U2charist: Public Walk Of Hope

For The Lost Boys Of The Sudan

The Young Adults in the Church (YAC) Class at Trinity Episcopal Church has been working hard on its mission project for nearly a year. In May the group will host a weekend of events, concluding with “A Walk of Hope” on Saturday, May 30.

The project started last spring when three of the Lost Boys of Sudan came to Trinity for the church’s annual Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Sunday service. During that service one of the church’s youth was moved by their story and asked them this question, “What else can we do to help?”

She and a group of other high school students as well as the adult mentors started a group called Educating Youth To Youth (EY2Y), which has been planning and will produce a weekend of events to raise money and awareness for The Hope of Sudan this spring. The Hope of Sudan is an organization started by two former Trinity Newtown parishioners, Annmarie and Jerry DeLuccio.

The EY2Y group decided to have the Lost Boys visit Newtown again this year, this time to visit Newtown High School and area schools on Friday, May 29, to speak with the students about their time as The Lost Boys, their country, the ongoing wars, and how they are helping the Sudan today.

Then on Saturday, May 30, there will be A Walk of Hope followed by a U2charist service. The Walk of Hope will be a show of solidarity for refugees everywhere. It will allow everyone to spend some time with The Lost Boys — who are now grown men — while remembering the milestones of the young boys’ thousand-mile journey in the late 1980s through treacherous regions during a violent war without any adult help.

The walk will begin at Reed Intermediate School at 6 pm and will last about 45 minutes. Participants will walk across the street from Reed School and around the Fairfield Hills walking trails. Bring walking shoes.

“We will walk because The Lost Boys’ lives depended on how fast and how far their tiny bare feet could take them every day, with hot sand prickling every step, for 1,000 miles with little or no sleep, day after day, night after night, across Sudan, the largest country in Africa,” say the EY2Y members. “Because they walked, we walk.

“We also wanted to give people a chance to participate if they are uncomfortable attending a religious service. The Walk of Hope will provide that opportunity for those people.”

The U2charist will begin at 7 pm, back at Reed Intermediate School. It will be an Episcopal Eucharist service that features the music of the rock band U2 and a message about God’s call to rally around the UN Millennium Development Goals.

There will be items to purchase, music, lighting, and the words for the service will be projected onto a large screen with photos and inspirational messages about The Lost Boys and the Sudan. It will be like a rock concert, promise the EY2Y group members. Some of the music will be a live band, and some will be from U2 recordings.

There is no charge to attend, but a freewill offering will be collected during the offertory and all proceeds will go to The Hope of Sudan Alliance. EY2Y is hoping hoping to raise $5,000, which is enough to pay for a well in a village of Sudan.

For additional information about the event, to volunteer, or to offer a donation or sponsorship (which the youth group is still seeking), visit TrinityNewtownCT.org/U2charist or call 426-9070.