Jen Allen is a member of the eXile international Operational Board. This is her story of how she got involved:
In December of 2008 I finished grad school and ... moved in with my parents. Being unemployed was NOT what I'd had in mind, but the six months spent with them were rich with blessings. Besides just getting to spend a lot of quality time with my incredible parents, I got to do things that most people with jobs couldn't do. One of those was participate in the Rescue with Invisible Children. I traveled from Nashville to St. Louis at 2 in the morning with people I'd met moments before. I got to experience a Rescue and the overwhelming feeling of relief and freedom that comes with the words, "It's over! You're rescued! You are free to go home!" I cannot imagine what it will feel like for the children in the LRA to hear those words...
While "Rescue Riding" I found out about eXile international and as soon as I got home emailed Bethany. I told her she was doing my dream job, and was there any way we could meet? We got together for coffee, decided we liked each other ok, and went our separate ways. Just kidding! We had a great meeting and I think both knew that we'd be seeing more of each other. I decided to find a job in Nashville so I could be involved with eXile, and started spending weekends in the city so I could take Spanish classes and start networking. I started hanging out with some of my friends from the Rescue, and got to go to How It Ends in DC - the Invisible Children/ Resolve Uganda lobby days for Uganda. We met with our Senators and some of the staffers for our representatives, telling them about a bill that was in the works that would ask the Obama Administration to come up with a plan to apprehend Joseph Kony and help rebuild northern Uganda. I don't think anyone I met with ended up co-sponsoring the bill, but it was empowering to ask our Congressmen to take solid, tangible steps toward ending the madness that was spreading out from Uganda into neighboring countries. I also tagged along with Bethany and Ryan to attend meetings with Enough, World Vision, "the Congo Desk", and Michael and Paul with Resolve Uganda.
I got a job in Nashville with a mental health agency working in middle schools, and stayed involved with eXile, helping out with events and going to meetings, and then traveled to Congo with Adria and Bethany in January of 2010. I didn't want to go. I was scared of the volcano and the lake with methane gas and of the soldiers, and because more have been raped than haven't. Mostly I was scared, though, because so much of my heart has been devoted to Uganda for so long, I didn't want to share it with Congo. I didn't want to take on the heart-burden of another country, another people, another place that needs God. I didn't want to meet more beautiful hurting children who would steal my heart and, honestly, make me think, again, about where God might want me.
I went though, and was blessed. The volcano looms over Goma, casting an ominous shadow over the hearts and minds of the people, as they walk over roads and build walls of lava rock from the last time it erupted and covered 70% of the city. The lake was 'harmless', we learned, unless the volcano erupted, so that led back to the volcano and eased the fear of the lake itself. We weren't out after dark, and never went out alone, and stayed at a beautiful Catholic guesthouse to any confrontation with soldiers or rebels or UN peacekeepers. We met people from the west who are doing amazing things for the people. And we met the people. We met Esperance and Kavira and Didi. We met Ombe and Anefa and Paul. And as hard as it is, as much as it hurts to go and then leave so quickly with all these new stories, new memories, new friends, I am blessed and much richer for it.
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