Uganda (MNN) — Reports seem confident that U.S. troops will capture Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony quickly.
The United States sent 100 military personnel to Uganda to find Kony, who founded the LRA and has led it for some 25 years.
Worldwide Christian Schools has been affected directly by the Ugandan rebel. Even though the LRA has not attacked in the nation over the last few years, thousands of Ugandans still bear the scars of the killer.
WWCS has Christian school partners in southern areas of Uganda who have received children over the years whose families were destroyed at the hands of Kony's regime. Siblings, parents, and peers were lost due to LRA tactics, and Christian schools have had their arms wide open to these affected children.
With Kony's capture on the horizon, Dale Dielman with WWCS says some memories may be stirring. Ultimately though, "I think it'll bring some degree of closure, particularly to families and to some communities. They can breathe a little easier."
WWCS is now looking to the future of what life will look like once Kony's apprehended. One WWCS school is close to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a great deal of LRA work, including the recruitment of child soldiers, has gone on over the past several years.
The school is in the beginning stages of building, and it is getting closer by the day. When it is completed, Dielman hopes it will be a safe haven for kids who have been affected by the LRA.
More than that, Dielman hopes that Christians within this school and others will be a light to those shaken from Kony's spell once he's captured.
"This is their life, and it has been for decades now," explains Dielman. "To change that and go back to farming or having a small shop somewhere, or these young child soldiers picking up a pencil instead of an AK47, is going to be a huge change."
Dielman says it provides a great opportunity for the church to reach out with the hope of a new life in Christ.
No one knows for sure what will happen when Kony's captured, though. Perhaps the LRA will disband, or perhaps it will live on all the same.
Whatever happens, WWCS is doing their part to prevent future LRA-like industries. The ministry is in the beginning stages of developing a curriculum on peace and reconciliation for schools across Kenya and Uganda in particular.
As the hunt for Kony continues and memories resurface, pray that WWCS teachers will have the patience and words to comfort affected students. Pray that opportunities would abound to share Christ with suffering people, and that Kony himself might find the Lord Jesus.
