The Lost Boys – October 12, 2003
When Jeremiah was nine years old, he lived with his family in a Sudanese village. They farmed, raised a few cattle, and kept warm around a single fire when the evenings grew cold. Then a brutal civil war in Sudan spread quickly to the farms and villages. To protect his young son, Jeremiah’s father sent him into the desert with a handful of other boys. The village was soon destroyed. The boys made their way alone for days until they joined with other children orphaned by the war. Soon the group numbered nearly 6,000, the oldest being only 12 years old. For months they traveled on foot, enduring thirst, hunger, wild animals, and bandits. The older boys did what they could for the younger ones; still, many died. Survivors eventually settled into a refugee camp in Kenya. They came to be known as the “Lost Boys” because they no longer had families, homes, or even a country they could return to. If you ask Jeremiah why he survived, he will tell you it’s because he believed in God.
After seven years of uncertainty, living in a camp that was pillaged most nights, Jeremiah was sent to America. Here he saw his first light switch, his first oven, his first shower. He enrolled in school. Jeremiah speaks three tribal languages, but he struggled learning English.
If you ask Jeremiah what his plans are, he doesn’t hesitate to answer. No, he doesn’t expect to stay in a heated apartment with a washing machine and a television. And remarkably he is not bitter about the war or who perpetuated it. He plans on returning to Sudan as a doctor. “There are many left behind,” he says. “It’s for me to go back, to help as many as I can.”
In the book of Mark we read, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”1 Jeremiah well remembers having no one to turn to but God. He now hopes to alleviate the physical hurt of the children in his country and to gently guide their wounded spirits back to God.
Program #3869
Mark 10:14.