Hello John OMI and readers


In the past 24 hours there have been two happenings that strengthen my resolve to be a Man Alive, make that small difference to the world (as my latest blog was written about) and to be an instrument of God's love and mercy. Last night at the Kingaroy Town Hall, the Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda performed. I took my two youngest girls, Kimberley and Dannielle along, and it was most entertaining to say the least. The music, costumes, dance and singing were awe inspiring, but it was the testimonies from the children, all orphaned or abandoned, that struck most. These children were rescued and now reside at the Watoto Village Watoto Home and are nurtured and loved to reach their fullest potential.

I remember emailing John OMI some time ago telling him that I had watched The Last King of Scotland a movie about Uganda at the time of Idi Amin and John let me know of some other similar movies. I watched one of them this afternoon. This one Shooting Dogs/Beyond the Gates was one about the genocide in Rwanda, where in a 3 month period in 1994 some 800 000 people were slaughtered (the reason because of the tribe they belonged to). Very little world reaction, just like the Joseph Kony insurgencies that I wrote about in March 16: Kony 2012....So what's it all about?   The major world's government officials couldn't agree on whether the 800 000 deaths could even be termed as 'genocide' let alone even acknowledge the events. 

Maybe these two happenings don't raise an eyebrow with you or other people in general, but for me they are the continuing of my holy discontent, the stirrings that continue to lead me back to Africa, Uganda in particular. John and other readers may agree with me here: Once you have been to a place where there is a high prevalence of poverty (in my case Uganda) you are; and cannot ever; be the same. So the present time has many stirrings, rumblings, senses that will lead me back to a village somewhere in Uganda in the near future. 

And there in this small village, surrounded by many smiling children, with God present in each of them, will be an opportunity to do small actions that will effect changes in the lives of those children.
Sometimes, in our privileged, busy lives we need to watch a 'Watoto Choir' or a movie like 'Shooting Dogs' to reach deep into our inner beings, our very heart and soul, to help us realise how lucky in life we are and to guide us along a compassionate journey to somewhere that will change our lives forever, that will take us way out of our comfort zone. As a friend, Fr Morgan Batt once told a group of men: "Get out of the sandpit and get into the desert."