If you haven’t already heard about it in the news, or online, or on YouTube, but there is this really bad guy out there doing really horrible things to young people. His name is Joseph Kony. He is the head of the LRA (or Lords Resistance Army). Two years ago, my son Aidan and his friends were at their Youth Group, and had the wonderful opportunity to hear a presentation from a group called Invisible Children. Aidan and his friends learned about children the same age as themselves. He heard stories of boys and girls who could be their peers and friends if they lived here. He listened as a gentleman from Uganda shared his story of being ripped from his parents in the middle of the night, being forced to kill his parents, and then being brainwashed into fighting for the LRA. Aidan was shaken to the foundation of his being. HE was moved. And then, he began moving. He felt a call on his heart that has led him to do some pretty cool things to help this nation of young people who are threatened on a daily basis by this horrible man, Joseph Kony, and his army.
Two years ago, Aidan stood in front of his entire school with 2 of his friends and asked his classmates to donate money to help Invisible Children build radio towers so that the villages could communicate with one another and could be alerted when the LRA was moving in their area. Last year, Aidan got people to sponsor him, and then was silent for 25 hours. His silence spoke more than his words could have. A nation of kids here in the US were silent for 25 hours in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Uganda who have no voice to save themselves. This year? This year is a different type of campaign…
This year is the year of KONY2012. The goal this year is to get as much publicity as possible on Joseph Kony. The goal is to have everyone in the world looking at him and for him. The goal is to get his face and his actions in the public eye so that there is no where on earth he can hide.
Last night was the night the kids have been planning for. Last night was Cover the Night. The night that the kids went out and did small community service activities, like cleaning up trash on the side of the road, and then left behind KONY2012 signs. My three kids and their friends went out last night in the cover of darkness and put up over 60 signs. We had a blast. And today, in the light, it looks so cool to see all of the signs up.
Please forgive the picture quality – it was really dark, and my flash wasn’t cooperating.
My kids do a lot of things that make me proud of them, but every now and then they do something that blows me away. If anything can bring this man, Joseph Kony, to justice, it will be the heart of my children and the thousands upon thousands of others like them around the world.
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