God Grew Tired of Us

Last night, Rachel and I watched God Grew Tired of Us. It's the story of three Lost Boys from Sudan who are resettled in the US and the adjustments they have to make.

The movie starts with the story of the Lost Boys. To sum up, they started out with 27,000 boys from Sudan who were displaced by the Civil War. Most of their families were killed, and they started walking to Ethiopia. They briefly settled in a camp there, but soon had to leave, walking back through Sudan to a camp in northern Kenya. By the time they had arrived, they had walked 1,000 miles. There were 12,000 left. I cannot even begin to imagine...

That is where I sit with most of the movie. I cannot imagine. They show the Lost Boys who were resettled to America being shown how to use a toilet, how to turn on a light, what a potato chip is. Every inch of this country is new to them, and it is a strange place where people do not talk to one another or to them. They work all the time, but their hearts are constantly turned back to the Sudan. What can they do?

It's easy to think of moving to the US as a tremendous blessing, but the reality is that it is hard, and they have been torn away from many of their family and friends. They want to go back and help, to make a difference, so they work and work and work and send their money back. Towards the end of the movie one of them is able to bring his mother to the US, and it got a little dusty in the room when they showed their reunion.

It's a heartbreaking story, but a heartwarming one as well, for it shows instances of hope and stories of those working to make a difference. The question that sits upon my soul is: Knowing the story, what difference am I prepared to make?

God Grew Tired of Us, the website

The John Dau Foundation, through which one of the Lost Boys is working for change in the Sudan