We have been in Gulu, which is in Northern Uganda for 2 weeks - but at times it feels like we've been here for years. This town, Gulu, is a town encompassed with fear, and justly so. Any one person you meet here has been in some way directly affected by this 17 year "conflict." The simple newspapers and nationals of northern Uganda use this english word "conflict" as though it is a petty dispute, or a disagreement of sorts. BUT the more and more we probe this so called "conflict" and the more we try to understand it - we realize that "conflict" actually means: An guerilla army reffered to as 'The Rebels" have taken, kidnapped, what the nationals call "abducted or arrested" about 30,000 children, and have killed approx. 100,000 individuals in the past 11 years.

Now when we write "abducted" and "killed" we do mean the rebels come around 2am on a dark rainy night with torches ablaze, and AK-47's strapped to their backs to take, let us say, 30 children at one time, they burn huts, loot villages and within an hours time a commander of the Rebels (around the age of 16) will force the 29 kidnapped to watch him, as he orders another 12 year old soldier to brutally cut open one of the kidnapped children. This is done to demonstrate what will happen if any of the abducted try to escape. You must watch the cutting, or else they kill you. If you cry, they kill you as well.

In many testimonies and interviews we have heard many accounts of childrens limbs being cut off one at a time, as the child screams out for his mom, to no avail. They do this all with a tool they refer to as "panga" - but what is really a big knife or axe. We have even heard of many stories of the rebels forcing abducted children to return to their villages and kill there mothers and fathers. Sometimes cutting their parents up, only to boil them in a pot, and eat their limbs. remember, this is all by forced fear. And all at the age of twelve. In fact, God has directed us to 2 boys, they are brothers, Jakob and Thomas both the age of 12, they have both been abducted. While they were with the Rebels, their oldest brother and caretaker was killed in front of them, and the two boys were forced to make the sign of the cross on their own forehead with their brothers blood from his brain. The saddest part of the story is, upon their escape and return home they discovered their mother and father had been killed by the rebels. Their only possesion is the clothes they wear. They sleep on the street in town, every night, knowing that the rebels are hunting them down by name. because if you escape from the rebels, they hunt, and kill. After spending time with them we know God wants us to take responsibility for their lives, their eductation, and their future. Jakob wants to be a lawyer, and Thomas a teacher. We know they could be this, they are so smart, if only they had one person believing in them. We have decided to take up that role. We leave for Kampala in 3 days, and want nothing more than to take them with us, to put them in a boarding school in Kampala. This city is safe from rebel activity. And so we are.

I can imagine as you read this update it might sound too dramatic to be true, but it was surreal to us at first as well. unfortunately, as the days go by, we have become more and more jaded. A typical day for us will be interviewing different individuals who understand and have some insight about this war. At night we go to different shelters inside the town. When i say "town", you might want to picture a scene from an old western movie: there is rarely power, and at night everyones doors are locked and it becomes a ghost town. And when i say "shelters" i do mean concrete or wet mud upon which these tens of thousands of children sleep everynight. We've gotten to know so many of the kids, all of them just like kids in the U.S. - being a kid is universal: they fart, play games, laugh, sing, and smile. This has possibly been the most difficult concept to grasp: they smile. They have nothing, from a western mindset, to be thankful for - nothing. So many are being hunted by the rebel army, by name. But everynight they sing, "Jesus, you're so good to us, you're so good to us." We come home at night to our mats and think, "But God you're not so good to them." But we've tried to grasp that possibly God's character is all about endurance and faith over brutal, awful circumstances - that break his heart, and he would love to see changed.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE: Laren almost got struck by lightning. He's proud of this moment for simply surviving a bolt that hit approximately 100 feet away from him, and managing to keep his undies semi-free of any chocolate pudding. Jason is stilll barfing. And Bobby has a new best friend, He is something of a phenomenon: imagine if you will a blend of Encino Man meets Bubba Gump meets a five year-old squinty eyed, fat lipped, teddy bear, that you can't help but love, and when I write love I do mean feed. He knows only 2 english words. When he see's us the words "Bobbi" or "fire" come drawling out of his oversized bottom lip.

We will see you in 10 days. You might have finished this e-mail by then...ask us about the bussrides, the white ants, and their national bird "The Crane."

Trying to ponder the complexities of Africa will set ones mind spinning, because you see this is one of the thousands of other wars going on all across this cursed continent.

to quote Barbara Kingsolver epic book "The Posionwood Bible"

"POOR AFRICA. NO OTHER CONTINENT HAS ENDURED SUCH ANUNSPEAKABLY BIZARRE COMBINATION OF FOREIGN THEIVERY AND FOREIGN GOODWILL."

So does this mean we should stop giving, caring, loving...does this mean we give up? at times we feel like it. There are days, mostly nights on this trip we have even feared for our own lives. We have heard gunshots and artillary bombs in the not so far distance. This causes us to be reliant solely on our creator. We know he has brought us here to blow the top off this hidden story.

As an American, a Russell-Poole-Bailey, and most importantly as a follower of Christ, we have often heard the so commonly overused phrase, "It was God" come out of our mouths. Believing in our hearts perhaps that a percentage really was God- But the rest of that circumstance was due to the weather, coincidence, or something we had done. Only now, in just these past three weeks can we say, with all that we are: IT WAS GOD. IT IS GOD. all of it. We can say to you who read this, through experience it's a far more dangerous but far more fulfilling life.

His grace this past week has been so apparant, that the spirit has been moving our legs, our mouths, and our cameras - through your prayers. We leave this e-mail by boldly stating: THE STORY WE BRING HOME, AND WHAT GOD SO PERFECTLY ORCHESTRATED: YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE.

See you at C and O's. (If you don't know what that means,it is a resturaunt in L.A. that we will all be mowing at on the 17th. JOIN.).