"I Was A Lost Boy": The Story of Aaron Limmo

In this video interview, church planter Aaron Limmo talks about his journey from South Sudan to North Sudan to Ethiopia to now living as a citizen of the United States.

All over the world, there are stories of displaced people searching for a home. These stories become more real when we hear the experiences of individual people. Because each person’s experience is different, it is important to listen to these unique stories.

One of the major stories of displacement in the last few decades is the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” In 1983, a civil war broke out in South Sudan between the Sudanese government and a rebel group called the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Fighting sparked when the government failed to abide by autonomic arrangements separating Sudan from South Sudan. The conflict resulted in more than 1.5 million people losing their lives and several thousand being displaced; among the displaced persons were over 20,000 boys between the ages of 7-17 who were separated from their families. Many of them fled to Ethiopia to seek refuge from the war when the SPLA began inducting young males into their movement.

Aaron Limmo, one of these “lost boys,” is a church planter in Iowa for the United Methodist Church. Watch this video interview with Aaron to learn more about his journey from South Sudan to being a United States citizen.


What You Do Matters

What would you like to do next with "I Was A Lost Boy": The Story of Aaron Limmo?

Practice Hospitality: Migration & Refuge

A guided meditative practice that focuses on showing hospitality to others. How can we extend hospitality to refugees and migrants?

Extra wide welcomerefugees

In this time of mass migration and stranded refugees, the practice of hospitality is needed - on a corporate and individual level. Use this meditative practice from Alive Now to reflect on how our contemplative life is deeply connected to the love we show others, especially through hospitality.


Close your eyes. Breathe out three long, slow exhalations.

Hearing a knock on the door of your house, see yourself going quickly to answer it and, without hesitating, opening the door and inviting whoever or whatever is there to come in. Who is your guest? What is your guest doing and saying? Sense and feel how you are welcoming to your guest, even if he or she is not expected or acceptable to you.

Breathe out three times. See yourself sitting at your dinner table with all the seats being filled by strangers - perhaps these people are migrants from other countries or refugees who have been forced out of their home. As you imagine yourself eating your meal, what happens and how does it feel?

When you are ready, open your eyes.


How does this meditative practice help you imagine showing hospitality to those people who have been forced from their homes? How can you show them hospitality?

What You Do Matters


Take Action

Unaccompanied Minors: Tweet the Facts

Share on social media about how many children and unaccompanied minors are fleeing their countries for a safer, more secure home. How can we help these young people?

In his video interview, Aaron Limmo talks about his experience as a "lost boy," one of the many unaccompanied minors in Sudan who were forced to flee their home due to violence and civil war. 

Did you know that there's an unprecedented number refugees and immigrants right now who are unaccompanied minors? For example, there were estimated 90,000 unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S./Mexico border in 2014. In Europe, there is massive surge of unaccompanied minors living in refugee camps. Tweet or share on Facebook about this sad reality. Make people aware of the facts. Show others that these migrants are children who need love and hospitality. 

What You Do Matters


Sign Up to Stay Involved!


Sign Up Now ×