Traveling one day, the Rev. Gary Smith, S.J. wanted only to be left alone. A man sitting next to him at the bar disturbed his solitude by asking, “What are you into?”

Smith, author of the book “They Come Back Singing: Finding God with the Refugees,” served in the Jesuit Refugee Service for seven years.

While his mumbled response to the question was just that he was doing some traveling, he said he has reflected on this question over the past couple of years.

“What am I into?” Smith asked himself in front of approximately 100 students and faculty at his speech about his experiences serving the people living in refugee camps in Northern Uganda, given in Rigge Science 120 on Tuesday night.

“I’m into the dignity of human beings,” he said.

Smith launched his speech by telling a story of a young woman named Mary. She went into labor with her first child, and needed to go to the clinic with two midwives. They came to Smith because he had a pick-up truck and could drive them to the clinic. After going to the first clinic, which was closed, it was decided that the baby was going to be delivered right there.

Mary asked Smith what his mother’s first name was. The infant was named Eunice, after Smith’s mother. This showed him an example of the dignity of the people in the refugee camps. Smith saw a lot of indignity too.

“In the midst of all the violence, dignity is lost,” Smith said.

In his book, he describes the Lord’s Resistance Army, a group opposed to the Ugandan government, as a group of people who viciously attack the Sudanese refugee villages, kidnapping children to become child soldiers and sex slaves.

“The indignity of it all lets me know how important human beings are. Every human being is worthy of love,” Smith said.

Smith went on to discuss how the JRS does a lot of advocacy for the people in the refugee camps.

“My heart drove me to advocate for the people,” Smith said.

He continued with what he was “into” by saying he loved the poor.

“The poor tear my heart open. They teach me so much. You simply are never the same after helping the poor,” Smith said.

With this being said, he told the story of a young girl named Jacelin Ojok. Jacelin had the misfortune of being born with a cleft lip, which is usually caused by the malnutrition of the mother during the pregnancy, he said.

In his book, he explains further by saying that many parents cannot afford to have their child’s cleft lip fixed. In his book he also says, “…female children especially are denied medical care; it is a sad fact of the culture that females are often considered expendable.”

Smith knew plastic surgeons were going to be coming in about a month, and took the effort to set up the appointment to have Jacelin’s lip fixed.

“Everyone was cheering that their little girl had come back home,” Smith said, explaining that the personal reward was for helping Jacelin.

During the celebration, Smith said he started to realize that the people could not understand the idioms of English, and decided to have the people act out the gospel for the homilies and then discuss it.

The people in the refugee camps endured countless deaths in their families, in addition to surviving bouts of malaria, dysentery and other various diseases. However, Smith said he witnessed something extraordinary about their faith.

“The sense of forgiveness was above and beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” Smith said. “They have an image of a compassionate God. God is with them even though they have experienced all of this.”

After the speech, there was a question and answer session.

Someone asked him to interpret a type of chanting called ululation, usually done by African women. The Rev. Moses Stephen Loli, an Arts & Sciences senior from Sudan, stood up and did his best impression of the ululation.

“I think it was a great talk. Everything he said was a reality. I believe stories like mine, and the one told by Fr. Gary can help Creighton families and friends to get involved more in their local community, and also international communities,” Loli said.

A book group organized by the Rev. Andy Alexander, S.J., director of the Collaborative Ministry Office, and Maureen Waldron, associate director of the Collaborative Ministry Office, read “They Come Back Singing: Finding God with the Refugees” during Lent this year.

“The book came to us. We’re always trying to figure out something to do for Lent. It just seemed perfect. This book got people outside of themselves. This made people’s Lent more of a renewal of their personal faith,” Alexander said.

“Part of what gives the book so much power is that it is a journal,” Smith said in an interview completed prior to his speech.

Many times people wonder how they can help others like Smith did.

“You have to follow your own star and follow your own compass,” Smith said. “Everyone is moved to do different things and help in different ways.”