About Kony....

I am amazed at the recent attention Joseph Kony is getting due to the Kony 2012 campaign, and I thought it was time for me to kind of shed some more light on the situation considering that I am in Uganda.

For over 25 years Kony has been terrorizing the people of Eastern Africa (specifically Northern Uganda and most recently the Congo). I have been in Uganda nearly four years, and five years ago I came on a short-term trip, even by that time Kony had moved on and was no longer in Uganda and hasn't returned since. I'm voicing this because although the Kony 2012 video hints at how Kony is now in other areas, the main emphasis is on Uganda but he's not and I pray that he will never be again.

Several of our staff members dealt with Kony first hand over 20 years ago. One of them who was living in the Gulu area (main center of the conflict) at the time, was with his brother and saw the soldiers coming to his land so he and his brother ran and hid for the day and shortly after that he moved south to the Jinja area. Another guy ran away with his sister lying saying that she was his wife to escape being captured. Another was captured but released by the grace of God after 24 hours. One of our village churches was affected as the rebels came and burned the entire area.

Traveling up North doing outreaches and visiting friends who have churches there, you pass by and even stay in what used to be Internally displaced persons camps. The people are returning to their villages and trying to figure out what "normal" life looks like as many of them have been in the camps for around 20 years.

I agree that Kony needs to be stopped and that he's incredibly evil man and that people should be aware of what he's doing. I think it's great that so many people are wanting to stop him in whatever way they can. I guess I just wanted to give a little insight into what it's like on the Ugandan side of things.