Our youth group has also been active. Among other activities, they hosted an event for area youth to meet and learn from the “Lost Boys” of Sudan in July. They also baked cookies for the Welcome Center fundraiser to raise money for their mission trip to St. Croix.
You would not have found a place to stand had you arrived at noon at the Houghton Room on Saturday, July 26. The room was packed with high school students and some parents who had gathered both to see the movie, God Grew Tired of Us, and to meet the man whose life it portrayed. We agonized as we saw thousands of children walk through the Sudanese outback without shoes, clothes or water, we enjoyed watching them organize themselves in the refugee camps, face the shock of an utterly different life in the Unites States, and finally weep when John Dau, now our friend and hero, was reunited with his mother.
After the movie, the teens had a chance to share pizza and conversation with six of the Lost Boys and to volunteer to help out at the benefit the next day. The church was filled as was the garden of Gordon Hayward the next day as the event continued. Thanks to the volunteers who helped with parking and feeding the teens, we were able to help raise $10,000 for the project.
The next Sunday we also exulted to know that John Dau had returned home to Syracuse, New York and had become the father to a new baby boy, named Leek...and the birth of our new friendships was complete.
