It started with a whimper and then a quiet cry, a cry for help from a child from northern Uganda. A child who had seen their parents brutally murdered. A child who had been taken away from their family and forced to be a child soldier. A child who was forced to kill or be killed. A young girl who was forced to give herself to a rebel soldier. This madman is named Joseph Kony, and his rebel group is called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). A man who led an army of murders who were committed to killing every last Acholi tribe in northern Uganda. That cry joined hundreds and thousands of other cries. The cry became a loud scream, a scream asking, "God, please help us."
It started with a young 8-year-old girl... the Great Massacre woman named Rose. A woman who had heard the cries of hundreds and thousands of children who a madman, a brutal killer, a warlord in northern Uganda orphaned. A man who called himself "god."
Rose went to university to train in social work and trauma counseling. She left the safety of her home and family to travel the dangerous roads to Gulu, in northern Uganda. She arrived in the town of Karuma on the south side of the Nile River. It would usually take 3 hours to arrive in Gulu. She joined a caravan of men. Even though she was warned the road ahead was treacherous and no place for a woman, she went anyway. The caravan crawled as they faced land mines and ambushes from the LRA (Kony's army). The soldiers wheeled their guns, killing anyone who would enter their terrain. They were protected on both sides by the Ugandan soldiers. Many were killed along the way, but not Rose. What once took 3 hours took 3 days.
Rose returned to the horrors of her youth. Once she finally arrived on the dark streets of Gulu, she saw the desperate, impossible conditions the children faced, overwhelming odds. She slept in the streets with the children so the cruel arms of the LRA visions army wouldn't snatch them away. Most of the time, she stood over them and prayed for their safety and healing.
Rose cried out, "God, please help us."
It started out with a little 4-year-old girl in America, Cindy, who dreamed of going to Africa. She would cry as she watched starving children with bloated bellies in various parts of Africa. At the age of 18, she heard a message from Dr. Miley, a missionary on the Ivory Coast in West Africa. She prayed, "Lord, use me. Send me to Africa."
Little did she know it would take her over 25 years before her feet touched African soil. In 2006, God led her step by step to northern Uganda. This was not part of the plan laid out for her when she made the month-long itinerary, which included Kenya, Rwanda, the Congo, Uganda, and the Southern Sudan. But it was God's itinerary.
Cindy arrived late in the evening in Gulu after a long and grueling 9-hour drive from Kampala through potholes the size of compact cars. Most of the trip was spent driving on the side of the road rather than on the road. Later, she was told the potholes were holes made by landmines during the war.
She was introduced to a young woman caring for hundreds of children attacked and scared (outside and in) by this evil man, Joseph Kony, and his vicious army. Rose took her to an IDP camp (Internally Displaced People). There were close to 7,000 people who had relocated from their homes, which had been burned to the ground. They had nowhere safe to go except these IDP camps. As far as the eye could see, it was a vast sea of huts.
"Why do they live here?" she asked Rose. "They have nowhere else to go!” Everywhere she looked, there were children, little children, starving children with bloated bellies, standing, sitting, with dark, hollow, non-responsive eyes. "Who takes care of these children?" Rose responded, “Nobody they are alone; their parents have died, and they are all orphans. Many have younger brothers and sisters that they take care of. They are a child-headed household. Many were former child soldiers.” Cindy asked, "What? What is that?" As they sat for breakfast, she told story after story, horror after horror. The stories were unbelievable, unfathomable, especially to an American mind.
As the day continued and the stories progressed. Preparing to drive back to the airport, Cindy was trying to eat her breakfast. How could she eat after seeing the horrors the children were living through, seeing the eyes of hopeless children with nothing to eat and no place to go? A little boy came to their table on his knees out of respect. He said something to Rose in his language. “What did he say?” Rose replied, “He wants your leftovers.” It was more than she could bear. Getting up from the table, she told Rose to give him whatever he wanted and ran into the guest house room she was staying in. Cindy lay on the concrete floor crying out to God, "Lord, what do you want me to do? Whatever it is, I will do it.”
Over the years, I have started this story with my trip in 2006; but the story really began with the prayers of the children, with the prayers of Rose. The story began when God began His good work to rescue the children, and He invited me to join in their pain and to be a part of what He was doing. He could have invited a number of people; for all I know, He did... But when He invited me, my heart was so overwhelmed by the need I couldn't not do something. The eyes of the children, the eyes of a little boy named Walter, pierced my very soul, and I joined in what He began... To be a part of their cry for help.
The journey has been the greatest and hardest thing I have ever been a part of. But as Dottie McDowell said to me shortly after I returned, "Cindy, for such a time as this. God has used everything in your past to bring you to such a time as this.”
The cries of the children, the cry of Rose, are really how it all began. God merely uses me as His tool. I am so thankful that He invited me to be a part of His glorious work to rescue, restore, and heal their lives and hearts, and ultimately, Jesus, who is the only one who can transform the hearts of the broken.
Today, the Lord has used Village of Hope (VOH) to rescue and bring hope and healing to thousands of men, women, and children. Over 300 children have graduated from university and skill training. There are 5 who have become teachers at the elementary and high schools at VOH. There is a pastor, welders, mechanics, nurses, civil engineers, one in local government, two who have graduated from law school, two who have started organizations to help other orphans in the communities, builders, pharmacists, and so many other occupations. The prayer is that they would become Godly leaders in their families, communities, and countries!
I am just an ordinary person who believes in an extraordinary God who does impossible things each and every day at Village of Hope. He is also doing that in your life as well. Believe and see what the Lord has done!
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurable more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.
Ephesians 3:20
Cindy Cunningham
Founder & Director
Village of Hope Uganda
After graduating from Welch Christian College, Cindy has ministered to children, teens, and adults for almost 40 years through Youth for Christ, Josh McDowell, and African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM) in countries around the world: Japan, Russia, Romania, Belarus, Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda.
In 2006, her position with ALARM took her to Central & Eastern Africa, where she first visited Northern Uganda. It was through the stories of young children who were abducted in war and forced to be child soldiers, young girls being used as sex slaves, and witnessing the lives of thousands of vulnerable people devastated by war that Cindy asked the question, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”.
From that call from the Lord, Cindy quit her job and started Village of Hope Uganda.