Spring Arbor University Crusader

Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: Features

Media Credit: Keegan Adriance [Click to enlarge]

It was a sunny, warm afternoon on Saturday, as 20 of us Spring Arbor students headed off for Grand Rapids with one mission in mind. No one quite knew what to expect; how many people would there be? Would anyone care? Was it really going to rain? But despite the questions, off we went. Five of us, packed into my fairly small car, as others crammed into vehicles of their own. We were off to see things happen; we were off to be rescued.

The reason for this excursion was to be a part of 'Rescued' a worldwide event organized by 'Invisible Children'. The 'Invisible Children' organization exists to raise awareness about Africa's longest running war. For the past 23 years the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been trying to overthrow the Ugandan government and this has impacted the people of Uganda severely.
The Lord's Resistance Army was originally called the Holy Spirit Movement, and was started by Alice Lakwena who believed the Holy Spirit had spoken to her and told her to overthrow the government for unfair treatment of the Acholi people. Eventually she was exiled, and people started to back away from support of the movement. This was when the new leader, Joseph Kony, who claimed to be Alice's cousin, stepped up to power. With support from people still decreasing, his next plan of action was to abduct. The victims of these abductions were, and still are, innocent children.

This is why we piled into cars and braved the rain all the way to Grand Rapids. The plan of action was to get support from media and authority figures to stop Joseph Kony once and for all. The last step in ending this war is to rescue Joseph Kony's child soldiers, and with our voices and the media combined, we hoped people would start listening. As we approached the place we were to meet, groups of people started to pile in. And with the arrival of people, began the arrival of heavy rain. So there we were, around 800 people total, dressed in everything from garbage bags to wet t-shirts and bare feet, all ready for the same mission-to rescue, and be rescued.

After a long walk in drenching rain in groups of 12, we arrived at Rosa Parks Circle. This was where we would stay until the media, and an authority figure, rescued us. As the Spring Arbor University group joined hands, more and more joined in. Eventually, the whole of Rosa Parks Circle was three big circles of hands being held. And as the rain poured down more and more, eventually all that was left was the Spring Arbor group. We stood there in our own small circle, praying as the rain poured down on our backs, hoping that our brothers and sisters in Uganda knew how much we loved them and hoping that people with influence and power would come to our rescue.

Fox 17 news got all the footage of us walking to Rosa Parks Circle, and eventually a man named Hank Meijer (yes, of the Meijer grocery store we know so well) came to our rescue. People jumped up and down, clapped hands, danced and screamed as Meijer walked on stage to rescue us. The rain continued to pour as all 800 of us wrote two letters each to Senators, begging for aid to Uganda and the rescue of the child soldiers.

And as the day ended, with the five of us from SAU completely drenched and heading back to my car, I could tell that each of us had felt true love and sadness for our brothers and sisters in Uganda. God willing, this war will end. But, as one man I talked to put it, "Nothing will stop us." And no, nothing will.

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