Dinner and a Movie: The Good Lie

The Catholic Information Center hosted 25 people on Tuesday, January 30th to watch “The Good Lie” (2016), a movie dramatizing the stories of ”Lost Boys” of Sudan. The discussion was led by Paulist Father Bill Edens and Christian Hawkins from Bethany Christian Services.

The movie tells the story of 3 boys and their sister who were resettled from the Kampala Refugee Camp, where they spent 13 years, into the United States. It is estimated that 27,000 orphaned boys (most girls were taken into slavery) fled from civil war violence in South Sudan. To survive, these children had to walk 700 to 1000 miles through desert territory full of wild animals and militias to make it to United Nations Refugee Camps in Uganda.  About 3600 were resettled to the United States.
Martin, one of the “Lost Boys” who was resettled to the Grand Rapids area in 1991, was able to join the discussion in person and give eye witness testimony.

Another of the “Lost Boys”, John Dau, who now lives in Virginia, spoke to the group via Skype. John is a motivational speaker and a human rights activist who has raised more than $3 million to establish medical clinics in South Sudan. He was featured in a Documentary entitled “God Grew Tired of Us” (2006), which is available through Amazon.  For information about how to assist the work of his organization go to johndaufoundation.org.

One of the attendees, Emily Lopez Robinson, was so moved by the experience she sent us this message:
“Thank you so much for the opportunity to witness this remarkable film at the CIC. I was so struck by the shared humanity of the attendees – not a dry eye in the room, that’s for sure! I didn’t expect to be so moved. If only everyone in our country could open their hearts after witnessing such stirring stories from immigrants to the USA. THANK YOU!”