Leeland

Yesterday, we played at a show in Chino, CA. During the day we had some free time. We played soccer in the amazing California weather, and ate some chiken fajitas for lunch. We were having a perfectly comfortable and normal day before it was ruined in a beautiful way. The whole band sat in front of my computer, completely captivated and heart broken.

A few years ago I heard about a little film that changed the lives of my friends that watched it. It's about three college guys that went to Africa with no real plan... they just wanted to DO something, and document the stuggles of the Sudanese. On their trip they made an unexpected discovery. For over twenty years a war has raged in northern Uganda. You might say, "What's the big deal? Africa's full of wars, right?" It most certainly IS a big deal, and this war is unique in it's tradgedy.

A rebel army called the "Lord's Resistance Army" has been fighting the government of Uganda for years. They're about as far from the "Lord" as anything can be. They're lead by a ruthless maniac by the name of Joseph Kony. They've been responsible for the death of thousands of innocent lives, including women and children. What makes this war different from all of the other conflicts in Africa?

Over half of the LRA's soldiers are boys between the ages of 10-18. These innocent children are kidnapped from villages at night, and they're forced to watch violents acts. Then they themselves, are forced to murder. Kony indocrinates them and exploits them for his twisted means. These kids are just like any other child in the world.... they have hopes and dreams but their lives have been stolen away by forces of darkness. And there's thousands of children that live in fear for their lives, knowing THEY could be the next abduction.

You might think, "This is something that happenned a few years ago, right? Surley it must be over by now!" Well... unfortunaltely it's not. As you read this, there are children in Uganda & the Congo being kidnapped and forced to kill. Just last Christmas (Dec 25, 2008) the LRA massacared hundreds of people and abducted 160 children! That was THIS Christmas! How can we let this happen? Raise your voice, and let's show the world that these Invisible Children have faces.

What can you do? Well, go watch THIS short film online, and listen to their plan for action. Come on Leeland bloggers... let's DO something!

PS. If you're already familiar with this story... what have you done to respond?

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. We just got home yesterday. It was another thrity something hours of travel! We flew from Malawi to South Africa then to London... then we ran to our plane in Heathrow and almost missed our flight. After that it was another 10 hour flight home... and eventually we made it back to good old Baytown. I'm not going to lie; it was nice eating some Texas food! I definitely missed it. Here's some pictures from our trip! It was absolutely amazing.


A snapshot on the drive from the airport to the hotel. It's so dry... they haven't had one drop of rain since March!



The stage. The Fire Fox choir from Lilongwe was singing. Imagine the most jubilant and celebratory African music ever! It was so fun.


We went to the market and bought tons of little trinkets and such.



Leeland kind of stood out... so he's about to get bumrushed by some aggressive salesman. haha...








Marcus is making deals here.



The next day we went to the Village of Hope Orphanage in Lilongwe.


The kids sang for us.


We met some of the children and heard their stories. This beautiful girl is Esther. She's six months old, and her mother died in child birth. Her father wasn't alive either so the village chief asked one of the elders to kill her. The Village of Hope found out about it and rescued her.





The little girl in the green is Potso. Her parents aren't alive, so her uncle took her in. He couldn't afford to take care of her so he put her out in the trash. But God knew her name and made sure she would be taken care of at the Village of Hope.


We got to give the boys some soccer balls. Mike said it was the best game of soccer he'd ever played.

In just three days we fell in love with the nation of Malawi and the continent of Africa. We can't wait to go back and stay longer. Please be praying for the nation of Malawi. The church is strong and thriving amidst hunger, poverty and devastation. There are over a million orphans roaming the streets. We believe that God will give them a home.

-jack

I'm in Malawi and we're having a great time. God is moving in this nation and the people are so hungry for God here. They're walking for hours to come this event and tons of people got saved tonight. The worship has really been amazing as well. It was so intense! We sang "With Everything" a song on the new Hillsong record "This is our God". I've got to post the video because everyone was singing to the top of their lungs and shouting for spiritual victory in Malawi! So powerful. And tomorrow we're going to an orphanage here in town... so we're so excited to meet the kids. I think they have a special program prepared for us. Mike is hoping to play some soccer as well.

The internet is pretty slow here, so uploading pictures is almost impossible. It would probably take hours... but I'll definitely post some pix and video as soon as we get back to the states!

Oh... and today we went into the market and bought some souvenirs. It was hilarious! We were all bargaining and haggling the prices. Theses guys are pretty aggressive salesmen and when they see an American the price starts sky high. It was really fun and we got some pretty cool stuff. Jake ran out of Kwacha (Malawi's currency) so he ended up trading his leather wallet and his watch for some stuff! haha.... it was amazing. I think he got taken on that one.

Tomorrow is the last day. I'll be back with another update. Be blessed and encouraged and please be thankful for all the God has blessed us with as a nation! Trips like this totally put my life back into perspective.

Talk to you tomorrow.

-jack

So... we finally made it to Malawi. After 36 hours of travel we're here! We've only been here for a few hours and God has already started something in our hearts. The second we walked into the football stadium and saw everyone dancing and singing we started crying. There's just something about the joy that these people have. Their thankfulness and praise ushers in the presence of God in such a powerful way.

We sang "Save Your People" tonight and they went crazy! Everyone was jumping up and down and singing as loud as they could. We're playing again Saturday night and Sunday. Thanks for all your prayers and comments... we appreciate it so much.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow. Love love love!

-jack