God Grew Tired of Us

This semester in my writing class at BYU we are studying refugees.  As part of our coursework we were asked to watch the National Geographic film “God Grew Tired of Us”.  This is an award-winning film on the Lost Boys of Sudan; a group of boys who were forced to flee from their homes at a very young age because of the brutal civil war in their home country of Sudan.  Against all odds they made it to a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya where they were given food, education, and, most importantly, safety.  Out of the 25,000 lost boys, 3800 were selected to relocate to the United States; the film follows three of those boys, now young men, who were selected to relocate.

I was especially inspired by John Bul Dau who was given the chance to relocate to Syracuse, New York.  He now has a college degree, has founded two separate organizations to help his fellow “brothers” back in Kakuma, and has written a book about his life story.  John was inspiring to me because he had the opportunity to create a better life for himself and those he loved and he made the most of it, even though it was a daunting task.  It wasn’t easy for him, he often worked two jobs to earn more money, but he never gave up or forgot where he had come from and those he had left behind.  He was able to locate his mother and bring her and one of his sisters to live with him in America, so you could definitely say his hard work paid off. 

How many of us have the opportunity to help others and we don’t take it?  How many of us when we hear a cry for help don’t take it seriously?  The cry for help around the world is real and we need to answer it as best we can.  There are countless amounts of people that are struggling and in need of help and what are we doing to answer them?  That is definitely a personal question because there are countless ways to help but one thing that I learned from this film is that none of us are justified in doing nothing.  We need to all work hard, like John, to create a better world for everyone in it. 

To learn more about the Lost Boys or the film ‘God Grew Tired of Us’ visit: www.godgrewtiredofus.com