Finally Throwing Starfish With Big Jim

I have found there are certain prayers that God always answers:  the ones that echo His own heart and His own commands.  “Visiting those in prison” is among one of the many things Jesus implores us to do in the book of Matthew, Chapter 25.  I listened to my former law school Dean Jim Gash (aka Big Jim here in Uganda, see his post here for further information: http://www.throwingstarfish.com/2012/02/wholly-cow/) choke back tears (yes, Big Jim has a soft side) while reading that Godly command this morning before our Pepperdine Law  team headed out to a Ugandan prison.   I couldn’t help but choke back a few tears of my own when I thought of all that has transpired to bring me to African soil.

It All Started With Henry

Several years ago, Jim Gash started coming to Uganda to help juveniles accused of crimes in the Remand Homes outside of Uganda awaiting trial.  The stories that Jim brought back to Pepperdine Law were absolutely unbelievable: captives being freed, cases being resolved, justice brought to the broken and scared children in Uganda and, in true Jim style, many tears shed.  Jim became closely acquainted with a young man named Henry (or Hillary), who he believed had been wrongly accused of murder.

Like Henry, I also faced some difficult circumstances when I was a teenager that led to me living outside of my home, afraid of what the future held.  I wrote to Henry and told him I would join him in prayer, and encouraged him that our great God would lead him into a future like mine, full of redemption and hope.

This week, we wait for Jim’s appeal on behalf of Henry’s innocence to be handed down real time in Uganda, as Henry studies at an incredible school and everyday lives the promises that all who are connected to Jim from Pepperdine have been praying for him for years.

Texans Really Are The Chosen Ones

As you can imagine, the criminal-defense-attorney-for-Jesus-mentoring-juvenile-gang-bangers part of me immediately began praying that I too would join Jim on an adventure in Uganda someday.  I had no idea what would happen, but waited with hopeful anticipation of my Savior to make a move.  And so he did.

Jim, who has now made him eleventh trip to Uganda, told me several months ago that he was bringing another group of lawyers and law students to Africa this summer to run a pilot program that would hopefully  institute formal plea bargaining in the Ugandan judicial system.  I told him I was absolutely in, but when the cost of the trip came through my email, I had a sinking feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to afford the trip.  I had recently transitioned out of one job, and recently become engaged, so my parents (who I might typically bat my baby blues for in order to do mission work in Africa) were understandably in full wedding saving mode.

After I emailed Jim and told him no dice, I got right back down on my knees and said “God, you know I want to go, if this is Your will, please provide a way.”

Not two days later, Jim called me and left an excited voicemail that I needed to call him ASAP.  I remember screaming with joy when I heard the message, already knowing God made a way.  When I called Jim back, he explained to me that a Texan Pepperdine Law Alum who was scheduled to go on the trip was not able to go.  However, the alum had asked Jim if there was another lawyer who wanted to go who could not afford the trip, he would like to front the cost. Jim said he knew just the lawyer.

After we got off the phone, I remember thinking “Of COURSE God would use a Texan to accomplish His work.”

Aslan & Ashes

Since arriving in Africa, we had an incredible weekend touring the countryside and bonding as a team.  We watched a crocodile eat a chicken (I think we ALL know who won that battle), went on a safari and saw a pride of lions (I had every song from the Lion King running through my head), drove through the beautiful Rwenzori mountains, and had dinner at one of the most stunning places I have ever seen on top of a crater lake outside of Fort Portal, Uganda. (Google: Kyaninga Lodge – an incredible story)

I’ll never forget waking up in the middle of the night in the safari camp, sensing that I heard the growl of a large cat and later the snort of an even larger Hippo (I had NOT idea they are apparently vicious — I don’t think my childhood books portrayed them as such).   I convinced myself that I was hearing things out in the African savannah, only to find out the next morning that yes, Aslan himself, was strolling around the camp the night before.  Glad we listened to our wide-eyed porters who told us NOT TO GO OUT OF THE ROOM FOR ANY REASON when they dropped our bags that night.  Val Kilmer should’ve hung out with these guys.

However amazing every experience this trip has been and will be, nothing can compare to the moment I stood in the Fort Portal prison, surrounded by the stench of the urine and un-bathed bodies of  900 prisoners cooped up in a building made for 200, pouring sweat as the African sun beat down on my American suit, taking in the whole reason for our trip: to visit those in prison.

For anyone who hasn’t experienced anything remotely close to the previous paragraph, I would venture to say that you haven’t quite fully lived.   There is a deep darkness, overwhelming sadness, and oppressive fear in this prison and many I have visited, but as the apostle John says, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

In the deepest abyss, the deepest joy can be found.  It is the deep magic that Aslan talks about in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”  It is the smile from the prisoner who can’t believe someone came across the world to visit him, it is the tears of joy when he realizes his defense attorney has finally arrived, it is the fire in his eyes when he knows someone is there to fight for his innocence, it is the resilience he shows when he wants to take responsibility for his crime and move forward with dignity and hope.

This country, very much like the United States, has a justice system that is flawed.  It is overwhelming to see the injustice, the corruption, the innocent being held as guilty, the guilty going free as innocent, and the pain caused to countless victims.  How do we bring justice to Africa this week when the task seems so daunting?

It starts by throwing one starfish back at a time.

(See Jim’s blog to follow our Ugandan adventure, here: www.throwingstarfish.com)