I can say that I don’t weep as often as I used to. I used to cry over things as innocuous as giving the announcements at church, those ridiculous Hallmark and Publix commercials, or watching baby kittens being born. I don’t think I have many tears left for those things any more. As God shows me the
heartcries from His people around the world, I find that my tears are more specific. And I don’t have to hide them. They are rich and they are sweet and though they are painful, I know that they are the river which carries my prayers to the Father. There is healing in my tears.
Yes, how could one not weep? Tonight I sat in the living room and spoke on the phone with a man who was about to sleep under the stars on the back porch of a school in Uganda. This is not a camping trip or a school “lock-in”, as we used to call them. This is where he must sleep tonight because two days ago he fled his country, running for his life from the rebel armies. He ran 42 km with masses of others to escape. In the process he was separated from his wife and children and his mother and father. The family here in America has been waiting to hear. And tonight the call came. But there was no time on the calling card. My friend here ran to the store to get a card and we spent the next hour dialing again and again and not getting through. I cannot imagine what was in their hearts … both here and in Uganda.
Finally the call went through. Twenty-one minutes to hear word from around the world. Twenty-one minutes to learn the fate of their family left behind a year ago. The uncle was safe. The aunt and children had been reunited with him. The grandfather had been found and had joined them. But the grandmother is still missing. Twenty-one minutes and counting. And then silence. The call was over. No goodbyes. No fare thee wells. No real happy endings. How could one not weep?
There is so much I want to know. So much I am trying to understand. I am grateful that I will probably never know the fear and anguish these dear souls have known. But if I can see a glimpse of what heaven sees, then I will know how to love more fully. I will know how to care more deeply. I will be set free from the whitewashed images paraded before me on the nightly news. After all, when was the last time you saw Bunagana in the news? And yet, in the short time I have known this family, their loved ones have had to flee due to the terror of war. But if I didn’t know them, it would not even be a blip on my radar.
So I ask a few questions and my ignorance is evident. But I ask anyway, because I need to know. “Is it easy to get separated when you have to flee?” Really? That’s the question burning on my tongue? Isn’t that like asking something as ridiculous as “doesn’t the peanut butter stick to the roof of your mouth when you eat such a big spoonful?” An inane, unnecessary question. But the sentiment behind the question is genuine and tears roll down my face as I am told the answer. “When it is time to run, we gather all we can carry. We kill the animals – the ducks and the chickens. We throw them in a bag because we will cook them and eat them later. We don’t know how many days we will be running, so we have to be prepared. And then we run and leave everything else behind. We tie our shirts one-to-another so that we can stay together but when everyone is pushing and clamoring, the knots pull apart and when that happens, whoosh – they are gone.”
It may be days before they find my friend’s grandmother. I pray with faith that they will find her because I hear the hope in their voices. I pray in faith even though I weep. How can one not weep?
*** I could not put a photograph on this blog post because the ones that I found were all copyrighted. So instead, I will include a few links in case you want to read a bit more about the war in this region.
Reuters: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/photos/families-displaced-fighting-between-congolese-army-m23-rebels-photo-115048852.html
Voice of Africa Radio: http://www.voiceofafricaradio.com/news/1776--dr-congo-bunagana-residents-flee-m23-clashes-to-uganda.html
LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-congo-m23-defeat-20131030,0,3861984.story#axzz2jMXnkhdK