An Article..

on a very serious note, i read an article in a christianity magazine that my mom had. im not sure how i can write this to make sense. but i'll try.
1.) in Uganda, there is a man who is trying to overthrow the government. im not sure what his name is. so he started this army called the LRA. Lord's royal army or something. he mixes islam, christianity and mostly witchcraft in his religion, and says its a christian army. read on, it gets worse.
2.) this army, at night, abducts kids, from the ages of 7-14 because at that age, their minds are influenced the easiest. then the generals or whatever make the kids march for days, and the kids dont have proper shoes or water. the generals drink the good water. so guess what they kids drink? gross dirty water, or, well, urine. OK, GROSS! AND THESE KIDS ARE MY AGE! AND YOUNGER.
3.) if the kids cant keep up with the pace at which they are forced to march, they are killed. but not by the generals. nope, another child has to kill them. or be killed. within a week, new "recruits" are expected to have killed another child.
4.) when the LRA comes to like a town and they raid it or something, the children are expected to kill the victims. one boy was forced to beat two women to death, i think it was beat. with a machete, i think. and he was so afraid that they would kill him. so he had to. he said he kept beating them, even thought they were screaming. he was scared of being killed.
5.) when killing someone, or beating them, the children are told that if the blood of the victim doesnt spatter on their clothes, they didnt do a proper job. gory.
6.) the goal of all this is to ultimately make these children when they are older ruthless killers who have no conscience. and it works. they are forced to kill at a young age. some boys are forced to rape women. or mutilate peoples faces by cutting off their noses, or their lips.
7.) the children who do escape need serious help. mentally, and often physically. many times, their faces are beyond recongition. they are afraid of going to jail because of what they were forced to do. their families often dont accept them back, especially if it was a girl who was raped or something. some families dont get help for the children right away. one family had to bring their son in who escaped, because he had broken his hands by beating on a wall repeatedly. and none of the kids talk to the people at this clinic that is there to help them. its hard to get them to talk about what happened to them. this is a christian clinic, BTW. also, the kids dont understand what christianity is all about. no wonder.

thinking about all this shamed me. i complain when the smallest thing goes wrong for me. all my "problems" are so petty and small. nothing that happens to me compares to this, not even close. and the first thing that entered into my head after i read this article was "why?" why does the Lord let all this happen? it seems like He doesnt care. like somehow God isnt looking. and i know He sees everything that happens to these kids. but i dont understand why. maybe to show us what people are really like.
i know that i cant rush off to Uganda to stop all this. i know not everyone can go work in a clinic there. but i know what i can and will do. im gonna pray. if i dont, im not doing anything about this problem ive learned about. and i wont sit around and do nothing. praying is everything i can do.
what are YOU gonna do? will you pray ? or not?
ta