July 16, 2007
By Sharon Almirall

When the Rev. Anderia Arok traveled to southern Sudan recently, not only did he see his mother for the first time in 23 years, but he also experienced the area's opportunities for re-building and realized the people in his village in the area known as Bor had become Christians.

Arok, priest-in-charge of the Sudanese Community Church, a special congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado (online at http://www.coloradodiocese.org/) housed at Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral (online at http://www.sjcathedral.org/) in Denver, recently returned home after spending three months in Sudan.

Arok left Denver March 27 for vacation and also to work at his former diocese in Khartoum (http://khartoum.anglican.org/). His first stop was in Addis Ababa. From there he traveled to Khartoum then to Juba and then to Bor. At Bor, he took a bus to the area where his village was located. He walked the final 15 miles of the trip to his mother's village arriving at 8 p.m. one evening.

Arok had not been able to see his mother, Martha Ajak Deng, all these years, because when the war broke out, she was living in the south and he was living in the north. Three of his brothers were killed in the war. His mother moved to Kenya with other refugees during the fighting and Arok did not know where she was. In 2004, he learned his mother had been living with his brother, David Kuar, who had died of natural causes. Arok was able to meet with someone who could bring his mother back to southern Sudan to live with his great uncle.

Episcopal News Service