I want to tell you the story of a little girl. She was
not my little girl but one that impacted our lives and yours in an amazing way
without ever knowing it. Perhaps an angel. Her name is Ruth.
A small name of only four letters with a very big meaning. Biblically we
all know the attributes associated with Ruth – kindness, pity, compassion,
loyalty, charity, mercy, and sympathy. You may be thinking, “But I don’t
know this girl.. How can she have impacted my life?” so let me elaborate.
It was because of the
compassion of Christ through us to Ruth’s father that we first met her shortly
after her birth and the death of her mother in the village. You see her
mother did not get proper pre and post natal care and developed complications
which lead to her death. This is a common occurrence in the village and
so Steve went with our friend and guard Richard Otim to bury his wife and try
to save his child. I say save his child because after the death of a
mother the infant often times follows due to dehydration and starvation from
lack of adequate milk substitutes since wet nursing is taboo. Steve dealt
with the burial which was complicated by a balance due on the bride price which
had to be paid before the clan would allow their daughter to be buried.
After the price was paid and the young mother properly buried they made
arrangements to leave the small fragile infant with a WYAM nurse in the town of
Soroti. She was adequately cared for until Otim could make arrangements with
his clan for a nanny to come with him to Kampala to watch the children while he
worked the night shift as a guard.
It was at this WYAM babies home
that Ruth unknowingly changed our lives because it was this trip and this place
where we met our daughter Janet Acimodo Hoyt. This was the place that
Christ’s plans of charity, mercy, and compassion flowed from this little girl’s
need into our family and overflowed into another little girl’s
life…Janet. You all have been touched by God’s faithfulness and goodness
in the story of our daughter Janet and thus I say you have been impacted in an
amazing way as you get to see Janet’s life unfold and point daily to Christ’s
goodness. Janet moved from death to life eternal and continues to be
strong in body and spirit and she carries this banner of charity, mercy, and
compassion to all her friends and the babies she helps as she volunteers in the
nursery at church.
Ruth and Brian moved from Soroti to
live with us for a couple of years after the death of their mother and it was a
blessing to have them around laughing and growing with our kids. I have
not seen them for several years because they moved back to the village.
Otim remarried and lost another family member to complications with childbirth
on the very night we received our dear beloved Hannah almost 5 years ago.
I remember pacing the floors with Hannah in my arms and the phone on my
shoulder as he was losing his baby boy. It was such a bitter sweet night
as I held my own new baby in my arms engulfed in God’s great grace to me and
feeling Otim’s great loss.
“Therefore, since we have
been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we
stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice
in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does
not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5.
These verses were sung by my angels
throughout my home this year for their memory verse and it is amazing how in my
difficult times I can hear their sweet voices singing His words as a balm to my
soul. It is with a sad heart that I ask for your prayers for Otim and his
family as Ruth died yesterday at the age of 7. The circumstances are
difficult for me to understand as I feel that all of these deaths were
preventable with proper healthcare. I have been shocked and angered and
even raged at this world but in my sadness I just realize that these men need
Christ and only through Christ can they lead. Who will first lead them,
who will teach them how Christ loved so they can love with the same fierce,
passionate, prevailing love. I pray that God meet Otim in his grief and
teach him how to love his son Brian as they feel the sadness left by such a
large void, a void so vast it is hard to believe it was left by a seven year
old girl.
Just as the book of Ruth is a story
of redemption and a page in the bigger plan of salvation I believe in the plan
that Christ is working in the lives of those around me even when I am raging
against the storms that want to consume this heart of flesh. I have hope
and it is in Christ’s great love and plan of salvation. Be encouraged
that Ruth has been called home to be redeemed and has entered the land of Her
God for eternity and she is consumed with his love, the storm can rage on but
it has been calmed by the Great Redeemer at this time for this little
girl. Praise be to God for unsuspecting angels.
