Nelson: Abducted.

I want to tell you about a boy, his name is Nelson.  His story is the story of many other young boys all around Northern Uganda.   I will spare some of the gruesome details, but I feel it’s important that Nelson’s story is told.  So many people around the world have no voice, but we have the opportunity to be a voice for those who have been muted. 

As Nelson sat down in front of us he looked at the ground and as he began to tell his story his mouth spoke but his eyes and demeanor told us that he would rather never visit those places again.  8 years ago Nelson was abducted from his village when there was an attack by the LRA.  He and 5 of his friends were taken and forced to join the ranks of the LRA or the Lords Resistant Army (go to invisiblechildren.com to learn more about the LRA and the conflict in Uganda). 

The first night Nelson and his friends were with the LRA after their capture one of his friends tried to escape.  He was caught and killed immediately.  There was no grace.  There was no mercy.  There was only brutality.  And so there were four of them left.  Over the year they fought and raided other villages probably not unlike the one they had come from, two more of his friends died in battles.  Nelson was promoted to be a body guard for one of the commanders. 

A rumor started that Nelson was using witchcraft to steal guns from the LRA in order to escape.  Some of the men began beating him demanding he confess.  Nelson was raised in a Christian family and was in fact not a witch; but after three hours of being beaten he relented.  They demanded he perform a miracle, when he was unable to they began beating him again.  He was promised certain death but Nelson looked at the soldier’s beating him and said “If God allows, you will kill me, if not you will not.” Soon after this the commander who he had been a bodyguard for, ordered that they postpone his murder because he wanted to bring him a last meal.

All the men were going down to a pond to go fishing, Nelson fell into line following them unnoticed.  When they went towards the pond he quickly turned the other way and ran…and ran…and ran.  He was chased, and hunted for four days, he had no food or water, no shelter.  Nelson told us it was only the strength of God that sustained him over those days. 

On the fourth day he saw a village woman who he shared his story with. She took him to the Ugandan Army barracks and they made a radio announcement saying,  “A child soldier has escaped and been recovered”. His mother came to Gulu where he was and he was reunited with his family. 

After Nelson finished telling us his story we asked him what has been the most difficult thing of this experience that he still has to deal with today.  He responded with few words, “I killed and I am a Christian”. 

This has been one of several moments while I have been in Uganda that I have been in shock and left speechless at the graveness of what I am hearing.  It is extremely difficult to look into the brokenness and pain in the eyes of someone who has endured something like this and speak of God’s goodness and love.  As Nelson was sharing his story and the different moments that he saw God protecting him and giving him strength I thought of the story of Joseph and how he was sold into slavery by his own brothers and endured much injustice with no voice.  I remembered how God’s favor rested upon him and how he redeemed the injustice and worked it for the good of Joseph, his brothers, and beyond. 

I read the verses at the end of Joseph’s life when he is talking to his brothers and he says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant  it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive ” (Genesis 50:20). I hope it blows you away to think about the hope that Nelson possesses despite such evil.  A hope that comes from a God that is empathetic and intimately acquainted with grief and pain.  I think of the prophecy of Jesus in Isaiah that says,

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;  Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth;  Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:3-7)

Nelson knows the hope of the gospel. Not just in his head but in his whole being.  In his eyes that have seen such hate, in his feet that have run from his oppressors, in his ears that have heard the cries of his own people, and  in his hands that have killed and are now raised in worship.  Nelson knows and treasures Jesus deeply. Do we?

Nelson is hoping to finish his schooling,

 he dreams of being a pilot

 and a father.

*Photo by Jordan Scott