Simon Ter Dup, who as a child fled his war-stricken home in Sudan and eventually found a life for his family in southern Minnesota, rising to prominence as one of the first Sudanese Lutheran pastors in the state, has died. He was 47. The cause of his death was lymphoma.
Dup had lived in Albert Lea since 2003 with his wife, Mary Puok, and made repeated trips to South Sudan to help rebuild his homeland.
"He was very concerned about the Sudanese," said Robert Bailey, a retired Lutheran pastor in Albert Lea who mentored Dup during his religious studies.
Born in Sudan, Dup fled to Ethiopia as a child and lived in refugee camps there and in Kenya. He and his wife immigrated to Iowa before arriving in Minnesota. He studied online courses from Concordia Seminary in Clayton, Mo., and was ordained in 2009.
Last year, he raised funds to build a school in Malual, South Sudan, for kindergarten through 10th-grade schoolchildren. Before their new school was built, children in that area had to walk for more than a day to get to the nearest school, Puok said. The children would stay at the school and return home on weekends. "It was really hard for young children, especially children 5 years old and 6 years old," she said.
Dup led Sudanese congregations at St. John's Lutheran Church in Austin and at Zion Lutheran in Albert Lea. He also led services at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Worthington, Minn.
"My husband liked to talk to people about church," Puok said. "He liked to talk about how they could take the church mission back to our country and how to help the little children."
Dup worked at Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Hy-Vee in Albert Lea to support his family, but often left those jobs for his mission trips, Puok said.
