Two similar (but separate) stories (updated to add the one from Rochester):
From the Rochester, N.Y., "Democrat & Chronicle"...
Jordan Manpign Long knelt before the altar of the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word on Sunday evening [October 30th] surrounded by his soon-to-be peers as they laid their hands on him.
Within moments, he became the first Sudanese pastor of a community of his countrymen, some of whom came from as far as Buffalo for his ordination, and many other members of the church at 597 East Ave. attended as well.
As Bishop Marie Jerge bestowed a crimson stole over his white vestment, Long also became the first Sudanese pastor to be ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in [America].
Long said there are a couple hundred Sudanese living in the Rochester and Buffalo areas. About 20 to 30 were at Sunday's service. Hundreds of others filled the wooden pews to celebrate the end of a journey that began for Long in his native Maban, Sudan, and the start of another chapter in his life, ministering to others.
It was in Ethiopia that the 38-year-old husband and father of four came into contact with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and was "evangelized."
His next stop would be a brief stay in Des Moines, Iowa, where the "first winter was so bizarre," he said.
He decided to attend the Lutheran Theological Seminary [at] Philadelphia.
Long came to Rochester in 1998 and began working in earnest as a layperson for the church. Winter here made his Iowa experience pale in comparison. "The second year, there was so much more snow than I had in Des Moines."
Standing in the foyer before his ordination service, the tall seminarian glowed as he shook hands with congregants. "I feel blessed to be where I am and providing care for my people."
Long's ceremony was a service punctuated by the congregation's songs and the Sudanese Congregational Choir's lilting hymns in Nuer, one of the many languages spoken in Sudan.
Jerge told those present that it while it takes a village to raise a child, it takes the whole church to accomplish something this significant.
Two of Long's children participated in the service. Loang Manpign served as crucifer and Nyanhial Manpign as an usher.
From the Sioux Falls "Argus Leader"...
Abraham Mayom remembers with heart-wrenching clarity the day every child in his refugee camp received a solitary bean to eat.
John Mayen, another one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who were torn from their homes by warfare, fights equally stark memories.
Yet, despite childhood that sometimes seems to be nothing more than litanies of loss and deprivation, both men found God in the refugee camps.
"God really listened to our voice," 25-year-old Mayen says.
Their faith became unshakable. And the 4-year-old congregation of Dinka-speaking Sudanese at the Church of the Holy Apostles recognized that. That's why they selected Mayom and Mayen to become their spiritual leaders.
And on Sunday [November 6th], Bishop Creighton Robertson will ordain Mayom and Mayen as deacons in the Episcopal Church's South Dakota diocese.
They are the first Sudanese to be ordained in the diocese. "We consider ourselves a bicultural diocese," with Dakota/Lakota Sioux involvement, says the Rev. Karen Hall, canon for ministry development. "Now we're multicultural with the inclusion of the Sudanese community."
As a deacon, 28-year-old Mayom says he won't wait for his countrymen to come to him.
"You go to them," he says. "Then they come to the church."
Mayom learned that from the Episcopalian missionaries who came to the refugee camp that was his home for much of his boyhood.
His childhood, in fact, ended when he was 12 years old and war broke out in Sudan.
"I flee with the Lost Boys and some Lost Girls," Mayom says.
Originally, he says, there were 41,000 Lost Boys. Those numbers dwindled over the years, sometimes one at a time, sometimes in dozens of deaths as wild animals, famine and bullets claimed lives.
Sometimes, they only had the leaves they could gather from jungle trees to eat, Mayom says.
At age 6, Mayen was even younger than Mayom when he was forced to flee his home. He tactfully declines to share some of the horrors he witnessed.
"I will not explain them," he says.
But he remembers wandering to Ethiopia with other Lost Boys. That was not such a bad period, he says; the children felt safe and had enough to eat. But soon they were forced to flee to Kenya and the camps.
The two young men met each other in a Kenyan refugee camp. Their friendship was strengthened further when they were chosen to be part of the same group that left the refugee camp for the United States and Sioux Falls.
Much of their survival in the camps depended on the loving care shown by the teachers and missionaries who came to help out, primarily from the United States and the United Kingdom.
They pursued their education as far as they could. Since his arrival in Sioux Falls, Mayom has obtained his GED. Mayen hopes to do the same, with college as his goal.
Mayom and his wife, Elizabeth, already have experienced the grief of losing one child. Their son died in an Omaha hospital. But now they are expecting a second child, a girl, in January. Following the Sudanese custom, they have given her the temporary name of Athiei, which means "grace" as in "grace from God."
The grace of God is something they think of frequently, and it's a gift they've given to those they encounter, says the Rev. Warren Shoberg, pastor of Holy Apostles.
"What better way to teach Christian love throughout the world," Shoberg says.
When Mayom and Mayen were evaluated to test their rightness to become deacons, they gave those who questioned them a deeper insight into their faith, Hall says.
"We asked who Jesus was for them, and they looked incredulous," she says. "They said, 'It's how we live, it's who gives us life.' Although I'm sure conditions were horrific, they never lose hope, they never lose God's sense of presence."
As deacons, Mayom and Mayen stand as a bridge between the congregation and the world surrounding it, Hall says.
"They bring the needs of the world to the community and the resources of the church to the needs of the community outside," she says. "It's a servant ministry."
Sunday, Mayen will be ordained a perpetual deacon, meaning that is his calling, Hall says. Mayom will be ordained a transitional deacon, and in six months he will be ordained again, this time into the priesthood.
Most deacons in South Dakota are not paid, and neither Mayom nor Mayen, both employed at John Morrell & Co., will be paid, Hall says.
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