Global Night Commute Tulsa

As you can see it was a damp night at Tulsa's Global Night Commute. Fortunately, the rain held off after the initial dousing. Here are a few random reflections on a memorable night.

As I lay down to a very uncomfortable bed I couldn't help but imagine how the northern Ugandan children feel when they lay down to sleep every night. For them it must be a relief knowing they should be safe from the kidnapping rebels for the night. They must also be worn out from their long commute to their bed. I can only imagine how they don't even know and understand what a good night sleep is and to have their own bed in their own home.

I was happy to see how many Christians were part of this event. It was great praising and worshiping God with complete strangers. We sang, reflected from God's word and lifted the children of northern Uganda up to God in prayer until about 2 a.m.

I didn't care for the driveby honkings that jarred me awake several times. Somebody here in Tulsa has a serious fog horn or something on their car! It's hard to sleep when you're cold and your outside in the middle of hundreds of people. I wonder how often the Ugandan kids actually reach the deep stages of sleep.

I was also mindful and thankful that we didn't have to deal with malaria carrying mosquitoes like the invisible children do. As they sleep crammed in buildings together I know the feast those mosquitoes are having and the unfortunate and often deadly sickness that follows for those children.

If they only had Waffle House in Gulu, Uganda. Greg Taylor and I went across the street for a Waffle House outing at 5:15. Not sure if that was against the rules or not but it was obvious a large contingent of GNCers had just been there. We met an extremely joyful waitress named Kristmas who without asking us seated us with another GNCer who had just gotten there. I don't believe it was just coincidence that Kristmas seated us with Alan, a sophomore at ORU, who just happens to be majoring in Bible and interested in going to Uganda for missions some day. Greg and I were able to share a lot of our experiences and insights. I'm still trying to figure out if Kristmas was an angel or not.

As usual, these experiences are often most powerful done together in community. A group from Garnett Church of Christ and the Contact Church of Christ working in inner city Tulsa reserved us a space on their tarp. Above is a picture of Shannon Russell, who worked hard to coordinate the Tulsa event, Greg Taylor and myself as we were packing up this morning.

I pray this is just the beginning of greater awareness for not only the children of northern Uganda but children all over Africa who suffer from war, poverty and lack of opportunity.

Anyone else go to GNC? I'd love to hear what you took away from the event.