Hope for Gulu

The project trip was a great week and a half, a lot of which was due to having a great team of people.  Everyone got along and worked well together and generally had fun spending time together.

Our Team (Minus 1) on Safari

After arriving in Gulu on the evening of Monday the 7^th, we kicked off our week on Tuesday morning by visiting the land we would be working with.  It was almost an hour drive outside of Gulu town on bumpy dirt roads.  Other than a few mud huts, nothing is currently on the land.  Fortunately Dan and another volunteer had gone up before the trip to survey the 400+ acre property, which was a HUGE help.  The land was pretty flat with some grass and underbrush and some scattered trees.  

Tromping Through the Site (photo by Kirk)

One thing that we saw a lot in the area was burned fields.  Locals set fires to their fields to clear out weeds and old vegetation and make room for new crops.  As we walked around the site, our clothes became covered in streaks of charcoal from all the reeds and twigs we passed through.  Over and over as we saw these burned fields, we also noticed the bright green new growth of grass making its way out of the blackness. 

New Growth (photo by Kirk)

 
This image really struck me and became a metaphor to me of the people of northern Uganda.  The people of this region have experienced such horrendous, evil things (see my previous post).  But we sang a song at the Watoto church on Sunday that includes the lines “Into the darkness you [God] shine.  Out of the ashes we rise.”  That became my prayer for Gulu – that in the midst of the pain and hopelessness and despair and trauma, that God’s love and healing and restoration would shine and that the people of Gulu would rise out of the ashes as the bright green grass, so full of life and hope and new growth.  Where there seems to be only death, I pray that God would bring new life to this region.