Sunday night we had a GREAT time in the gym!  Invisible Children, an organization dedicated to bringing awareness to the tragedies in Uganda and mobilizing the world’s governments to stop Joseph Kony and his violent movement, made a stop at our church in their Legacy Tour.  Chris Z put the whole thing together, recruited several artists and bands to make it a band night/movie night, and coordinated with Invisible Children to pull it off.  While the event was put together by the student ministry, and many of our teens did the grunt work necessary to pull it off, we invited anyone and everyone to come – we ended up with just under a hundred turning out to enjoy the music, see the movie, and meet Natalie and the Invisible Children crew!

In a bizarre twist and funny highlight of the night, the winner of our drawing (we were giving away $50 worth of Invisible Children gear) was Jake B!  What was so bizarre about it was that it was his birthday … and last year Karina won the same drawing when the event happened on her birthday!  On top of that, Lydia won the iPod Touch a few months ago during our One Incredible Night event … which was on her birthday.  There is a strange and inexplicable pattern emerging here, which is disturbing because it’s starting to look like I rig the drawings for whoever’s birthday it is!!!  Let me just state, for the record, that I absolutely do NOT rig the drawings.  On the other hand, if your birthday falls on one of our events, you should probably show up – the odds are significantly higher that you will win something apparently.

But back to Invisible Children!  The movie they screened for us was their new documentary, “Together we’re free,” which is actually one of the only films they’ve made that ISN”T in Uganda.  It chronicled the story of Invisible Children, and specifically one of their interns, Natalie, and how they pulled off creating awareness on a global scale last year in an event called “The Rescue.”  It was exciting to watch, especially given that a lot of our teens participated in “The Rescue” last year!  What I really, REALLY loved about the movie, though, was the incredible message it communicated about the power of young people to bring about radical change and impact in ways that many older people would never even think of, let alone try.  It was inspiring to see these teenagers lead a global movement, coordinating demonstrations in a hundred cities worldwide that all happened on the same date.  Even more exciting was that Natalie, the 19 year old intern featured in the documentary was part of the Legacy Tour and was on hand to answer questions and share her story.  Personally, I thought it was great hearing her share about her faith, quoting scripture and tying it to God’s heart for the children of Uganda.