Pray for Jude

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Tonight I met a man by the name of Jude. We should start praying for him. Jude is a refugee from Uganda and has been interning at Harvard for the last 2 years.

Jude is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. He was born in the Buganda Kingdom of Uganda and lost his father at age 15 to what the Ugandan government called an "accident". His father was involved in the government and left for a convention or meeting of some sort and came home horribly sick. He died shortly afterward. Jude and his family believe he was poisoned. Jude is now 29. His mother raised him and his 5 younger siblings, also adopting 2 children from her sister who also died from an "accident". His mother and siblings still live in Uganda and his mother is a Supreme Judge (as he called it).

He has many connections with the ministers of Uganda (the equivalent of U.S. senators apparently) and their children, many of whom were in his school when he was growing up. Today, Jude is interning at Harvard and studying some variation of foreign and political policy because he is going to go back to Uganda one day and run for the presidency. That's right. He's going to run for the presidency of Uganda.

Jude has been witness and known witnesses to many of the atrocities in Uganda and the Sudan and Darfur. Regarding the atrocities in Uganda, he has first-hand experience with the children and depictions in the film, Invisible Children, which if you are unfamiliar is a docmentary about the Ugandan government killing families and kidnapping young children and brainwashing them to become child soldiers.

But this is not just a movie about a hotel in Rwanda or a documentary showing how awful it is for Ugandan children. Jude has been there. He has seen it. And he wants to return to Uganda some day and run for President. And I believe he has the grace, faith, and courage to do it.

But the situation is immeasurably complex. As I said before, Jude knows many of these ministers who are working for a corrupt government and the minister's children because he grew up with them. And his mother has, by his own admission, a lot of power as a judge. If he were to return to Uganda and run for president (proposing drastic change and opposing the established corrupt government), he would be endangering his life and the lives of his entire family, and would be making enemies out of his friends whose parents are corrupt politicians. But he says he will return. He says by God's grace he will return to Uganda and run for president. And he knows that he is running the risk of being assassinated.

Who of us reading this blog is running the risk of being assassinated?

And Jude is telling me all of this over a burger and a beer. (His was the beer, mine was lemonade). He is a man of quiet resolve. He is incomprehensibly courageous and brave in my eyes. He says that he doesn't want to die young, that he wants to return to his country and get rid of the regime that is responsible for mass genocide in Africa. But he also says that he will and must return to his country.

He talks of the evil corrupt government committing mass genocide and he shakes his fist in the air and then becomes very quiet for a moment and you can just see in his eyes that he is a man with the weight of his nation on his shoulders. He's truly a man with the weight of the world squarely on his shoulders.

I can't even begin to describe our lengthy conversation with you. He told me of the LRA and Joseph Kony and the government and the corrupt president that changed the constitution to make him a dictator. He told me that he has to stay low in Boston and not make any moves in the media (which he plans to do in the future) because it could result in the murder of his family back in Uganda. Our conversation was so detailed and complex that I can't remember everything he said. He is a witness to the inhuman atrocities in Africa like the dismemberment, terror, and murder of friends and countrymen. And he was standing across from me eating a burger on a balcony in Boston, MA.

Afterward I thanked Jude for telling me his story in length which began with the simple statement, "I'm a refugee from Uganda." I asked him how he came to be in Boston and the result was a lengthy explanation of his past, what he is doing now to prepare for running for office, and what he knows he must face in the near future. I wish we could have talked all night.

At one point after we were no longer talking about Uganda I had to walk out and just weep. He's been through so much, and he's willing to risk assassination to free his people and his country. I just remember thinking, "This guy is a man of God, called to do something completely extraordinary and is faced with the fact that he may not live to see 50 years and I'm worried about air conditioning and God knows what else."

This man is going to return to his country and try and overthrow the corrupt government by becoming elected president. We are not called as Christians to be well within our comfort zone. We think if we give God a little bit of our lives here or there He will be happy and leave us alone. But God is not some little kid that needs concessions from us. He wants us to be weak, so that He can show Himself strong. God wants to send us out so that He can flex His muscles. And yet we settle for the "American dream" of having a nice house, and having well behaved kids, and not saying the F word or murdering anybody. If we are comfortable we probably aren't following Christ.

And the opposite of love for God is not hatred of Him. It's apathy.

I believe Jude is going to become the president of Uganda. And you know what he says?

"Pray! Pray hahd!" (in his Ugandan accent)

I thanked Jude for telling me his story and for being so honest and open with a mere stranger. But I feel so bonded to this guy. I'm going to be praying for him for a long time.

Jude told me what I can pray for, and I hope you will join me in praying for Jude.

First, he says pray for him that he would have the courage to do what he knows he must do. He says he thinks he is not brave. (HE thinks HE'S not brave!)

Second, he says pray for Uganda. Pray hard for Uganda. Pray for Uganda. Pray for Uganda.

Also, pray for the the young generation of soon to be leaders who are falling into the same trap as their corrupt fathers have. Jude sees many young men compromising and following in their fathers' evil footsteps.

Pray that God will raise him up, protect him, and make him the president of Uganda so that the mass genocide will end.

Tonight atrocities like that in Hotel Rwanda and Invisible Children became more than just movies. They were standing right across from me in flesh and blood. Darfur is more than just a green bracelet. People are dying and the government really is killing them. You might say that Africans are doing this to themselves and that they are responsible for their own civil wars. I say, if you really feel like that you should get on your face before God.

Pray for Jude. Pray for Uganda. Pray hard.

I love you all. Continue to pray for me as well.