Sudan Sunrise - Our Programs: Lopez Lomong, Church in Kimotong, South Sudan

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Lopez Lomong, right, speaks at the current church
in Kimotong in November 2009

Lopez Lomong and Tom Prichard
sit beside the altar during a church service
held outside in Kimotong, November 2009

Lopez Lomong in front of the ruins
of his childhood church in Kimotong

Lopez with his sister in Kimotong

Darfurian Muslims help Olympian Lopez Lomong Build a Church

2008 Olympic flag-bearer for the US team, Lopez Lomong, in a dramatic symbol of reconciliation, will be building a church in his southern Sudan village with the help of Darfurian Muslims. As a member of “Team Darfur,” Lopez, the most prominent Sudanese athlete at the Olympic Games, used his visibility to call attention to the ongoing oppression of the people of Darfur.

When Lomong visited his native village of Kimotong, Eastern Equatoria State, Budi County in southern Sudan, he viewed the devastation from the 22-year war in which Darfurians were used by the government against the Southern Sudanese. As a six-year old, Lomong was abducted at gunpoint while attending church. Now he wants to rebuild that church with the help of Sudan Sunrise and Darfurians.

Members of the Darfur Students Association at the University of Juba in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, have enthusiastically volunteered to help build the church. Now Sudan Sunrise is seeking Americans to partner with Lopez and the Darfurians in this extraordinary symbol of reconciliation among former enemies.

“I am so pumped that your organization will start helping me to raise the money to build the forgotten church. I always have the dream to help my community with the gift of a church. By hearing this my dream come true."

__ Lopez Lomong

Lopez Lomong -
Helping the Cause,
November 3, 2009
3:20 min.

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“This project 'Reconciliation Church in Kimotong Village in Sudan' is deeply appreciated by the GOSS.

As a representative of the GOSS Mission-USA, I am so humbled and deeply appreciative of you and your organization, Sudan Sunrise, in extending your hands to bring the two divided communities, Darfuri and South Sudanese, together.

We will pray for you and your other friends who are ready to lend a hand to their Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters in Sudan to rebuild their lives that have been destroyed by the civil war.

I am here to do what I can as the Head of the GOSS Mission-USA to facilitate your project in anyway that I can.

Thank you and God bless you!"

__Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, Head of Goss Mission-USA

“I want to commend Lopez Lomong,
a Sudanese-born U.S. Olympian, and the Darfurian Students Association for their continued efforts to build reconciliation between Muslims and Christians in Sudan .

Lopez Lomong’s latest endeavor is to partner with Darfurian Muslims and Christians to build a church in his home town in Southern Sudan. These type of efforts to build peace and understanding between Muslims and Christians should serve as an example for the world to emulate.”

__Senator Samuel Brownback

"The people of Darfur are indebted to Lopez Lomong for standing with us in our hour of need. There is no better way to express our appreciation and to build our unity than for us to help Lopez build a church for the people of Kimotong."

__Dr. Abdelgabar Adam, President of Darfur Human Rights Organization

“I greatly support the idea of building a church in Lomong’s village. It is a noble cause to build a house of God anywhere.”

__Mohamed Yahya, Darfurian leader and President of the Damanga Coalition