Rev Peep

First Christian Church along with our friends at First Lutheran Church are hosting a screening of the documentary, The Lost Boys of Sudan. This screening came about just last week when Roger Lenander, First Lutheran’s minister, and I were having coffee together. Each of us had thought separately that a screening of this powerful documentary should happen in our community, because we have a growing Sudanese community here, among whom are young men who experienced the events depicted in this film. When we realized we had the same idea, we thought God might be telling us something, so we moved quickly to set a date to show the film.

In last week’s, Dialogue, I wrote about discovering that Daniel Mapur, the spiritual leader of our local Sudanese community, is himself a “Lost Boy,” one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of boys from southern Sudan who were forced to flee their homes after their villages were attacked and who fled over a thousand miles to find safety in refugee camps. I had seen news stories on TV several years ago about the “Lost Boys” when so many of them came to the United States under the status of special refugees. They were amazing stories about these young men who had survived horrible events, grew up in refugee camps and came to a foreign culture to make a new life for themselves. I was shocked to discover that in Daniel, a piece of living history was sitting across the room from me. I knew that people in our church and community needed to hear his story and the stories of others like him.

I believe that Sunday, July 15 will be an important day not only for our church but also for our community and the Sudanese among us. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Getting to know our Sudanese neighbors and hearing their stories reminds us how connected we are on a global level. Even in America’s heartland, we are not removed from violence occurring on the other side of the world. What happens there affects our community. If there is any doubt that Christ’s command for us to love our neighbors includes people all over the world, that doubt should disappear as we open the doors of our community to refugees from Sudan.
2. How St. Joseph welcomes the Sudanese not only demonstrates our community’s character but it determines what our future identity will be. If we, as citizens of St. Joseph, welcome the Sudanese we demonstrate that we are a community that welcomes diversity and cares for those in need. If we exclude them and even demonize them, we reveal that we are a community of people with stiff necks and hard hearts—a community that cannot make room for anyone different, especially those without the blessings we take for granted.
3. When we learn about real people in places like Sudan, we discover how our nation’s policies can all too often contribute to the suffering of people around the world. In the case of Sudan, the United States has failed to take a decisive stand against its government, not only concerning the brutalities committed in southern Sudan during the civil war but also the genocide in the Darfur region, because the Sudanese government has marginally cooperated in the “war on terror.” That same government has been accused of committing war crimes and genocide against its own people, but it is propped up by the oil it sells to China. Thus far, our government has put no real pressure on China to influence events in Sudan. Also, thousands of Sudanese live in refugee camps, so every time our government cuts funding for aid agencies, those cuts have real effects upon whether people live or die. Whether we like it or not, we are guilty of not asking our political leaders to address these situations.
4. As we learn about suffering around the world, we can be renewed in our determination as Christians to work to eliminate suffering right here in our own corner of the world.

I hope you will mark July 15 on your calendar and make plans to attend. Not only that, but I hope you will invite friends from outside the church to come too.

Grace and Peace,

Chase