In a Sun-Scorched Land

At a robotics competition, a boy named Matthew Parker is feeling discouraged about losing and worried about his grandmother, who is in the hospital. A kind man named Joseph Calhoun sits with him and tells him the story of his own childhood journey.

Joseph grew up in a small village in Eastern Africa, where he lived in a hut with his mother and little sister. When rebels attacked the village, he was separated from his family and fled with another runaway boy named Omer. After weeks of running, the two boys stop to search for food in a hut near an army camp, but two raiders approach and trap them inside. Just as the boys pray desperately for help, a girl's voice calls from the rafters, telling them to climb up on the hay bales. Hidden overhead, they listen as the men gather tools and talk about raiding two more villages. Once the raiders leave, the boys meet their rescuer, Amina, a girl whose village was also destroyed. She has been traveling with other children toward a refugee camp across the border, a place she calls "the safe place," but she sprained her foot and was left behind. She still remembers the way: follow the rising sun to the great river, then turn toward the mountain, and the camp lies on the other side. Omer, who learned healing from his mother, wraps her foot in banana leaves, and Joseph finds her a stick to use as a crutch. Though Joseph doubts the camp is even real, Omer believes that sometimes God's people must wait and sometimes they must step forward in faith, and Amina settles the debate: this is the time to move.

As they walk, Omer tells stories about Moses and the Israelites, and the children share memories of home. Joseph tells Amina about his fearless eight-year-old sister, Palita, who runs circles around boys twice her age at football. Amina remembers Asha, the corn-husk doll her father made her, which she lost when her village was attacked. One morning Joseph surprises Amina with a doll he has carved from morango wood, just like one he once made for his sister, and Amina joyfully ties it to her back the way she carried Asha.

The days stretch into weeks. Amina's foot slowly heals, but Omer grows weaker, and food runs out. Angry and starving, Joseph grabs Amina's crutch and mockingly goes "looking for God" in the bushes and grass, finally smacking a dead log. The log breaks open and reveals a huge termite nest, enough food for days. The children realize they have their manna after all, and Omer reminds them that God sees them and they must have hope.

At last they reach the great river and spot the mountain. But Joseph's heart is heavy. He confesses to Amina that he believes God has forgotten them, that he should never have run from the attack, and that he might have saved his mother and sister. Soon a new danger appears: the same two armed men from that first night come sweeping across the savannah, hunting for children headed to the refugee camp. With tall grass all around, the river on one side, and Amina unable to swim, there is nowhere to hide. Joseph asks Amina to hand over her precious doll and hurls it with all his might into the river. Hearing the splash, the men rush to the water shouting for the children to come out, and the three friends run for the trees, with Joseph practically carrying Omer, who has fallen ill from the dirty water they have been drinking.

From the mountainside, Amina suddenly calls the boys to look down into the valley. Spread below them like a sea are thousands of tents. The camp is real, only a day or two away. But that night, Omer wakes Joseph to say goodbye. Joseph protests that they can carry him the rest of the way, but Omer gently answers, "Even Moses only saw the Promised Land." He makes Joseph promise never to give up hope and to remember that God has a calling on his life, explaining that hope is never in the things of this world but always in the Lord. He believes his purpose was getting Joseph and Amina this far, and he tells Joseph not to worry: "I'm going to a different promised land, an even better one." Joseph prays through the night, but by sunrise Omer is gone, a hint of a smile still on his face. Joseph and Amina bury him, recite the scriptures he taught them, and finish the journey down the mountain.

At the camp, they register with the workers, and Amina, walking on her own again, asks to join a football game. The girl who welcomes her admires her wooden doll, saying she once had one very much like it. It is Palita. Moments later Joseph is reunited with his sister and his mother, who escaped the attack and walked to the camp with others from their village. His mother tells him she prayed every day and never gave up hope, and Joseph admits that he did, "But it came back!"

Back at the robotics competition, Matthew sheepishly wonders if his own troubles seem silly by comparison, but Joseph assures him that everyone's journey looks different, and that God sees each one and uses it. Matthew recalls a verse his grandmother loves, about suffering producing perseverance, character, and hope, and Joseph recognizes it as Romans 5, and the grandmother too: Lucia Ortega mentioned her grandson Matthew just yesterday. Matthew is stunned to learn that Joseph, whom he mistook for a janitor because of a mop borrowed to clean up spilled coffee, is actually her surgeon. Watching Omer care for Amina inspired Joseph to become a doctor. He invites Matthew to meet his son Cooper, who is competing, and then to visit his grandmother together, where Joseph happily agrees to tell his story once more.