Peter Atak's Story
Peter was rescued from Domestic Servitude & Abuse
“Pastor James feeds us and we don’t even have to kill for it.”
-Peter, age 9
If you can’t save them all, what difference does saving one child from slavery make?
When I am in Sudan, I often vacillate between being amazed at how God is at work in each individual life, one miraculous “save” at a time and feeling angry that precious children are in such desperate straights to begin with.
This struggle was nearly overwhelming the night that James and I found Peter being beaten by a drunken woman. Peter is another one of the “lucky ones” who, as an orphan, was supposed to be housed by a local family until our dormitories are finished.
Peter was one of the first orphans that showed up for school when James first began teaching under the trees four years ago. At that time, there was no food, no water and only one textbook for all 153 orphans who came to learn. But, there was James! Each day, James stood under the tree beckoning children to come learn as he taught them to read by writing the lessons from the solitary textbook on the one chalkboard he had.
James taught the children to read and write while also telling them of the love of Jesus. As the children began to follow James, they also wanted to learn to take care of themselves like James did. The boys followed James to the river for bathing and James taught them simple things like how to comb their hair. With little protection from the elements and studying all day long without breakfast or lunch, the children still came faithfully to learn day after day.
So why was Peter being beaten? As we rushed in to stop the beating, the woman told James that Peter wanted to go to the river for bathing when instead she needed him to gather food for her family. She deemed that irresponsible and beat him for it. James brought Peter back to our compound where he has lived ever since.
That night, as I tried to make conversation with Peter, I asked him, “Peter, you are nine years old and the New Life Ministry School has only been here for a few years. What did you do as a little boy before James started the school?”
Peter’s face lit up as he told me, “Oh Mama Kimberly, my friends and I used to go out into the bush and look for wild animals we could eat. But we had a hard time killing them so sometimes we would get wild dogs to kill the game for us, but then we had to beat the dogs off of the kill so that we could eat it before the dog did! But now, Pastor James feeds us everyday and we don’t even have to kill for it!”
Peter dances in our liturgical dance classes with Nyibol and says he wants to become a pilot. Through our child sponsorship ministry, we are working hard to make sure Peter has the opportunity to do just that.
- Kimberly Smith,
President
