‘Lost Boy’ finding his way back home to Sudan via Kearney
4 min readBy ASHLEY LEEVER Hub Intern Kearney Hub |
KEARNEY — To the members of Kearney Evangelical Church, Duop Wie Met is much more than a Lost Boy of Sudan: He is a member of the family.
Ashley Leever, Kearney Hub
Refugee finds home
Duop Wie Met, right, a Sudanese refugee, found a home in Kearney with Kearney Evangelical Church. When the Rev. Mike Shields and the congregation heard Duop’s story, they were eager to help him and his village of Kuat in South Sudan.
When Duop, who goes by his first name and now is 30 years old, entered the church a year ago, the congregation knew there was something special about him.
“He showed up in our church, and we just realized that there is something that God wants us to do with him and for him,” said the Rev. Mike Shields, senior pastor at Kearney Evangelical Free Church.
Robert and Kathy Fitzgerald, members of the church, took Duop under their wing and learned about his journey from Sudan to Kearney.
Doup’s story began when he was 15 in Kuat, Sudan, a small village in the southern part of the country caught in the middle of the Second Sudanese Civil War.
The violence and terror of the war came on his family’s doorstep when soldiers from the north demanded Duop’s parents convert from Christianity to Islam. But when his parents refused to give up their faith, they became victims of the war.
“They come at night surrounding our house, and they called my dad to come out,” Duop said. “My dad came out and they shot him. My mother came out to see what was going on, and they shot her.”
With his older siblings, Duop fled Sudan to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Duop was chosen for a program started by the United States and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle refugees in the United States.
After relocating to the United States, Duop was placed in an apartment in Houston with other Sudanese refugees.
“They were given a sum of money and told, ‘OK, here you go. Find a job and figure out your life.’ And he was 16,” Shields said. “It was better than where he was but still very, very hard.”
When Duop discovered there were many Sudanese refugees living in the Omaha area, he moved.
“I thank God he brought me here. I have no clue why I came to the U.S., but he knows. I hadn’t thought about the U.S.A. before or Nebraska. But God is good,” Duop said.
In Omaha, Duop met Peter Deng, another Sudanese, and lived with him while they attended Burke High School. After graduation, Duop moved to Grand Island to study at Central Community College.
While Duop was in the United States, his family remained in Ethiopia, away from the violence that ravaged Sudan. When Duop’s sister, Nyaruon Wie Met, arranged for Duop to get married, he dropped out of college so he could return to Africa for the wedding.
Duop returned to Nebraska after getting married to continue his education while his wife stayed in Ethiopia.
When Duop and Peter moved to Kearney, Peter introduced him to the Kearney Evangelical Free Church. Duop discovered a new home and family with the members of Evangelical Free Church.
“I’m glad I’m here,” Duop said. “Thank you for Pastor Mike and the people in church. Those are my family. We don’t have a blood relationship, but in Christ we are brother and sister forever.”
Even after Peter moved back to Africa, Duop didn’t feel alone.
Dan and Sandy Fong opened their home to Duop as he continued his education and began working in Kearney. But with his wife and newborn daughterstill in Africa, Sudan was never far from Duop’s mind.
“She was born when I came back. It’s hard to stay away from your family, but God knows the time we need to be together and time for us to separate,” Duop said.
http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/article_63ad3e4c-c56c-11e0-9045-001cc4c002e0.html
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