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Covenant Sudanese Refugee Stabbed in Gang Attack
By Craig Pinley
CHICAGO, IL (May 31, 2002) - A Sudanese refugee who attends Grace Covenant Church
was one of three refugees stabbed Saturday evening when their group was
attacked by gang members at a local park.
Five Sudanese refugees who attend Grace Covenant were among a group of 10
playing basketball at the park when more than a dozen gang members
assaulted them. Three of the refugees were stabbed before police were
called. One of them, Grace Covenant parishioner James Deng, was treated for
a cut to the abdomen and released from Illinois Masonic Hospital Monday. He
is staying with another parishioner this week. Another man was seriously
injured, but was released from the hospital Wednesday. The third individual
was cut, but did not require hospitalization.
Four gang members were arrested and charged with various crimes. One gang
member who stabbed the refugees is being charged with simple battery,
according to one of Deng's friends. A court date is being planned for June.
"We always play at the park and we've been harassed before," Deng said.
"But we
didn't know that they had weapons this time. We don't want any problems -
we came here for peace."
Deng and his friends are living on Chicago's northeast side, a few miles
and two bus rides from Grace Covenant. Deng is working in the Merchandise
Mart building in downtown Chicago as an elevator operator. He said that he
and his friends were playing half-court basketball when the gang members
interrupted the game. The refugees asked the other
group to leave, but the gang members began to provoke the refugees,
according to Deng. One gang member threw a glass bottle at Deng minutes
before the gang members pulled out weapons.
It seemed a cruel irony that the Sudanese refugees would be in such danger
from a simple pickup basketball game. After all, they had come to the
United States to escape persecution. Known as the "Lost Boys," Deng was
among some 10,000 children and young adults that were uprooted from their
country during Sudan's civil war in 1987. After spending nearly a decade
living in a Kenya refugee camp, Deng arrived in the U.S. in September 2001.
In November 2000, Grace Covenant Church began hosting refugees - a mother
and daughter - and last summer the church agreed to sponsor five men. Grace
Covenant now sponsors 18 "Lost Boys." The church met the Sudanese through
World Relief connections and a relationship with a suburban Chicago
congregation. Grace Covenant parishioner Pam Hubbard said that about 150
Sudanese refugees have been settled in Chicago's north side.
The Project Phoenix group meets weekly with sponsors who come from a number
of church denominations. Church and Project Phoenix connections have helped
sponsors better equip the refugees through medical care and education,
among other things.
Deng has taken English courses and has dealt with bad weather, major
cultural adjustments and other hardships. God is bigger than this hardship
too, he said.
"God brought me out of the hardness and the extreme conditions," Deng said
of his trip across
Sudan. "We lost 5,000 boys in the river. But God was with me. In the Bible,
it says that nothing is hard if you are praying. Praying makes me feel
strong. I cannot cry - God protected me in a difficult thing and I can
attest to God's love. Maybe there is something that God wants to show me in
this (stabbing)."
Grace Covenant Church is planning a rally Sunday evening at Potawatomi
Park, located at the corner of Walcott and Rogers Avenue in Chicago. For
more information on the rally or about the needs of Sudanese refugees
sponsored by Grace and other churches, contact church staff at 773-478-0208
or Pam Hubbard at 773-267-9238.
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