High profile pain

What does it feel like when your story goes viral on YouTube? If you are a budding musician it could be your great break - a passport to a whole new career. But what if you are the mother who lost her two sons to the Lord's Resitance Army in northern Uganda, or a young man who lies sleepless every night reliving the traumer and brutality of his time serving as a child soldier?

The fact that 79 million people have watched Kony 2012 in the past ten days has led to a major outcry in Uganda, the nation traumaticed for 23 years by the cruelty and obsenity of Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army. Produced by the California based charity Invisible Children, the 30 minute video powerfully tells the story of the abuse of children over two decades in East Africa. Using the idiom of Facebook-style social networking the story told is of the bond that developed between two boys - one a Ugandan boy soldier and the other a young American turned social activist. Viewed from the perspective of a charity seeking to raise funds and engage American young people in social action this video is at the top of its class. But ...

But if you are a family just beginning to come to terms with the pain of lives destroyed by the personal ambitions of Joseph Kony, a video (and poster campaign which will climax across the US on 20 April) which adopts the catch phrase "Make Kony famous" may not be quite so welcome. Sheikh Musa Khalil, the Kadhi of the Muslim region of northern Uganda said in an interview that the film "is likely to traumatize those who were affected" and Bishop Johnson Gakumba, speaking in Gulu said, "While it publicizes the problem, we see it as being outdated. It should have been released in 2003"

So what are Invisible Children trying to do - disgrace a tyrant, stop a war, generate cash for their charity, or simply raise the profile of their work? When thousands of children have been aboused by the Lord's Resistance Army, a charity is doing good work, funds are short, and a powerful video goes viral, how important are the victim's views?

Who moved?

Don't believe them when they tell you Muslims are taking over the world. In fact there are twice as many Christian migrants moving round the world today as there are Muslims. Amazingly there are 214 million migrants in the world today, 49% of them Christian. What a mission force! - 105 million Christians on the move!

These figures and many more come from the latest study of migration by the Pew Research Center, a report that points out that if migrants were considered as one nation they would be the fifth largest nation on earth. The full report can be found at http://www.pewforum.org/faith-on-the-move.aspx

I was fascinated to see that whereas 25% of all Jews are migrants, only 5% of Christians migrate and 4% of Muslims. Hindus and Buddhists on the whole stay put. And where do all of these migrants come from? The top five 'exporting' countries are Mexico (with over 12 million), China, Palestine, India and Vietnam. And where do they go? Well not too hard to guess the top destination - USA, but the next four might be a surprise - Saudi Arabia, India, Israel, and Hong Kong. Europe doesn't feature as a major recipient of migrants at all.

So what about this migrant mission force of 105 mission Christians who travel to another country for work or for other reasons? Well 78% of them end up in the (nominally at least) Christian countries of North America, Latin America and Europe. The other 28% however still represent an amazing 28 million people. Which church or mission agency could deploy 28 million Christian witnesses in Asia, Africa and the Middle East? But these people paid their own travel costs, found their own jobs, carried their own luggage and even organised their own language learning. What would it take for the churches in their countries of origin to equip them to be effective witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ in their new home countries? If only 1% were trained that would be well over a quarter of a million Christians living the gospel and sharing the good news of Jesus right across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Wow!

This report is packed full of interesting statistics but I must end this posting before it gets too long. So, one last fact ... 16% (2.3 million) of all migrants entering the Gulf States are Christian. Think about it!