Fr Lee was a Salesian missionary like many others, yet at the same time unique and extraordinary: his intense pastoral activity, carried out both as a missionary and as a doctor in Tonj, albeit over a short period, touched and profoundly influenced the lives of many people. Today those people, especially the children and young people with whom Fr Lee interacted most in the daily life of his mission, have become adults and in many cases, thanks to what they received and witnessed, they have embarked on paths of happy growth, good, altruism and success.
Fr Lee became a Salesian in 1991, when he was already qualified as a doctor. And many of his former students today have undertaken precisely the same mission, retracing his steps not only in the profession, but also in the stages of training, some also going to study medicine at the same university: such as the two doctors Thomas Taban Akot and John Mayen Ruben, who were encouraged by Fr. Lee to study medicine in order to help their people. Thanks to the support of the Fr John Lee Memorial Foundation, they were able to study at the University of Busan, in South Korea, and after spending 12 years of study and training, they have finally completed their studies as specialists.
But they are not the only examples: Mary Abuk, Arop Garang, Francis Aguek... and several other colleagues of theirs already appear in "Resurrection" flyer; but in total today there are already 45 former students of Fr.Lee who attend Faculties of Medicine, while others are engaged in various stimulating jobs.
The documentary is the work of director Goo Soo Hwan, the same who directed the famous film dedicated to Fr Lee entitled "Don't cry for me, Sudan" – which was an extraordinary success at home, seen by hundreds of thousands of people and which was also screened at the Vatican on 15 December 2011 – and in a sense is its sequel.
Goo Soo Hwan's new film work starts from Fr Lee's death and what happened afterwards. The students he accompanied in Tonj fell into despair at the news of his death, but then realised that they had to continue to follow in his footsteps.
His students collected his spiritual legacy, treasuring his work and his thoughts, and put his teachings into practice with their fellow citizens. “I was a very poor boy… Now I have a family, " says one of them.
The director explained, however, that the film is not just about the work that Fr Lee's students do. "They have become people who give: it matters here how they are living their lives... they are living exactly the life of their ‘father’. They showed me what happiness is and what leadership really is.”
With over 30 years of experience as an investigative journalist, the film's director is known for his critical and tough interventions, and for his constant commitment to helping change the world. "I learned that the best form of accusation is love," he testified after the making of this film. – I wanted to know if the students' tears had changed them. Well, their lives have changed a lot!"
In South Sudanese culture crying in public is embarrassing, but students can't hold back tears when they think of the late Salesian missionary. Perhaps they wondered "why do bad things happen to good people?", when one day they learned that Fr Lee would never return to South Sudan. But, by sharing the love that he had given him, Fr Lee has risen and his legacy will continue to live on.
Fr Lee was an example of love and dedication to the faith to the poorest and most vulnerable. And today his name is also reported in the textbooks used in Tonj: this means that children who have never met him will still know his name and his legacy resists the passage of time.
