Lopez Lomong is a Sudanese-born American runner who proudly carried the U.S. flag in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and will also compete in the London 2012 Olympics. (Photo: Jon Warren/World Vision)

 

My dream of running for Team USA became a reality as I crossed the finish line of the men’s 5,000-meter Olympic trial. I am honored to run alongside American record-holders. This will be my second Olympic team.
 

It feels like I am a million miles away from where I might have been, had God not interrupted my life from the course it was taking. I’ve gone from being a “Lost Boy” of Sudan to a proud U.S. citizen who is loved and cared for by so many people in this country — no longer “lost!”
 

At the age of 6, I was kidnapped with other children from my Sudanese village church to serve as a child soldier. My subsequent escape and journey to Kenya ushered in a decade as an undocumented orphan in a Kenyan refugee camp…
 

To read the rest of Lopez’s amazing story, visit the World Vision Blog!

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