Invisible Children become counted

Based out of San Diego, California, Invisible Children is a non-profit organization that works with and raises awareness for the people of war-torn Northern Uganda. The founders of IC are Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole. Jolly Okot, IC’s Education Program Director, brought the filmmakers to Northern Uganda in 2003. Okot had a dream for the Acholi people, her own people, that they would be given a chance to education and peace of mind. She knew that after seeing the effects on the children from the 23-year war, the boys could not ignore the Acholi.

During their film-making adventure in Africa, the three Americans discovered that they were in the midst of a story needing to be told. With three tickets, $300, and the support from their families and friends, the boys set out on their hunt for the truth. While in Northern Uganda, Russell, Bailey, and Poole learned that children were being taken from their homes and forced to fight as child soldiers. The boys met up with Jolly Okot, a pregnant woman who had picked them up and took them to her house. On their way to her house, the group experienced the reality of the Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. The village was overwhelmed with people who were trying to escape the LRA’s attacks. Every night in Northern Uganda hundreds of children commute to the middle of their cities to seek some protection from the violent, child abducting army.  

In the 1800s, Northern and Southern Uganda were separated into two classes and the Northerners were forced to be laborers and soldiers. The North started to rebel against the Government of Uganda and their forced situation when Alice Lakwena, who claimed to have been given a mission by the Holy Spirit, began the Holy Spirit Movement. After Lakwena was exiled because of the rebellion she led, Joseph Kony began the Lord’s Resistance Army, but his rebellion against the GoU was not as well supported as Lakwena’s movement. This is when Kony decided to start abducting children during the night and threatening them to be child soldiers.

Kony is said to be like the messiah or Jesus Christ and claims to be able to do miracles. His eyes burn red and he is feared by all. This man has abducted thousands of children, forcing them to be soldiers, and threatening them with death if they resist. The International Criminal Court first began in 2002, and Joseph Kony is the first wanted man by the ICC.

After much U.S. involvement, April 2008, marked the time when a peace agreement would finally be presented to Kony. IC founders were asked to video the history making moment of Kony signing the agreement. Deep inside the Garamba Forest waited 200 people for the defining moment of the Ugandan people. During this time IC founders were able to learn more about the child soldiers on a firsthand basis and give them faces through pictures and videos. Five days of waiting, negotiating, and fear led to Kony rejecting the peace agreement. Kony’s power only seemed to grow after the peace agreement failed.

On Christmas day of 2008, Kony massacred 620 people and 160 children were abducted. The fury of the LRA grew beyond the Acholi people; they started targeting people in the Congo, Sudan, and Central Africa. The rebels began mutilating people who resisted by cutting off their lips and noses.

The film featured a previous child soldier named Jacob. Jacob and his brother were taken by the LRA when he was very young; his brother tried to resist but was killed in front of Jacob by means of machetes. Jacob said he tried to cry but was told that if he did he would also be killed and if he tried to run away he would be killed. By age 14, Jacob was able to escape “the bush” and told the IC his story. Before the founders left Jacob, he broke down in tears telling them that he would rather die than be on earth right now. He asked the founders to help him because nobody is looking out for the child soldiers.

Through the IC programs, many children just like Jacob are given a chance to receive an education and they are given hope to survive. But many are still lost in the bush, without a name. The children simply vanish from the face of the planet when taken; there are no records kept for the thousands of child soldiers brought into the LRA. As the war continues, children are taken from their homes every night and made to carry guns and destroy their own people.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in school, finances, and whatever “tragedies” invade Americans’ lives. The IC opens doors for people to care about others halfway around the world. The world is hurting and thousands of real people, including 9 year old children, are oppressed and dying by the minute. What will you do?

Get Involved…

Global Night Commute: On April 29^th, Global Night Commute is an IC project where Americans gather in over 130 cities across the country to lie down and join the IC’s team in raising awareness for the children in Northern Uganda. Every city has designated a location within the city for people to lie down to raise awareness for the government to open its eyes to “night commuting,” mass child abduction, and the war in Northern Uganda.   

Join TRI to Rescue Child Soldiers: The TRI campaign allows people to donate $3 a week in order to rescue 3,000 child soldiers. TRI needs at least 3,000 individuals to pledge $12 a month to help the children.

Give a Child Scholarship: Giving a child a scholarship is another way to be involved with the invisible children. The scholarship program provides 690 children with an education which costs sponsors only $25 a month to cover the child’s entire monthly school fees.

Sponsor a Mentor: The children in the scholarship program need mentors. Mentors provide the children with scholastic and emotional support. $10 a month will help a mentor work with a child and help the child succeed.

Sponsor a Bracelet or Handbag Maker: IC helps the Northern Uganda people by working with them through a microeconomic program of making bracelets and handbags. Donating $25 a month can help provide a bracelet or handbag maker with a weekly wage.

Rebuild a School: Schools for Schools is a project where schools around the world have raised money to help support the schools that have been torn by the war. Committing $15 a month to this campaign helps keep the work going in Uganda by supporting Ugandan engineers and staff.

Spread the Word: The main way everyone can make a difference in Uganda is through spreading the word about the children who disappear into the harsh realities of war by being taken from their families and friends and being forced to become child soldiers.

Other Videos:

Thinking about Christmas

While I sit here in the white farmhouse I grew up in, watching the Hannah Montana movie, I decided to blog about my Christmas thoughts.

I love the smell of winter, especially in this old house. I’m not happy about the winter cold though. I keep thinking that it shouldn’t already be this cold, then my calendar tells me it’s October and I have less than two months until Christmas break and the end of Sophomore semester one. I am ready to be out of school now! I’m tired of doing school work and reading all the time. Right now I would much rather have a full-time job that I can leave at the workplace- school is constantly haunting me.

This year, my brother and I are ahead of the game on Christmas shopping. We got the two hardest people out of the way- the parents. Now I’m thinking the boyfriend will be the next hardest. By Christmas we will have been dating one year and eleven months. I still am unsure of what I, as a girlfriend, should do.

I think a person’s Christmas wish list tells a lot about that person’s current life. Take mine: GPS, money, a pearl, and gift cards. I want a GPS because I want to travel to new places but I am very challenged in the area of knowing where I am and where I need to be. Directionally challenged; that’s the saying. Who doesn’t want or need money? I want money because you can spend it anywhere, but more importantly I can put it into my bank account for when I need it most. A pearl is my “awe” gift. It’s the gift that means something to me. This would signify the way I hope my life to go from the point I’m at now. A pearl is created through irritation. I feel like irritation plays a big part in my life and has for awhile. What I hope to become is something beautiful. I don’t expect perfection, but the pearl is a hope of what I want to become- something precious and beautifully crafted. Gift cards set apart money that I have to use at certain stores. It makes me go buy things and not feel guilty because I could have used the money elsewhere.

Okay, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus moment. She’s singing Climb. I think Mom’s crying, or having sinus problems.

I think we all have had a point in our lives when we’ve portrayed ourselves as someone different from who we are. Or is it just me? My best friend Jordan and I were talking about this today. It’s hard to find someone who always reveals the real them. We live in a world full of a lot of fakes. I think girls especially have this problem. We want people in each circle of friends to perceive us in a specific way. We want to be seen as nice, giving, bold, strong in our beliefs, sympathetic, and, of course, attractive. I don’t think I will ever understand why girls want to please people so much. It’s ridiculous how many masks we have to change out of in one day. I know for myself, I am unsure of who the real me is. On this note, I will end with the song Reflections
by Christina Aquilera.

Glory to One -alaynagrace

God is good

God is good. I just forget He holds my hand.

I believe I am the most inconsistent blogger. But not just with blogging- in life. My walk with God isn’t the way it should always be either.

I’m really excited about a gospel concert I went to on Sunday, which I also wrote an article on for TNJN. With help from my TNJN editor, my article made the top of the homepage. I’m not really sure what that means, but it makes me super excited!

Today, Justin’s mom sent me a quick text reminding me about her friend opening a Hallmark store in Opry Mills needing christmas help. I could definitely use the money.

Thanks to all readers for being interested.

Glory to One – alaynagrace

Sophomore year

Sophomore year is here! Well, sophomore year has been here for about a month now, but I’ve just been really busy. I am very excited about all of my classes. It’s amazing what happens when I’m actually interested in what I am studying about. My classes are as follows: Sociology (General Sociology), Religious Studies (Intro to Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Political Science (Intro to Political Science), Journalism and Electronic Media (Intro to JEM), and Musicology (Jazz in American Culture).

This year is definitely different. This year, I know where to eat, where Walmart and the mall is, and what the building codes are.

Something very recent is a JEM 275 class assignment. The choices given were working at the school newspaper, TV station, radio station, journalism website, or  writing a 10 page paper. Of course, I chose to work on the journalism website.

Yesterday I met with another Tennessee Journalist reporter from the Arts and Cultures section. Erica met me outside UT’s International House at 6:00 pm to cover a story about Greek week. Oh! I forgot to mention that I got a new and very cool camera so that I could be a photographer (though I’m not really good yet). We learned a lot had had tons of fun. Erica is so sweet and a great writer!

Last night I stayed up until 1:30 am to edit photos, captions, write a summary and to put some finishing touches on the article. I learned that it’s something I really enjoy if I stay up that late. After setting the article to “Ready for Editing,” Erica sent our editor an email telling him that it was ready. This morning when I woke up the article was on the front page of the Arts and Cultures section. Just a few hours later our article moved to the homepage of TNJN!

That’s all for now. I have to go study for two tests tomorrow.

Glory to One- alayna grace

When we behold the disfigurement of the Son of God, when we find ourselves appalled by his marred appearance, we need to reckon afresh that it is upon ourselves we gaze, for he stood in our place.

-John Calvin

Who killed Jesus?

God did. God the Father was ultimately responsible for the death of His Son. God is telling us, “I purposefully determined to crush My Son with My wrath- for your sins, as your substitute.”

Why?

“Because I love you.”

-C. J. Mahaney

When we think of Christ’s dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to Himself. We would almost think that God loved us more than He loves His son. We cannot measure His love by any other standard. He is saying to us, “I love you this much.”

The cross is the heart of the gospel good news. Christ died for us; He has stood in our place before God’s judgement seat; He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross which we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that He loves us.

-Sinclair Ferguson

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:2

Good Friday

Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony; Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary       -Jennie Evelyn Hussey

At the third hour, 9:00 am, on the morning of what would later become Good Friday, my Savior was sentenced to death on a cross. Crucifixion, the most painful and agonizing death sentenced by the Roman Empire. With no wrongs found, he is given the penalty by the mob of the same people who had just a few days earlier loved and worshipped him. In the presence of Pilate, he knew why he was placed on this earth. “You are a king then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” -John 18:37 He does not deserve the treatment yet he take it from and for his people. The sacrifice must be made.

 Adorned with a crown of thorns and a scarlet robe that burned his skin, my King was beaten beyond recognition. Muscles weak and stretched; skin opened, wounds exposed; barely able to stand, he is beaten one strike away from death. Enough punishment so that he can still live to endure the pain to its fullest. The only place on his body that was not blood stained left the marks of tears as they rolled from his swollen eyes. He cries not from the pain, but because of the betrayal of his people. “For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Luke 23:31 The friends have turned against their true and righteous King. His flesh is ripped. He was mocked, bruised and treated as a criminal. Weakened from the beatings and abuse of the soldiers, he can hardly stand but is made to carry the cross- his death.  The murdered was placed in between two murderers. The glory God had placed on him was no longer seen. Though he remains the Son, he was disowned by the Father. By noon my sins were taken and laid on the High King. By noon that day all my wrongs were covered for and I owed nothing to compensate for my mistakes. By noon the land surrounding the Golgotha, which means the place of the skull, was dark. God had turned away from the world’s only once perfect being, but now the most imperfect man. Once pure, now damned with every sin I have ever committed and have yet to commit.

At 3:00 pm, a voice cries out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” The One who covers my wrongs cries out to his Father, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” On Golgotha, Jesus breathed his last breath. Even as his lungs emptied, he was recognized by a soldier as a man that could only be the Son of God. When Jesus died, the earth shook; rocks split. The tombs of righteous people were opened and the dead were allowed to breath and live once again on the earth. As the last heart beat drummed its weary song, the temple’s curtain tore from top to bottom. The veil that once hid Christ’s followers from the Most Holy Place was stripped. Through his death we were no longer separated from God’s presence. Our eternal longing is satisfied.

The night before his crucifixion he went to an olive garden (Gethsemane) to talk to the Father. He felt the stress of knowing what he was going to endure the next day. As anxiety flowed through his body, mind and spirit, he sweat drops of blood. The King knew what his purpose on earth was. He died willingly. He knew the seriousness of the mission set before him by God. In the olive garden Jesus asked his Father to relieve him, but only if it was the Father’s will.

This Good Friday is my Good Friday. Without the King’s sacrifice, I have no hope. Without his death I am subject to the punishment he endured.

Remember the meaning of “Good Friday”.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.                            -Romans 5:6-8

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. -John 3:16-17

Married

I was created with the idea of eternity already in my heart. God has prepared a place for me. I am anxiously waiting to be romanced. He is my king; The King. What is it like to marry the King? What is it like for you, my King, to be my husband? I want you to be mine. I want to be yours and only yours. Will you have me? As I ask this question, I know that I don’t even have to ask. You have already asked for not only my hand in marriage, but my whole being. Everything I am, good and bad, you desire to claim as your own. You knew me before my time on earth. You know me deeper than anyone. Yet, you still wish to be my groom. You have already made wedding plans and reservations for the places you wish to take me to. Every detail you have planned out.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.  -Revelation 19:7-8

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. -Revelation 19: 13

I lost it

These are alot of random thoughts that I have been thinking about the past week but just haven’t had the time to write them. Yes, they are just my simple thoughts, but I think they are something to consider..

Can anyone define the heart? There are a number of definitions of the heart. There is the heart organ, the poetic heart, the spiritual heart and I’m sure many others that I just can’t think of right now. the kind of heart I am talking about is that part of every person that draws them to something greater than who they are, whether it’s a material thing, a spiritual thing or simply a state of being. When talking about the desires of one’s heart, I’m talking about the desires which are of the most importance. Those desires, while they can be silenced and overlooked momentarily, will always be there. Gos has placed those desires within us. Those desires God created in us, define who we are. Nobody and nothing can wipe away what God does.

The opening of the heart involves that song that every time you hear it, your heart jumps. What does it jump to? Could it be the something that beckons our very being to greater things? It’s that moment when we know there is something so much greater than what we are. It’s the knowing that we have so much ahead of us and not knowing exactly what it is. It’s the mystery that draws us near it and at the same time scares us away from it. Do we choose to follow that desire that we realize we have had since birth? Or do we choose to ignore the call to our heart and continue to live what is classified as the normal life?

To die would be a great adventure. To live would be an even greater adventure. -Robin Williams in the movie Hook

I do not know where, when or how I have lost my heart. I think it was at the point in my life when all I desired was for the whole world to be happy. I wanted to please people. That is definitely the wrong mindset a Christian should have. After all, are we not from the One who is set-apart?

The Sacred Romance talks about the beginning stages of a romance when everything is new and fresh. Adventure is at every corner. As that romance progresses sometimes the romance is lost, and with that the mystery and excitement are also lost. It refers to how we should come to Christ as little children. To children, everything is new and fresh. They are amazed at every little thing going on. They are constantly seeking out the new. That’s the wonder and excitement I see in new Christians.

So I have been thinking “What does my heart some alive to? What do I want? Not what should I do? Or what is expected from me? What do I yearn for?” The first thing I think about is laying in the field at home at night and looking up into the stars. At night is when the worldly guards of what I should do or what I should be like are lowered and my heart returns to me. I think God can even get my attention better at night.

Camps get my heart returning and beating loud. The greatest drum is when I’m in a different place, seeing the other parts of the world/country and the people of these places.

Me and my brother, Dakota, when we were younger we would to go on these ‘adventures’ around the farm. We would walk the creek beds looking at and for anything interesting we could find. And if it wasn’t interesting, we would make up a story to make it more interesting. Perhaps imagination comes from the heart also.

I remember the first few years I was at the house I live at now. I would sit on this one tree that’s on the creek bed close to my house. The tree’s roots were out of the ground and it had several holes and hiding places in and around its roots. I would sit on that tree for hours. I hid snail shells, Indian money and coins in the hiding places of the tree. It was the mystery and sort of secrecy of this place that I was drawn to it.

Galloping or just riding Macy, my horse, makes me feel like nothing really can hurt me when I’m on her back. There’s this freedom that I can just ride away from the world and its problems.

One night last week I was talking with one of my friends over facebook. We were talking about our worries and exchanging prayer requests. As I always do at the end of conversations about tough circumstances my friends are going through, I said “I’ll be praying for you”. I usually write that friend’s name down on a page in my journal so that I can pray for them during the week. At that very moment I heard it. My heart beat so loudly that it was impossible for me to ignore its plea for life. My very being jumped at the chance that I could actually do something to help my friend out. The feeling was at first so overwhelming that I thought it would be too much for me to handle. What if when I take action, my friend feels bad for telling me? So what?! My friend is going to feel bad for me actually doing something? I know my heart was more alive at the moment than it has been in awhile.

Heart Searching

To say we all face a decision when we’re pierced by an Arrow is misleading. It makes the process sound so rational, as though we have the option of coolly assessing the situation and choosing a logical response. Life isn’t like that-the heart cannot be managed in a detached sort of way (certainly not when we are young, when some of the most defining Arrows strike). It feels more like an ambush and our response is at gut level. We may never put words to it. Our deepest convictions are formed without conscious effort, but the effect is a shift deep in our soul. Commitments form never to be in that position again, never to know that sort of pain again. The result is an approach to life that we often call our personality. If you’ll listen carefully to your life, you may begin to see how it has been shaped by the unique Arrows you’ve known and the particular convictions you’ve embraced as a result. The Arrows also taint and partially direct even our spiritual life. -The Sacred Romance

um…

so this isn’t a real blog, but i thought that i would just put something up. won’t be able to let my thouhgts invade probably until the first of the week. Fri- algebra quiz, Mon-Spanish rough draft, Tue- Biology exam, English topic proposal. YAY Wednesday!!!