Life

Tonight as I get ready to go to bed, I have the stories of a few children going through my mind. These kids aren’t from Mozambique but Uganda. They are from one of the IDP camps in Northern Uganda. I watched a film tonight called “War Dance” - quite an amazing documentary which has provoked a lot of thought.

Truthfully – it has only added to ones already there, I will attempt to share what is going through my head.

Since the news story about the massacre in the church in Congo by the LRA, it has really struck me - as I lie here at night someone in Africa is going through a horrendous ordeal. I know this is happening all over the world, but somehow in Africa taking a human life here feels like it happens all too easily.

There are child soldiers, who have been abducted and then forced to kill, sometimes their own family members. Either kill or be killed. Because they are so young they don’t have reason or negotiation skills, so they will just kill you because they have been told to do it. How do you ever help a girl who has seen her parents killed and their remains just lying rotting in front of her, or a woman who is sexually abused each time she needs to go the bathroom. We take a safe bathroom all too much for granted. Women in Africa don’t have that luxury and quite often have to go to a field where there is a man or men waiting for her. Next time you take a trip to your bathroom I suggest you thank God for running water and a safe place to go.

I am often reminded of the gift of the running water here on the centre when I drive past the people and kids in the city who are washing themselves, their clothes and their dishes in water which seems to be coming out what can only be described as the end of a sewage pipe. This is all happening in the middle of a roundabout.

Zimbabwe lies in turmoil and their money is sold on the markets here as a souvenir.
Kenya – one year on from the election fiasco and who knows really what’s happening in the country.
DRC – Where do you begin with that one and the pain that country is in.
Mozambique – 10 more people lost their lives because of flooding last night.

There was a civil war here that no one talks about, yet I am sure the people have seen some awful things. When I am in the city I see those who have been maimed by the war.

How much of the West really cares? A lot of these countries don’t have oil and the cost of human life is nothing, so what does it matter if and how one more person is killed tonight?

The West Wing is my DVD diet out here. In one of the episodes a civil war breaks out in a fictional African country. In this episode The President asks "Why is a Kuhndunese life worth less to me than an American life" and Will, one of his staff says " I don't Sir, but it is.” How sadly true is that for the world today. An African life is worth less than that of an America or British one.

When did Human value decrease so much?

Today we have taken 6 new kids into the centre. They have come from another kids centre which has been treating them very badly, sadly we have know about this for a while and people here have been praying that the centre would close down and after YEARS of prayer something has happened to allow us to take the kids today. I thank God we are able to help them at this stage of life. Pray for them as they adjust to being here.