Were You there when they were crucified, my Lord?
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Sunday, August 2: The Boy on the Road
Today was a particularly hard day to take in. We were taken to the memorial of the Barlonyo massacre where reportedly more than 300 people were killed by Joseph Kony and the LRA.
Kony's tactics in brutalizing and dehumanizing the children of the villages he raped and pillaged were reported to us by the people in Lira town and the surrounding villages. Crushing infants and drinking human blood were not beyond his tactics.
On this day in particular, fields were destroyed, families were severed, residents were burned alive inside their huts, hacked to death with machetes, stabbed with bayonets, clubbed with sticks and shot as they fled. The bellies of pregnant women were slit open, their not-yet-formed babies thrown into the fires. Children were abducted and marched north into Acholi-land to become child soldiers or sex slaves. Many died in captivity of violence, sickness, or starvation. The ultimate fate of several abductees remains unknown. More about the ramifications of this horrific day can be read in Kill Every Living Thing: Barlonyo Massacre by the Justice and Reconciliation Project.
Barlonyo, which means "bountiful land," has never been the same since. "Far as the curse is found" resonates in this place stripped bare. The blood still seems to cry out from the ground and the land groans under the weight of the inhumanity that was displayed. But is the Spirit of God's groan deeper and more powerful? Does the cry of redemption overcome? How will restoration be brought here?
Monday, August 3, 2015 | The Memory of Massacre in Barlonyo
The smiles. The downcast eyes.
The curiosity. The uncertainty.
The laughter. The silence.
We share the same reactions as we step into this place, the children of Barlonyo and the visitors from another land.
I don't know what to say as I soak in a fleeting visit to this haunted village where they all will grow up.
I come in a bus. I leave on a bus. They will remain.
But today, we walked the same ground for the span of an hour.
How much stronger you must be than me.
You are able to shed your tears. And you wipe the tears of others. You are together. You must see so many come and go to the place you live in the ruins of. And I don't know how to express for this moment the grief that I feel. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for showing me how to grieve and move on and grieve again.
As I walk among the children, I pray that they will have each other, that no more blood will be spilled on the ground where they will stay as I drive away hoping for a movement ...
From tears to smiles.
From crying to laughter.
From trepidation to exultation.
From loneliness to community.
From silence to praise.
From emptiness to abundance.
From devastation to peace.
From famine to fruitfulness.
From lost to found.
From in pain to in care.
The distance between these God? How wide is the divide in a place like Barlonyo?
What was it like to live in a time when a sunrise could break a new dawn of a day when the LRA might attack? What does it look like to see an army of destruction coming for you? What does it feel like to run not knowing where you can hide?
The underground story of how Kony and the LRA were pushed out of Uganda is one of spiritual forces battling beyond Western comprehension. It's downright biblical and modern audiences may balk. But if Kony's horrors are to be believed, how could one not be moved to pray that somehow he would be met by the hand of God?
Joseph Kony is known as a wizard in northern Uganda. Some told us that he and the LRA had a strategic water way they could cross, but any other humans and animals would perish around the river if they came into close contact with the water. Ugandan soldiers fighting the LRA reported that when pursuing the enemy, they would receive crossfire from seemingly invisible forces. And to showcase their dark invincibility, the LRA would leave a trail of altars with burned bodies and severed heads on spikes after forcing kidnapped children to participate in the destruction.
In desperation after years and years of war, the Ugandan government brought in witch doctors from other countries in Africa, and from as far away as Asia to combat Kony and the LRA. But their spells and incantations did not hinder him, but only gave him more influence and power. So as a last resort they asked the Christian pastors to go with the Ugandan helicopters and pray over the areas where the LRA reportedly had strongholds. That week Kony and the LRA left Uganda and never came back. Later, a pastor went to the water way of death mentioned above, prayed over it, drank the water and lived, in the midst of several Ugandan soldiers who became shocked and amazed. Many believed that day and were baptized in the water. This was in 2006.
Could it be possible that Jesus reigns, breaks into our broken world, and brings His peace like this?
The underground story of how Kony and the LRA were pushed out of Uganda is one of spiritual forces battling beyond Western comprehension. It's downright biblical and modern audiences may balk. But if Kony's horrors are to be believed, how could one not be moved to pray that somehow he would be met by the hand of God?
Joseph Kony is known as a wizard in northern Uganda. Some told us that he and the LRA had a strategic water way they could cross, but any other humans and animals would perish around the river if they came into close contact with the water. Ugandan soldiers fighting the LRA reported that when pursuing the enemy, they would receive crossfire from seemingly invisible forces. And to showcase their dark invincibility, the LRA would leave a trail of altars with burned bodies and severed heads on spikes after forcing kidnapped children to participate in the destruction.
In desperation after years and years of war, the Ugandan government brought in witch doctors from other countries in Africa, and from as far away as Asia to combat Kony and the LRA. But their spells and incantations did not hinder him, but only gave him more influence and power. So as a last resort they asked the Christian pastors to go with the Ugandan helicopters and pray over the areas where the LRA reportedly had strongholds. That week Kony and the LRA left Uganda and never came back. Later, a pastor went to the water way of death mentioned above, prayed over it, drank the water and lived, in the midst of several Ugandan soldiers who became shocked and amazed. Many believed that day and were baptized in the water. This was in 2006.
Could it be possible that Jesus reigns, breaks into our broken world, and brings His peace like this?
I believe this. And yet, how many rested in peace on Saturday, February 21, 2004 in Barlonyo?
But how many rested in pieces? How many families were torn apart? How long do the fires of memory burn? How long will I remember this memorial? How long do I need to remember?
The great hymn provides the haunting melody for my memory: "Were you there when they were crucified my Lord? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble." And then I begin to ask Jesus, "Were You there when they were crucified, my Lord? Sometimes this causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble."
So I pray, "Please bring Your healing, God, to these people in this place. Make Your blessings flow far as the curse is found. Bring unspeakable joy beyond our human understanding."
The distance between the curse of death and the joy of life seems too wide a divide for me to cross on this day. It seems too much for humanity to bridge in a generation on our own.
But not for You, God. Is Your gospel that powerful?
Do You cross these distances by Your grace each and every day in millions of hearts? I believe You do. Help my unbelief.
May we see a million more hearts experience Your grace through the victory of Your cross bringing reconciliation and restoration between God and humanity, human to human, and throughout all Your creation.
Especially in Barlonyo.
Learn more about how to
sponsor a child in Uganda through Children of the Nations.
– Sully
– Sully
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