In the summer of 2001, Community Christian Church sponsored a picnic for refugee families at Victory Court Apartments in Aurora. This is a picture of some of the kids looking up at a pinata and waiting for candy to spill out. The boy in the green shirt with the big smile is Gareng. He's from Sudan. His parents are Yusuf and Teriza. They used to come to a refugee Bible study and prayer group that my husband and I lead for a couple years. Gar
eng was always a tough kid. He got in trouble a lot. Bothered the neighbors. Was rough on volunteers. We figured he probably had a pretty rough past in Sudan. But at least he got out. At least he was in America now where he would get a good education and the help he needed to succeed. That's what we thought. But this morning my husband opened the newspaper and discovered that Gareng is being tried as an adult for the murder of a 47 year old substance abuse counselor named Marilyn Bethell. What happend to the smiling boy from the picture? What happened to Gareng?The newspaper says that Gareng grew up seeing government agents in Sudan chopping people's arms off and strapping men to an electrified bed frame. It also says that he was sexually abused at the age of five. That he had been nothing but trouble in America. Arrested by the time he was eleven for burglary. Suspended from school. He told a school counselor that he had participated in drive-by shootings.
I feel stunned. Like someone has knocked the wind out of me. I wasn't that close to Gareng. He was hard to to get close to. It was more fun to hang out with the kids who were easy to play with. Who didn't swear at you. But if I knew then what I know now... I might have done something different. Now this broken, victimized little boy is in a prison cell somewhere dealing with the darkness of his past and his actions alone. And there are millions of Garengs. I just happen to know this one. When will we start to take the Gospel seriously enough to keep this stuff from happening? I'm so sorry, Gareng. So, so sorry.
3 comments:
Ahem... I am, or rather WAS, a very good, close friend of Marilyn Bethell. Gareng took her away. How can you be so sorry for poor little Gareng? Isn't one of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not KILL?"
I miss my friend Mari... Gareng can rot in hell for all I care.
Mari did not deserve what poor little Gareng did to her. She was not responsible for him blowing every chance he was given once out of Sudan. Some people rise above - some people are just pure evil. It's obvious this guy is the latter. He has no remorse and he is accountable for his own actions. Where was your god when he was murdering my friend?
Numerous people tried to help this person and he still chose to be a criminal.
I have no sympathy for him - others have lived through far worse and not harmed others. I hope he gets the max and rots in jail - he deserves to.
Your god failed.
Unfortunately you failed also in anything you may have done to help him in his new life here.
Your god was nowhere to be found when this creature (he doesn't even deserve to be called human much less "Poor little Gareng") brutally raped and murdered Mari.
Your god obviously does not exist, how else could he justify what happened to Mari? If your god actually existed he would NOT ALLOW this to happen to ANYONE. Period.
Sorry to break it to you, but god does not exist now, if he ever did before.
It's too bad this violent creature wasn't put to death. Hopefully his stay in the prison system is a VERY VERY short one, and hopefully it's reminiscent of what he remembers from his homeland. He should have stayed there.
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