A New Life for Ruth and Rusty

While I was in Uganda this summer, I had the amazing opportunity of visiting the widow homes that the TAG team built in 2009. One of those was the home of Ruth and Rusty, two inspirational and God-fearing women. But first, let me give a little background for anyone who does not already know the story.

When the TAG team was in Uganda in 2009, one of our main focuses was building homes for widows. In the evening of July 2, we arrived at the orphanage, Father’s Divine Love Ministries, greeted by the screams, smiles, and hugs of the children who had been anxiously awaiting our arrival. After several days of travel, we were overjoyed to finally return to the country that filled our prayers and dreams for the past year. There were very few dry eyes as hugs went around and as we looked once again at the faces of the children who, for many of us, have changed our hearts and lives forever.

As we made our way to our rooms for the night, we were more excited than ever to have the opportunity to live with and serve with the beautiful people of Uganda for a few weeks.

After a desperate attempt to catch a few hours of sleep, having no time for jet lag, the TAG team woke up early the next morning to begin a re-construction project on a home a little ways down the road. After a quick breakfast and a short walk, we came upon our first task. Before us was a two-room, 20' x 10', crumbling mud house belonging to a daughter and her mother, Ruth and Rusty. It did not take us long to become aware of how dire the situation was.

Ruth and Rusty were both widows and had been living a life of desperate poverty for years. We learned that Ruth and the youngest child, Ezra, were both sick with HIV/AIDS, yet Ruth had to fight daily the battle of taking care of her four children on her own. They had been crying out to God unceasingly, asking Him to meet them in their need. (They later told us that they never would have imagined that God would bring a group of young Americans from halfway across the world to be the answer to those prayers.) We were amazed by the strength and faith of these women, and we were humbled to have the opportunity to be the hands and feet of God’s love to them and their family.

Gathered on the red dirt in front of the dilapidated house, we were all thrilled to learn how to build the “Ugandan way.” We stood in the midst of the village, a group of young, white Americans with spades and mud in our hands and Cliff Bars and electrolyte-enhanced water in our daypacks, completely unaware that we had stumbled into the center of one of the most miraculous displays of God’s love that any of us had ever witnessed. We never could have imagined that only a few short days later we would cram together shoulder to shoulder in the newly renovated home; and by the light of our headlamps, we would witness the kingdom of heaven touch earth.

*For an inside look at the night that will forever be burned into the hearts and minds of everyone who was in that hut that night, take a few minutes to watch this moving video.*

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=543881790162

I was eager to visit Ruth, Rusty, and the kids when I arrived in Uganda this summer (2010). When the family ran out to greet me, healthy and smiling, tears welled up in my eyes. I was amazed at how much the children had grown, and I could see an air of confidence about the children as they stood in their school uniforms. Still, a year later, the family was in awe of the miracle that had taken place.

As I sat and talked with Ruth, she recounted the story once again. “It was only a matter of days before the house would fall down,” she explained, “but God made a miracle that was very abrupt, and He rescued us.” I couldn’t help but think how her miracle had turned out to be a miracle for us as well. We thought we were there to help, but we ended up walking away with more than we could have ever given. I couldn’t turn my thoughts from the fact that God had used a tiny collapsing house and the faith-filled family living inside it to reveal His heart to us, the TAG team from Colorado Springs. In Ruth and Rusty’s house that night, we were first hand witnesses of the unrelenting love and zeal of the Father’s heart for the orphans and widows…but that night, we were also wrecked by the revelation that it is with the same fervor, the same passion, the same longing, and the same “I’ll move mountains, and continents, and come down from heaven to dwell in mud huts to show you” way, that the Father loves all of us.

I was excited to see that the family had launched a new business in the form of a kiosk sitting in front of their house near the road. From this kiosk, they were selling fruits, vegetables, and other goods to people passing by on the road and to those living near them in the village. Ruth talked about their new business, explaining that it has been a huge help to them. She said it is progressing, slowly but surely, but already it is helping to meet their needs. They are making enough money from the business to cover expenses, such as food and paraffin, and they still have some left over to save. In Ruth’s words, “The business is helping us so much…to where it is helping to meet our needs. It has helped in times of sickness and even helped to get us what we need to eat.” As she spoke, she was so proud of what her business was accomplishing, and she was very hopeful for how it would benefit her family in the future.

Getting to follow up with Ruth and Rusty a year after we built their mud house really helped me to grasp the importance and impact of what Heartwork and its partner ministries are doing. This ministry is about so much more than simply raising money and sending it overseas. It is about tangibly and permanently heralding Christ’s love to the orphans and widows. It is about reminding those who have been abandoned, mocked, abused, and treated as trash by this world that they are valued and worthy of a life of dignity and prosperity. It is about relationships. But most of all, it is about LOVE.

As I spoke with Ruth, she was overflowing with thankfulness, both to God and to everyone who contributed to building her home. She made me promise that I would carry her thanks with me back to America. “Thank those people very much!” she said. So from Ruth, Rusty, and their family to you, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Excited to see and hear of more stories like this one,
~Morgan