--Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision
As an actor, I perform one-man plays in churches across the United States. After a performance I invite the audience to consider child sponsorship through World Vision. I begin most every appeal with this prayer by Bob Pierce and as an actor, I am able to deliver the line with just the right vocal inflection and pitch to convey the sincerity & conviction I honestly feel. I believe in child sponsorship. I believe in World Vision.
I was invited by Chuck Neighbors and World Vision to go on a trip to Uganda in West Africa in mid-January, 2010. The trip was to show first-hand how World Vision is changing lives there through their child sponsorships. Imagine my surprise when what I saw there changed my life. This will be the first in a series of blogs on that trip and probably the hardest for me to write. Because while the trip was not about me, there were things about it that were about me and I want to start with those.
I have been with World Vision through Master's Image Productions and now on my own for around 9 years or so. Getting kids sponsored is important to me. It makes me feel that I am doing something to help. When I was offered the trip to Uganda, I really didn't know what to expect.
When we pulled into the hotel in Entebbe, Uganda it was late night and my first few thoughts were "where do I plug in my iPhone?" and "how fast is the internet connection here?" and so forth. The next morning I ate breakfast of mostly pineapple, toast, and some mild sausage and although the coffee was wonderful for the most part I was unimpressed. I wandered the grounds, took some pictures, and sweated. Later we walked as a group to the Uganda Wildlife Museum. After the museum, my legs & back were beginning to protest.
Then we got on a long boat and headed out onto Lake Victoria, visited an island covered with these tiny lake flies and very little shade, saw some temporary fisherman's housing that looked like it had been used in Kevin Costner's "Waterworld" but all the while I was anxious to get back to my room so I could get back to the relative luxury of air conditioning and internet access. By now, I was beginning to feel a little sorry for myself. Having to put up with the heat, humidity, walking, unappealing food, slow internet, etc.
In the morning we were scheduled to take a short flight to Gulu, Uganda to visit the Children of War Rehabilitation Centre and some of World Vision's ADPs (Area Development Projects) there. When we arrived at the center we met the obviously caring & dedicated staff. We were told stories of the atrocities perpetrated on the people of Northern Uganda--especially the children--by a group of rebels know as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The rebels would enter a village, burn, pillage, and generally destroy everything. Then take the people into the jungle, some would escape, some would be let go, some were killed sometimes right in front of their children. Then most of the frightened & utterly powerless children would be taken. Over the last 20 years or so, approximately 60,000 children have been abducted by the LRA. World Vision has reintroduced around 14,000 of them.
Children, it seems, were useful to the rebels in a number of ways: as workers, for sex, and after indoctrination/brainwashing, as soldiers. As the rebels traveled from place to place, the children would be tied together in a long line making it impossible for them to escape. In the event of a gov't attack, the rebels would hide behind the tied up children, using them as shields. From time to time, during such an attack, the rebels would be killed or run away leaving the children behind. These "fortunate" children then fell into the hands of the army sometimes suffering the same sexual abuse from their "rescuers" as they did from their abductors.
In 1995 and in collaboration with the Ugandan Gov't, World Vision opened the Children of War Rehabilitation Centre where rescued children could be rehabilitated for reintegration into Ugandan society. Although many of these horribly traumatized children were unable to speak about their ordeals they were able to draw pictures about it. The pictures they drew of soldiers shooting children, or cutting off their heads were, to say the least, disturbing. Using the pictures, counseling, and interviews, World Vision staff began returning these children to their families or villages when possible or reintegrating them into Ugandan society.
To be honest, writing this is particularly difficult for me on a personal level. I listened to the staff, heard the triumphant stories of children enduring overwhelming loss, hardships, and wounds, and met some of the courageous children themselves. My own self-absorbed condition was thrown into sharp relief by the children's stories of overcoming hardship and loss.
We then drove out into the jungle and visited a group of people who are benefitting from World Vision's programs. They greeted us with music, dancing, and smiles. These people work harder than any I have ever met, and yet the joy of hope was evident in every handshake, every smile.
Throughout the trip, I became more and more ashamed of my own preoccupation with my personal comfort. I sat at the back of the van, trailed along behind the rest of the team, and wrestled with the changes I was going through. I came to dislike the person I was who arrived at the hotel complaining about food, heat, and poor internet access. Fortunately, after much soul searching, introspection, and repentance the person I was when I arrived in Uganda is not the person who returned home. Sometimes it IS about "me" if only just a little. And sometimes it's not what you bring home from a trip like this that counts... it's what you leave behind.
I have decided that I will open my child sponsorship appeal differently than I used to. I think I will begin it with...
May my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.
If you want your life to be changed in ways you can't imagine, consider sponsoring a child through World Vision. Feel free to contact me at scott@scottbettis.com for more information or you may Sponsor Online.
