Two years ago, I was at the Covenant Midwinter Conference when during a home made video which should have been professional, but decided to donate the production costs to a desolate region of Africa, I experienced a call. As I sat there weeping, confessing that I had not done enough to help Jesus' beloved people who live in poverty every day, the Lord spoke to me and said, "I want you to get 100 kids from the Kakuma Refugee Camp to school."
Do you know about this refugee camp? It is where the Lost Boys of Sudan eventually went after their villages were burned and their families' killed.
Approximately 20 years ago in Sudan the rebel army came through Southern Sudan and burned villages, raped women, and killed everyone in sight. Except the little boys who were in the fields tending the cattle. These little boys were between the ages of 3 and 7. They lived. They didn't know what to do, so they began to walk. They began to find other lost boys until there were approximately 15,000 little boys who treked over 1,000 miles until they came to the camp in Kenya.
Sadly, the only country who remembered these boys was the United States. We began to bring them over, but when 9/11 hit, we closed our borders to The Lost Boys of Sudan too.
Pine Lake established a relationship with two of these wonderful young men. Their names are John and Peter. John has a huge vision for seeing his village restored. He is so committed to his village that he began to send some of the kids in the refugee camp to school. It's a boarding school so they get enough to eat and they have a place to live which is safe and comfortable. John was sending these kids to school from his janitor salary that support him. When we learned of his sacrifice that was causing him to not eat, we found supporters to send four kids to school.
The children in the Kakuma Camp don't have the same experience as the four kids who go to the boarding school. The U.N. wants to shut the camp down, so they are accomplishing this by providing less and less food all the time. Eventually the people leave because they don't have enough food to eat. But, they don't have anywhere to go because their villages are still in rubble.
The schools in Kakuma have also closed. So, those who had been learning, although not the greatest school, it was at least a school, now have no way to finish their education.
We know that our relationship with John and Peter wasn't an accident. We know that God protected the Lost Boys of Sudan because he has a larger purpose for them. We understand now that our relationship with John involves helping his village get the education they need so that they can rebuild.
Sudan isn't a place where we can go in and help as white Americans. I just read an article by George Clooney who has done a lot of work in Darfur. He is even questioning whether he should have because he believes that by drawing attention to the problem, it can only make the problem worse.
The clear answer is to educate the Sudanese people so that they can then go to Sudan and rebuild their war torn country.
This is what we want to do with Missio Lux. We dream of seeing 100 children in a school which is safe, clean, and provides 3 meals a day. We dream of 100 kids in a school that will teach them to think critically and will give them the education and life skills to rise above the poverty to bring forth real ways of transformation. We deam of seeing John's village rebuilt so that it has water, medical clinics, schools and a infa-structure that supports their lifestyle.
Missio Lux is intentionally keeping our expenses to a bare minimum so that we, like the homemade video, can free up funds to accomplish big God dreams like the one that is before us. Time is running out. We have the ability to help; will you participate?
If you are interested in participating, please contact me at t-buchan@comcast.net.
No comments:
Post a Comment