A moving and inspiring account of one priest's
life-changing experience among
Sudanese refugees.
In 2000, Gary Smith, a Jesuit priest, left a familiar life in the Pacific Northwest to live among Sudanese refugees struggling to survive in refugee camps in northern Uganda. He traveled to this dangerous, pitiless place to be with these forsaken people out of a conviction that "Jesuits should be going where no one else goes." But he also went to discover the answer to a question many of us ask: What is most important in life? For Smith, the answer came down to connecting with other human beings, to relationships--"to being loved and giving in love."
Smith's journal is a vivid, inspiring account of the deep connections he forged during his six years with the refugees in Uganda. Along the way, he discovers a suffering people who, despite being displaced by a brutal civil war, find the spiritual strength to let go of the many and deep sorrows of the past. Smith is both a witness to and a teacher of how the Holy Spirit's power provides this spiritual strength to move forward.
Gary Smith, SJ, worked for six years with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Sudanese refugee camps in Uganda. He is the author of Radical Compassion: Finding Christ in the Heart of the Poor, an account of his ministry to the poor, disabled, and needy in Portland, Oregon.
