Lost Boys/Sudan

“The name Lost Boys came to be when our village was attacked by fierce Arab horsemen. We, little boys, spewed out of the blazing village like a colony of ants disturbed in their nest. We ran in different directions not knowing where we are going … We, little boys, were so messy, all chaos and cries filling the dark, fiercely lightless night.”

- Alephonsion Deng

The story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is a heartbreaking one. Since adopting a son of Sudanese heritage, I have read many testimonies, news stories, and several books about these children (now grown men) who suffered and saw horrors that we in our comfortable American mindset can hardly imagine.

Most recently, I read They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, the true story of three Lost Boys (two brothers and a cousin.) They, along with an estimated 20,000 other small boys – many as young as five or six years old – escaped the burning and pillaging of their homes and villages to walk for years and thousands of miles in search of safety. Each of them looked death in the face, through starvation, exposure, the attacks of wild animals and other human beings. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of this story for me was that each time the boys thought they had found safety, within days or months or years they were again forced to run for their lives. I cannot imagine living this way, and especially as a parent my heart breaks to think of young children thrust into this unbearable situation! It is estimated that at least half of the boys that fled for their lives did not survive.

This book is not easy to read. The atrocities that were (and continue to be) committed against the men, women and children of southern Sudan are so terrible that there were moments when I wanted to shut my mind and when I literally had to stop and pray about the things I had read. It is also not written from a Christian perspective, but personally I believe that as a Christian I need to know and care and hopefully do something about the suffering around me – because God cares about the hurting, and many of those who are suffering in Sudan are our own brothers and sisters in Christ. The author of Hebrews tells us to: “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.” (Hebrews 13:3)

Voice of the Martyrs is an excellent resource to learn more about the current-day persecuted church. They offer a free newsletter for adults as well as a version for children. This week, they published on their website another heartbreaking story from Sudan.

You can read the story in its entirety at the link below:

http://www.persecution.com/news/index.cfm?action=fullstory&newsID=571

Last month, an unidentified man walked inside the Thursday evening church service of Faith Evangelical Baptist Church in Khorfullus, South Sudan. He sat down among the young people and then detonated a bomb, killing five people (mostly children) and seriously injuring nine others. It is believed that this was an Islamic-motivated persecution designed to scare people away from worshipping the one true God.

This is what Christians in other parts of the world are facing right now, today. We must stand with them and pray for them. This is a challenge and a rebuke to me as I live my Christian life so “comfortably” both in the States and even here in Chile …