Anyway, the point is, Africa has always been that far off/stereotypical land where people go on adventures and safaris, and chances were that I'd never be able to go. Besides, I had left my heart in Latin America.
Amazing Grace came out in the theaters, and I was so excited on opening night. I hadn't heard about William Wilberforce, but I love Amazing Grace, and I knew it had something to do with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade... I was stoked. That movie was incredible. It totally turned my world upside-down. I had been exposed to the existence of child prostitution when I lived in Mexico, and was so horrified by it that I did my English report on it as well as a speech freshman year in college. Also while in Mexico, I went with my mom and a couple other women to look for some kids that had been kidnapped by their own mother, who then started selling them out on the streets every night... She was their pimp. Not only that, but she would dress the little boy up as a girl just to make more money off of him. When I saw that little boy, my heart broke, and I don't think it will ever recover. Ever since then, my heart was to rescue kids from the streets, rescue them from prostitution. And seeing Amazing Grace reminded me that one person really can make a difference. It may take 20 years to see the fruit of my labor, but it is possible!
After Amazing Grace, everywhere I went I heard something about street kids, read something or saw something, and I would come home in tears every day because I could not escape them - even here in Dallas, TX, I could not escape them. But what was I supposed to do? The Lord was being super quiet about what He wanted me to do, and so I just got more and more frustrated. Finally I just decided enough was enough. I started reading everything that I could and watching every movie that I could that had anything to do with modern-day slavery. A couple of months ago, I went to a screening of a documentary at the Dallas Guitar Festival. I'd heard of Invisible Children (www.invisiblechildren.com) before, and I knew what they fought for. I had even signed up to go to Displace Me in Austin.
But I was not ready for what I saw that night in the documentary. I won't even attempt to describe the horrors because words are not enough. Not only did the video open my eyes and break my heart, but one of the filmmakers was there along with one of the Ugandan boys Jacob. As soon as Laren and Jacob walked out on stage, I lost it. I'd held it together through the whole documentary, but as soon as I saw Jacob's face... From that point on, I had images in my mind of abducted children going off to fight in a war that they did not believe in. And if they did, it was because they were brainwashed and conditioned to do so. They were everywhere - in my every thought, in my dreams. So I did all I could do... paint. I decided to paint, and eventually try to sell the paintings and then donate the money to IC.
Displace Me was a huge success. Jacob was also there, and captivated the audience once again. It was only on the way home that I realized what we had done, what our actions represented. And it was on that trip that Morgan asked me if I wanted to go to Africa. Our friend Leah was going with her brother in the fall. The notion of the distant land teased me once again, only this time with thoughts of children dying of malaria and HIV and war, parents leaving their children to fend for themselves because HIV took them too early. I could not ignore Africa's cries any longer. I heard her loud and clear, and it was time to do something about it.
And so, in two and a half months, I will leave for Sang'alo, Kenya with my two girls and a guy I've never met before to work at a school full of children... beautiful children. And I pray to God that He uses us to make a difference in these people's lives.
And so, the adventure begins.
Gloria
Amazing Grace came out in the theaters, and I was so excited on opening night. I hadn't heard about William Wilberforce, but I love Amazing Grace, and I knew it had something to do with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade... I was stoked. That movie was incredible. It totally turned my world upside-down. I had been exposed to the existence of child prostitution when I lived in Mexico, and was so horrified by it that I did my English report on it as well as a speech freshman year in college. Also while in Mexico, I went with my mom and a couple other women to look for some kids that had been kidnapped by their own mother, who then started selling them out on the streets every night... She was their pimp. Not only that, but she would dress the little boy up as a girl just to make more money off of him. When I saw that little boy, my heart broke, and I don't think it will ever recover. Ever since then, my heart was to rescue kids from the streets, rescue them from prostitution. And seeing Amazing Grace reminded me that one person really can make a difference. It may take 20 years to see the fruit of my labor, but it is possible!
After Amazing Grace, everywhere I went I heard something about street kids, read something or saw something, and I would come home in tears every day because I could not escape them - even here in Dallas, TX, I could not escape them. But what was I supposed to do? The Lord was being super quiet about what He wanted me to do, and so I just got more and more frustrated. Finally I just decided enough was enough. I started reading everything that I could and watching every movie that I could that had anything to do with modern-day slavery. A couple of months ago, I went to a screening of a documentary at the Dallas Guitar Festival. I'd heard of Invisible Children (www.invisiblechildren.com) before, and I knew what they fought for. I had even signed up to go to Displace Me in Austin.
But I was not ready for what I saw that night in the documentary. I won't even attempt to describe the horrors because words are not enough. Not only did the video open my eyes and break my heart, but one of the filmmakers was there along with one of the Ugandan boys Jacob. As soon as Laren and Jacob walked out on stage, I lost it. I'd held it together through the whole documentary, but as soon as I saw Jacob's face... From that point on, I had images in my mind of abducted children going off to fight in a war that they did not believe in. And if they did, it was because they were brainwashed and conditioned to do so. They were everywhere - in my every thought, in my dreams. So I did all I could do... paint. I decided to paint, and eventually try to sell the paintings and then donate the money to IC. Displace Me was a huge success. Jacob was also there, and captivated the audience once again. It was only on the way home that I realized what we had done, what our actions represented. And it was on that trip that Morgan asked me if I wanted to go to Africa. Our friend Leah was going with her brother in the fall. The notion of the distant land teased me once again, only this time with thoughts of children dying of malaria and HIV and war, parents leaving their children to fend for themselves because HIV took them too early. I could not ignore Africa's cries any longer. I heard her loud and clear, and it was time to do something about it.
And so, in two and a half months, I will leave for Sang'alo, Kenya with my two girls and a guy I've never met before to work at a school full of children... beautiful children. And I pray to God that He uses us to make a difference in these people's lives.
And so, the adventure begins.
Gloria
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