All day long the people literally sit in these IDP camps unable to go to work, farm, or even go to school. So they sit and wait and wait and wait. They are not just sitting because they want to, but since moving to the IDP camps they have been unable to leave so they have lost their jobs, lost the land to farm, and with no job for income they are unable to send their children to school. The idleness of the people has caused major problems within the camps. Many have turned to alcohol to escape the reality in which they live. There is also a large amount of sexual activity among the youth and adults within the camps. Suicide is unfortunately also on the rise within. Some would say that for them it is better to die then to continue to live like they are living with the effects of the war all around them. I cannot imagine!
The attitudes and behavior of the children in 
these camps are also unlike anything I have ever seen. Not only are they some of the saddest kids I have seen (although a large number of them were all smiles when we arrived), but they are some of the most violent kids I have ever been around. Then again, violence is what they know. Their whole life they have been living in the middle of a war zone with children being abducted and taught to kill, soldiers surrounding their camps at night with guns to protect them, and some nights the only lullaby they heard was the firing of guns in the distance – this is their world. At one point I had to stop a four year old from through big rocks at his friend who had made him made. This was only one of several violent outbursts in the kids that we witnessed just in the short time we were in the camps.
More and more as I process our time in Gulu I keep going back to the reality that the only hope, 
love, and peace we have in this world is in Christ. He and He alone is the difference between being “alive” and being a “dead man walking” in the midst of the wars that surrounds us either literally like in northern Uganda or figuratively in our hearts in our “safe” little America. As we are in the middle of the holiday season I am reminded of what the angel said to the shepherds that first Christmas night, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Luke 2:10 What the world needs now more than anything is an army of people who are “alive” who are willing to “walk among the dead” and bring the message of hope, love and peace to people both next door and across the world who are in desperate need of the Good News of Christ.
