God Grew Tired of Us

I watched a moving documentary this week about the lost boys of Sudan. If you want to feel guilty, blessed, disturbed, and grateful then I would suggest watching "God Grew Tired of Us". There were also humourous parts when the lost boys are integrated into the United States. On the airplane they ate their little pats of butter by themselves and the ketchup by itself. They said that the food on the plane just wasn’t as good as what they were used to. After you see how they had been living and eating, it makes this statement almost ludicrous to us. They had to be taught how to flip a light switch, use a trash can, go to the grocery store, etc. There was one humourous episode when a boy is smashing Ritz crackers with the handle of a hammer, then he added milk and boiled it into some sort of mush.

I have never really understood the whole situation of the lost boys, and I will try to impart the little knowledge I have gained. When Sudan began to have conflict a couple of decades ago, there was a decree made that all boys 12 years and under in the South of Sudan should be killed. Therefore, a mass exodus of young boys left and began a dangerous trek across the desert and into Ethiopia seeking asylum. Eleven and Twelve year old boys became the head of household and would have several younger children to care for. They walked for miles and miles, and many thousands of them died. Some of the boys were in charge of burying the dead. One of the lost boys was being interviewed some 17 years later, and he said, "we thought God had grew tired of us, and was punishing us for all the bad things we had done." He also said, "We knew God was with us, or we would have never made it through the desert." One of the lost boys also said, "Americans should be more grateful for what they have." I think if God has grown tired of anyone, it would be the ungrateful Americans. I pray that I will use the gifts God has given me more efficiently and effectively.