Lost Boy No More
A True Story of Survival and Salvation
The Coastline September 2007
The Rev. Mary Robert
Assistant Rector, All Saints, Mobile
Mobile, AL Mobile, Al For more than 20 years, civil war raged in Sudan, killing and displacing millions of people. Some 35,000 Sudanese boys were forced by violence from their southern Sudan villages in the late 1980’s.
Named ‘Lost Boys’ after Peter Pan’s cadre of orphans, these boys lost their families and wandered nearly 1,000 miles across the desert – first to Ethiopia and then to Kenya, where they spent a decade in a Kenyan refugee camp – in search of peace and safety. Since then, nearly 4,000 ‘lost boys’ have come to the U.S.
One of the ‘boys’ – now a grown man – is Abraham Nhial. He is a deacon affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta and leader of a Sudanese congregation that worships at St. Michael and All Angels
Episcopal Church in Stone Mountain, GA. He has also written a book called Lost Boy No More, a story of his journey.
During his time at the refugee camp in Kenya, Abraham made the acquaintance of Thomas Deng, father of the Sudanese family at All Saints. Thomas put our clergy in touch with Abraham and invited him to come to visit us at All Saints in Mobile.
On August 21 Pastor Abraham, along with two more “Lost Boys” shared their ordeal to a group of listeners at All Saints. They talked about what it was like to be suddenly alone at the age of 5 or 6 after their families had been slaughtered, and the things they had to do in order to stay alive on their journey. Many of them did not make it; thousands of boys died. But the most moving moments of their talk came when each of them said that their lives had not been spared because they were better or smarter or more worthy than any of the other boys. Instead, they believe they survived so they can be witnesses to the genocide that has so wounded our common humanity, and witnesses to God’s profound and saving love for them.
Lost Boy No More can be found on Amazon.com and in local bookstores.
Email The Rev. Mary Robert: asstrector@allsaintsmobile.org
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