We are Displaced...

This weekend the junior high portion of student ministries at Watermark held what was probably one of the coolest and one of the most stretching events ever. Our event was Displace Me. The purpose was to show the kids just a small glimpse of what children in Uganda go through on a daily basis. If you're not familiar with what's going on in places like Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, check out the Invisible Children website (http://www.invisiblechildren.com/). Basically the goal was to take the kids through some of the things children in Africa and all over the world go through every day.

Throughout the 24 hours we watched videos from Invisible Children showing what the families go through in the displacement camps. The kids also learned about the Lord's Resistance Army and why the families needed to escape in Uganda. The night began with each group or "family" building shacks out of cardboard boxes to represent the huts that people in Africa live in with as many as 16 people needing to sleep in one "hut." I wish I had pictures to show you, but living as one of the displaced means no camera. It also meant no shoes or socks, no pillows or beds, no running water, no bathrooms, and only beans and rice to eat for meals that had to be cooked outside with camping equipment. Of course in the grand scheme of things we had it FAR better than any of the families in Africa do. I must confess that in midst of our 24 hours of being displaced, I found myself complaining that I had to walk down four flights of steps in the cold to use a porta potty outside or having to walk to the end of the Watermark parking lot to get water with the kids in a jug...but in reality, it was nothing in comparison.

This weekend was quite the reality check for many of the kids...and myself included. It's so easy to feel as though the things that are going on are a world away and to have the mentality that there's nothing that I can do...but that's so far from the truth. As we learned this weekend, there are many things that we can do. One being to write our congressmen expressing our concern over what's going on in Uganda. Another thing being to simply donate money. Did you know that with $10 you can buy a net for a child in Africa that will help prevent them from getting malaria? Ten dollars! That's it! Or for $32 per month you can adopt a child through Compassion International and help pay for their schooling, food and clothes. It's amazing how much there is that we can do to get involved and still be in the comfort of our homes.

Here's a video from Advent Conspiracy that you should check out. I tried to make the video pop up on my blog, but I'm just not sure how to do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&eurl=http://www.adventconspiracy.org/&feature=player_embedded