This organisation aims to help children caught up in the conflict in Northern Uganda. Uganda has been terrorised by the Lords Resistance Army, a rebel army, led by Joseph Kony. One of their many horrific tactics is to kidnap children and force them into a life of violence. Imagine yourself at the age of 12, what were you doing? Playing on the computer or in the garden? Reading books and watching TV? At a stretch, doing homework? These children at this age are being forced to kill.
On April 25th Invisible Children are organising an event called 'The Rescue', where you basically abduct yourself for a day and wait to be rescued. For more information click here. I'm going to the Cardiff event, and if you wish to join me, or perhaps go to the on in Leeds or London, get in contact.
Okay, time for a bit of a rant. I announced this after Church on Sunday, at something called The Living Room, where students get together. When asking someone if they were interested they said no, on the basis that it wasn't a Christian organisation. Their argument sounded somewhat plausible, that people should meet both their spiritual and physical need. That is very true. However, I still don't think that should stop us not being involved in this organisation. We are called to go into the world an preach the Gospel, and that can include into non-Christian organisations. If we were to limit ourselves to just Christians working with Christians, we wouldn't get very far. Moreover, God calls for us to act for justice. We cannot say 'we let these children be abducted and killed because other Christians didn't take the initiative to do anything about it'. It sounds like an excuse for complacency. We need to get involved in such issues, and we can do so in a way that we tell our motivation: that our God is the God of justice.
im goin 2 the cardiff event but im not sure on all the details..can u help?
ReplyDeletenia x
I don't agree with people saying that we should only support Christian things if they are working with Christians, and sure, if there is no Christian organisation working with a group of people that desperately need help then, yes we should support the non-Christian ones.
ReplyDeleteBUT, what is the good of helping people physically if we're not going to help them spiritually too? There are only a certain amount of projects and charities I can support with my time and money and I'de rather support ones that are going to save people eternally, rather than just make their time on earth more comfortable.
Having said that, like I said before...I don't think that gives us an excuse to ignore things like the Lords resistance army just because no Christian organisation is out there. Especially if God has put it on your heart!
I agree, but from watching the video there is evidence that a lot of the people of Northern Uganda are indeed Christians. The children, after mananging to avoid capture, would sing praises to God every morning. Moreover, the three founders are all Christians. They also work with other Christian charities, such as Wellspring International.
ReplyDeleteSo perhaps I should be supporting those charities instead. Or both.
I have updated my blog, and commented on this entry.
ReplyDelete